Happy 2016 from LITC

LITC 2016
Ink on hot pressed watercolour paper, 150 x 150 mm.

A little late, but not yet too late. Happy New Year to our readers from David (Anatotitan/Edmontosaurus), Asher (Dilophosaurus), Marc (Deinonychus), and me (Diplodocus). 

I made very few contributions to the blog in 2015, owing largely to moving house and a number of rather personal issues, but I very much hope that this piece is a good beginning to a more fruitful year ahead (opening the image out in a new tab for a closer view is once again recommended, *cough*). Oh, and I just wanted to mention that the basis of the boat's design was purloined and adapted from an illustration by Franklin Booth.

Many thanks to Marc for holding off his first VDA post of 2016 (a cracking one featuring Ely Kish once again, hurrah!) to allow me to make this 'opener', so to speak!

Mighty Bones: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

Berlin's a fascinating city and all, drawing people for its rich, tumultuous history as much as its present-day reputation for 'cool' (whatever that is. Like I'd know). But in the end, dinosaur enthusiasts will only have one destination in mind upon arriving in the city - the Museum für Naturkunde, home of the certified Tallest Mounted Dinosaur Skeleton in the World™. I visited on my second day in the city, and let me assure you, man-sized humeri were just dancing in front of my eyes before that. No amount of refreshingly inexpensive beer was going to distract me on my pilgrimage to the holy hall of bones on the Invalidenstraße. It doesn't disappoint.

'It's your turn now.' Dippy and the Blue Whale

'It's your turn now.'
Ink on watercolour paper, 202 x 100mm.

Scarcely had I mentioned how well Sophie the Stegosaurus complemented the presence of the beloved Diplodocus at their respective entrances to London's Natural History Museum than news of the latter's planned retirement emerged, apparently splitting the public and experts alike into 'Team Dippy' and 'Team Whale' across social media.

Of course I'm sad -- very sad -- to see 'Dippy' retire (no, I don't much care for the name either, but that's another story).  For me as for so many others, it has been the museum's de facto mascot and symbol for as long as we can remember. And lest our readers forget, sauropods are among my favourite dinosaur groups. My own 'saurian portrait' is a Diplodocus, for heaven's sake.

 'However, change, or its refusal, is not within our gift.' I welcome the blue whale with happy, if subdued, acceptance. Of the many voices in its favour, Michael Rundle of Huffington Post UK encapsulates it best for me, not least because he puts forward the case with great respect and affection for both without any of the unnecessary aggression and derision I've seen accompany some arguments ('Dippy is fake! A lie!'). My illustration above attempts to reconcile this change in the same vein. The title of 'It's your turn now' speaks both of the whale skeleton's place in Dippy's stead and of the blue whale's fragile existence being celebrated now. I wanted to avoid that dreaded word, 'relevance', much bandied about in this case. Nevertheless, highlighting the blue whale's significance doesn't seem to me to signal a disregard for the Diplodocus. But perhaps I'm not cynical enough on that score.

Happy New Year

Sepia ink and gouache on grey toned Strathmore paper, 144mm diameter. Image can be opened in a new tab for full view.

 

 

Not as prompt as I would have wished (prompt, me? The very idea...), but Epiphany is still a good time to wish all of our readers a very happy 2014 from the Chasmosaurs team. Regular readers will already be familiar with the four saurian portraits of the blog authors, but should you need a reminder, you may like to revisit last year's New Year greeting.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

A little late in the proceedings, but not yet too late: a very happy New Year to all our readers from the Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs team; counter clockwise from right: David ('Anatotitan'), Asher (Dilophosaurus), Marc (Deinonychus) and me (Diplodocus).

I do recommend opening the image in a new tab for best viewing.

I would have liked to do more to this, but was obliged to call it finished, otherwise it might be March by the time I get to post it. It has already taken far longer than the rather lacklustre results would seem to warrant. I've taken a few liberties with the scale, of course (what Marc calls 'semi-authentic scale'). Nevertheless, I feel especially sheepish to be appearing so prominent, given that I'm the most ignorant and least qualified of the team. Perhaps I shall do another version someday which is more reflective of everyone's actual capacities...

Happy New Year!

Welkom in het DinoBos!

I happened to be back in the Netherlands earlier this week. As a bit of an early birthday present, my girlfriend (yes - really) paid for my entry into DierenPark Amersfoort, a zoo in, er, Amersfoort. Although I always do like a good zoo, DierenPark Amersfoort had another draw for me - a large area dedicated to life-size fibreglass dinosaurs known as the 'DinoBos' (or 'Dino Forest'). What self-respecting dinosaur geek could possibly resist such an attraction? And so off I went, taking far too many photos. Fortunately, the place was pretty empty. Unfortunately, it was also bloody cold. Still, some of the models were really rather impressive.

