Horniman bonus dinosaurs

As an addendum to my previous post, it's worth mentioning that there's some dinosaur material on permanent display at the Horniman...just not very much. Perhaps the most noteworthy dinosaur display consists of a series of very dated scale models. They're most definitely of the pre-Renaissance, cold-blooded old school, but very charming with it. Here's a selection.

'Sophie'

The unveiling back in early December of the world's most complete Stegosaurus skeleton at London's Natural History Museum won't have escaped many folks within the palaeo community. Naturally, as the UK contingent of LITC and being within easy distance of the museum, Marc and I were duty-bound to make our own visit to the new treasure, even if we were over a month late (where were our invitations to the official do, pray?).

With over 90% of the original specimen present, 'Sophie' is a permanent addition of which the NHM can be justly proud. Rather than being secreted in the now problematic Dinosaur Gallery -- about which much has been written here and elsewhere -- she is instead given prime position of her own in the Earth Hall, near the museum's Exhibition Road entrance, paralleling that of 'Dippy' the Diplodocus in the central Hintze Hall. Mounted in a dynamic, defensive stance, she occupies a rather swanky platform of serried steps, somewhat reminiscent of the atrium of New York's Guggenheim museum.

This individual was reportedly only a young adult when it died, as suggested by 'some features of the hips', according to the signage. The specimen is also perhaps notable for having nineteen back plates rather than the commonly recognised seventeen. The skull here is a cast, though information on the NHM website seems to suggest that fragments of the original did survive.*

Obligatory photographic evidence of the intrepid goons' actual visit, taken by Nicole Heins -- who once contributed her own guest post!

Our readers will have doubtless seen Bob Nicholls' stunning painting commissioned by the museum as part of the exhibit. From the sublime, therefore, you will now be treated to the ridiculous: this doodle I drew on a Moleskine leaflet a while ago in an unoccupied moment (Marc said to include it in the post, 'fo sho', so there it is).

 

*I've since been informed by a friend who works at the NHM that the museum does indeed have the complete skull, and that the one on the mount is a 3D print of it!

Roadside Saurians

A month or so ago, Jennie and I departed the great American Midwest for the much greater American West, in an exploration of a landscape that has been etched on my memory ever since I first glimpsed it as a kid. I've only passed through or flown over since then, so this two-week ramble around the Great Basin was long overdue. In planning the trip, we were a bit overambitious, and though we had trimmed it back once already, by the time we hit the road and got a feel for how long things actually take, we rearranged things again to lessen the amount of time driving. Hint: arriving at the gates of a national park usually entails another couple hours of driving.

Along the way, I took gigabyte upon gigabyte of photographs, which I'm only about a third of the way through sorting and processing to share at Flickr. These photos naturally included the dinosaurs we saw along the road. I'll start my short series of posts inspired by the trip with some of these charismatic creatures of the Mesozoic.

My favorite was a Spinosaurus perched outside a rock and fossil shop in Orderville, UT, a small town sitting between Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. As we rounded the bend in Rt. 89 into town, this guy came into view, and it was impossible not to stop.



Not the most accurate by-the-book spinosaurid you'll ever see, but refreshingly depicted in a posture that's kind of right.





For sheer volume of roadside dinosaurs, it's hard to beat Vernal, UT, a short drive from Dinosaur National Monument. Some have seen better days, such as this dopey pink sauropodosomething.



Outside of a hotel, there's a green, spiky-backed sauropodosomething with a rather uncomfortable electronic sign on its neck.



There's also a T. rex, naturally depicted in classic man-in-suit posture, as any red-blooded American tyrant dinosaur should be. He's also a bit of an angler, it would seem.



The best Vernal has to offer is a Morrison tableau featuring Ceratosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Camarasaurus.



In what must be a show of Jurassic herbivore solidarity, the young Camarasaurus has found a savior in Stegosaurus, which ably deploys its thagomizer in its defense...



... by bashing him in the tender underparts.



You want a close-up of that, don't you?



As you approach the Utah entrance of Dinosaur National Monument, a gift shop boasts a big green sauropod of its own. Like most sauropods you see on the side of the road, the sculptor likely had no specific taxon in mind. Just a long neck, long tail, and some pillar legs, and you've got what springs to 90% of folks' minds when they hear the word "dinosaur."





Now that we've come to the gate of DNM, we'll be entering the park to check out the new quarry visitor center. Before that, I'll share some vintage dinosaur art photographed in a surprising place. Stay tuned!