I get acquainted with a Triceratops/umbrella stand.

The DinoBos is arranged as a circuit, the models being presented in roughly chronological order (that is, according to when the real animal was alive) starting in the Devonian. Or Devoon, as it apparently is in Dutch. Of course, the only animal from the Devonian present was the weirdo evil fish Dunkleosteus, with a model of a shrunken (or juvenile) fishy plonked rather unceremoniously in a small pond. Except the pond had filled with leaves, so the rather surprised-looking creature had the appearance of having been dumped in the middle of the woods and left to die. It's one of those occasions where one can't help but imagine that the attraction bought a load of models, noticed one of them was a fish and thought "what in holy hell are we going to do with THIS?"

Of course, things picked up when it came to the dinosaurs themselves (for one thing, they look a little more suited to their woodland habitat). As a kid, I visited Blackgang Chine and the Dinosaur Park in Norfolk on a number of occasions. I can't speak for what the latter's like these days, but it's safe to say that whenever anyone mentions fibreglass dinosaurs (as they are often wont to do at the trendiest parties) I always picture the hilariously bad, 1970s creations from Blackgang. Therefore, the rather more modern-looking models at DierenPark Amersfoort (or DPA, as I'll be calling it from now on, thanks) came as something of a pleasant surprise. Particularly impressive were the sauropods because, well, they were life-size sauropods. And one of them was Giraffatitan.

"It's...it's a dinosaur!"

Blimey, that's big. And look - it doesn't have elephant feet! Equally awesome was the Diplodocus. Perhaps they were a little overzealous in giving the animal a slimline neck, but otherwise the model was quite beautiful, from its dermal spines to its whiplash tail and graceful poise. The neck was erect, too (something that would no doubt make the SV-POWsketeers happy).

There was one serious plague upon these models - BUNNY HANDS. Unfortunately, every theropod had its hands orientated in the 'classic' palms-down style, which was a real shame as they were often rather good otherwise (see Albertosaurus and Tyrannosaurus below).

Bizarrely, while Coelophysis was modelled with a funky hairstyle, a Deinonychus pair were completely naked. This might have something to do with the old palaeoart meme of depicting "Syntarsus" (aka Megapnosaurus) with a 'badass mohawk' - some have argued that Megapnosaurus is a junior synonym of Coelophysis. In any case, it's a bother that the Deinonychus weren't feathered as they featured in the only scene with dinosaurs properly interacting - in this case, attacking Iguanodon. Rather anachronistically, it should be said (what happened to good old Tenontosaurus, the obligatory long-tailed buffet?), but it was executed quite well.

Interspersed among the nicely-sculpted static models were a smaller number of shabbier, rubbery-looking things that ocassionally spasmed with movement. I suppose it's good for keeping kids interested, but they inevitably ended up sticking out like a whole sad bunch of grey sore thumbs. Particularly goofy-looking was the Herrerasaurus (below), although it was also one of the most mobile. Just look at those eyes. The eyes alone!

Nevertheless, terrible and broken animatronics couldn't sour what was otherwise a very pleasant woodland jaunt beside a series of looming recreations of extinct animals. There's a surprising variety of them on offer here, too - besides the usual suspects, there are such unusual subjects as Maiasaura and Scelidosaurus (below), while the forest setting gives a suitable air of adventure and discovery. Of course, the rest of TPA is excellent too, with a surprisingly wide range of (actual living and breathing) animals that even includes Rhinoceros unicornis (with a baby born this year). It's well worth a visit.

And finally...here's one for Heinrich Mallison. (Sorry it's a quadruped, Heinrich...)

Vintage Dinosaur Art: German Dinosaur Cards

Today, we're taking a look at some more from the collections of Norman Felchle. These are from a collection of German dinosaur cards. Not sure who the illustrator(s) might be, but they are pretty fantastic. I'm a sucker for ancient prints like this. If you have any information on who published or illustrated them, let me know.

Update: Thanks to commenters, I learned that these are the work of German artist Heinrich Harder, and the series is titled Tiere der Urwelt, which translates to "Animals of the Prehistoric World." He was an art instructor and landscape painter who became involved in natural history illustrations in the early part of the last century. I'll probably do a future VDA post dedicated to him.

Here's a strange Triceratops; it looks like the artist worked from a verbal description rather than physical specimens. It's much more reptilian than our modern conception of the ceratopsians, with their pebbly skin and occasional quills.


The thirsty hadrosaur: another classic meme of paleoart.


This painting of rhamphorhynchid pterosaurs by the shore at sunset has a great moody feel to it.


Here's a great depiction of the antiquated notion of the "sprawling sauropod." My knees are aching in sympathy for this poor Diplodocus.

Hold Your Head High, Brachiosaurus

One of the recent debates in paleontology has concerned the neck posture of the sauropods. Such titanic creatures are completely absent from land today, so it's natural for them to be puzzled over.

Walking With Dinosaurs, the 1999 documentary, featured herds of Diplodocus with their heads held basically parallel to the ground, reflecting some paleontologists' supposition that for the beasts to raise them much higher would have been an unbearable strain, requiring blood pressure too high for their hearts to bear. The SV-POW! team has weighed in with a strong argument to the contrary, based on the evidence provided by living animals - a fantastic summary is available here. Rather than a straight horizontal line, they argue that it made more sense for sauropods like Diplodocus and Apatosaurus to hold their heads at a gentle curve, with the heads well above their bodies.

Examining the Chinese early Cretaceous sauropod Euhelopus, Andreas Christian from the University of Flensberg has concluded that it was especially adapted for high browsing, a conclusion that likely bears true for similar sauropods, notably the ever-popular Brachiosaurus.


Euhelopus, via wikimedia commons.

As you can see in the above reconstruction, Euhelopus is similar to Brachiosaurus in its marked differences from the standard-issue, Flintstones-style "brontosaur." The front legs are longer than the back, and the tail is shorter. In all, the profile is more giraffe-like. Christian's paper suggests that this posture, while requiring considerable effort to pump blood up through the neck, was less expensive than grazing over a broader area - holding its head at a 90 degree angle from the horizontal for five minutes required only about half of the energy expenditure as walking a hundred meters. He also found that the stresses on the neck vertebra were lower in as Euhelopus held its neck more erect. Christian concludes that "raising the neck... may have been less expensive for a sauropod like Euhelopus or Brachiosaurus than walking a long distance. During a food shortage, raising the neck was probably even essential for surviving: it is better to get little than nothing at all." Not an earth-shattering discovery, but one that adds to our understanding of how such a magnificent adaptation made sense for these animals.

Diplodocus Diplomacy

In 1907, the American Museum of Natural History made the remarkable gift of a Diplodocus skeleton to Kaiser Wilhelm II for display in the then-brand-new Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt. While the Carnegie Musem had given a Diplodocus mount to the British Museum in 1905, it was a plaster cast, a replica. This AMNH gift to the Germans consisted of actual fossil bone, mounted in relief on a wood-framed slab of plaster.


From the July 1907 issue of WORLD TODAY

Here's an excerpt of an article from the July 1907 issue of a magazine called World Today about the gift - it starts on page 846 if you care to check out the original. It's a nice piece of old-timey dinosaur lore. My favorite bit describes an ingenious (if utterly silly) hypothetical function of a sauropod's tail:

One of the most remarkable structural features of the diplodocus was the whip-like and powerful tail, thirty feet long, over half the length of the body. This served the creature as a propeller, enabling him to swim very rapidly through the water when attacked and pursued by the carnivorous dinosaurs of the same period. Another peculiar function of this ponderous tail was that it acted like a lever and balanced and supported the animal when he assumed an upright position, which he is thought to have done both in water and on land.

Silly but harmless outdated thinking (the article entitled "The Negro Situation - One Way Out" is not so harmless). I'd love to know what happened to this mount. I haven't been able to find any recent pictures of it, though the Senckenberg Museum does have a free standing Diplodocus mount in their dinosaur hall, and a statue outside. Very curious.

From the LOC: NY Trib Sauropods

A tail draggin' Diplodocus and a pair of "amphibious" brontosaurs, published in the December 11, 1904 New York Tribune Illustrated Supplement. Via the LOC Flickr stream.

Here's a delightful excerpt from the accompanying story:

The appearance of a herd of these great monsters of past ages trooping down Broadway, uncontrolled, would cause an absolute cessation of business there. The street would be cleared with alacrity. The hallways of every building along the street would lie tilled instantaneously, and every elevator glutted with humanity fleeing for safety to the upper stories of the sky-scrapers. Those who preserved their mental equilibrium sufficiently to gaze calmly forth upon the procession of strange beasts as they passed in front of the buildings would be struck with several things. Perhaps they might think of Noah's problem with added respect...

There's a lot more where that came from, too. I may not have gotten it totally correct - the scan was full to the brim with OCR errors. Check out a PDF of the page here.

52 Years ago in LIFE Magazine

From the Oct 14, 1957 issue of LIFE. A good ol' mid-century tail-dragging sauropod. Google Books is such a wonderful thing. Lest we think that H1N1 has no precursor, checkout the Bufferin Ad on page 3: Some Questions and Answers about ASIAN FLU (their caps).