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Hank Chapman

Today's VDA post is bite-sized, featuring only two little illustrations. But they're a neat change of pace, I hope you'll agree.

Hank Chapman was a prominent comics artist who worked for Timely, Atlas, and DC comics. He's also one of the few entrants in this long, proud series famous enough to warrant a Wikipedia page of his very own. Chapman is well-known for his war comics in the fifties, having written over a hundred, but in the mid-sixties, he "fell off the map." Crammed next to advertisements for Boy Scout camping supplies in the March 1964 issue of Boy's Life magazine are his small illustrations of Stegosaurus and the first theropod, Megalosaurus.

The Stegosaurus, on his elephantine legs, eats what looks to be a french fry plant.



Meanwhile, Megalosaurus chases down some unseen quarry, likely while yelling "RARRRAGHGHAAARGH!!" and flexing his grabby little hands.



The story these cute lil' dinosaurs accompanied was a quick n' jaunty blurb about the origins of dinosaur paleontology. I'd love to find out if Chapman did any other dinosaur illustrations. So far, I've had no luck finding any. At the very least, it would be fun to look through his sketchbook to see what other amazing archosaurs he played around with.

Ta Prohm's "Stegosaurus"

The most recent episode of Brian Dunning's Skeptoid podcast deals with myths of contemporary dinosaurs or prehistoric beasts, from the famous "sauropod" Mokele Mbembe to widespread accounts of mysterious "lake monsters." There are plenty of anecdotal accounts of these beasts, either from people who believe they've seen them themselves or people interpreting local legends. As in other examples of cryptozoological beasties, good evidence seems stubborn to present itself. This isn't very meaty stuff, so Dunning focuses instead on purported evidence of dinosaurs living among people left behind by ancient artists. Despite the incredible burden of proof that would be required to overturn the volumes of solid evidence supporting the accepted story of Earth's history built by generations of scientists, these artworks are touted as fatal cracks. Dunning picks this "evidence" apart, not by dismissing it a priori, but by demonstrating how weak it is.


Photo by divemasterking2000, via flickr.

For instance, the "Stegosaurus" of the Cambodian temple Ta Prohm. Dunning points out that it really doesn't look like a Stegosaurus - that head is way too large, really, and that the "plates" are most likely background foliage. The other animals accompanying it all have foliage in the background. "If the Ta Prohm carving did indeed use a living Stegosaurus as its model," he concludes, "then its quality is grossly out of step with that of all the other animals carved at Ta Prohm, which are quite accurate and beautifully done."

Too bad Dunning neglects to mention that while the legends as told are extremely implausible, there is a grain of truth to the idea of living dinosaurs. For instance, there's the one I suspect of crapping on my windshield. He does get points for using the term "thagomizer," though...

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Aurora Model Kits

In the early 1970's, the Aurora company struck gold with their "Prehistoric Scenes" model kits of dinosaurs and other ancient beasts. There's a tribute site to the model kits, run by a fellow named Ian, located here. The images below come from the site; there is a wealth of background information, images, and even original kits for purchase. The site is very 1.0, but that's no deterrent if the content is cool.

Image from Aurora Prehistoric Scenes

According to a 2007 post at Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, comics artist Dave Cockrum designed some of the kits and their box art, though the above anachronistical joyride doesn't seem to be his. An interview at Comic Book Resources indicates that he was really only responsible for the T. rex and Stegosaurus.


Image from Aurora Prehistoric Scenes

Here's his T. rex box art, but unfortunately the Stegosaurus wasn't meant to be. It's a shame, because it easily twould have been one of Aurora's finest kits.

Image from Aurora Prehistoric Scenes

There's also a sketch of a proposed Parasaurolophus model on the tribute site, signed by Cockrum, but it must not have left the early planning stages. These old kits seem to inspire quite a bit of nostalgia, and I can see why. They have a pulpy sensibility to them, a mix of B-movie inspiration and scientific curiosity. When all of the kits were assembled, their bases could be fit together into a wild, improbable crowd of ancient beasts and cavemen. If I had been kicking in the early seventies, I would have been crazy for them.

Side note: sorry if this post popped up prematurely (and incompletely) in your blog reader of choice last night - I accidentally published it as I was starting the post. I deleted it immediately, but it's still sitting in my Google Reader.

Dinosaur National Monument Goes Social

Photo by BruceandLetty, via flickr.

In the old days, you might read one or two articles about a big project at a national park. Now, you can follow everything in real time. For instance, Dinosaur National Monument is currently overhauling its Quarry Visitor Center. To put a finer point on it, it's being completely replaced. Construction began last month, and the new visitor center should be complete by fall of 2011. But interested parties don't have to rely on the fickle decision-makers of the print media to learn more. These days, you can follow news about the project and the park in general at Twitter and Facebook. The park service also has a blog at the DML site.

For more in-depth information, check out DNM paleontologist Dan Chure's blog chronicling the process. He gets into the complicated business of relocating the site's fossil collection - including an utterly beautiful Allosaurus fragilis skull - and protecting the monument's crown jewel: the wall of Jurassic sandstone housing an amazing array of dinosaurs and other critters. While the wall isn't available to visitors during this painstaking process, there is no reason to keep away from the monument until its new house is built. This year, entrance fees have been waived to the park and to the temporary visitor center, so there's no reason to avoid Dinosaur National Monument, which contains a landscape that is spectacular in its own right.

1968 postcard of the quarry wall, from Baltimore Bob, via flickr.

When you look at the quarry wall, you're looking at the remains of an ecosystem from the Morrison Formation, one of the great dinosaur-bearing rock formations in the world. Apatosaurus, Barosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, Camptosaurus, Allosaurus, and Ornitholestes are all known from sites with Morrison outcrops dating in the neighborhood of 150 million years ago. I'm going to steal Scott Sampson's comparison here. Take a denizen of the Morrison, say Stegosaurus. Then take another dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, like Triceratops. Stegosaurus is even further removed in time from Triceratops than we are, having lived about 80 million years prior. That tacks another 25 million years onto the 65 that separate us from Triceratops. It's actually less of an anachronism to draw a human next to a Triceratops, rather than a Stegosaurus. That blows my mind every time I think about it. Coincidentally enough, the latest post at Dot Dot Dinosaur features a piece of artwork from Etsy that highlights this very fact. Check it out!

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Lewis Zacks

This week, the featured artist is Lewis Zacks. Unlike many illustrators put in the spotlight here, he has a solid web presence, including an honest-to-gosh website. However, most of what I've found has been the art he's produced later in life, after leaving the illustration game in the late sixties.

In 1963, Zacks illustrated In the Time of Dinosaurs, written by veteran children's book author William Wise. It's a run-of-the-mill kid's title, hitting all of the usual basic points: dinosaurs were big, dinosaurs were dumb, dinosaurs fought each other, dinosaurs died and no one knows exactly why. It starts with a typical mistake: the first critters shown aren't dinosaurs at all, and lived millions of years apart. Additionally - andI've admitted to my still-small knowledge of paleobotany before - I'm pretty sure that tree, which looks kind of angiospermy, wouldn't have been familiar to Dimetrodon.



It's not the only anachronism, either. Later, a Triceratops and Stegosaurus share a page. It seems that this book was published merely because dinosaurs are a safe gamble. The prose is pretty simple, and besides getting basic things like spelling right, not a lot of time or effort was put into the science. Zacks' illustrations seem to have been done pretty quickly, without much reference to fossils for accuracy. Take this Triceratops, whose beak sprouts from his face above the mouth, as if it's another horn.



Yet in this next drawing, the beak is clearly part of the mouth. Note that the Tyrannosaurus with which it's fighting has three fingers; this reflects then-incomplete knowledge of T. rex forelimbs rather than disregard for anatomy.



The book ends with this solitary T. rex, another common trope of kid's books.



I've done quite a bit of searching, and can find no other examples of work from Zacks' illustrating career. I don't know how the dinosaurs in this book fits in with his body of work. Some of the wider views, such as that last T. rex, are pretty nice, and I love the limited color pallettes of many of these old books. The larger close-ups aren't as nice. They seem both busy and rushed. Not that I doubt the artist's skills; I'm sure many of these illustrators were working under short deadlines.

Here's a recent interview with Zacks, concerning his current artistic interest in the architectural artifacts of the mid-20th Century, especially old signs. If you'd like to see more from this title, head over to the Vintage Dinosaur Art flickr group.

Vintage Dinosaur Art: High-Kickin' Allosaurus

Here's a two-page spread from a 1979 Scholastic book called the First Picture Encyclopedia. It's a pretty sweet piece, complete with a gaggle of erupting volcanos, anachronistic fauna, Rudolf Zallinger-inspired Stegosaurus, and one heck of a high-kickin' Allosaurus, which I find particularly amusing. Not only would it be a crazy way for a big theropod to attack its prey, the stance looks pretty implausible.

The book credits four illustrators: Roy Coombs, Cliff Meadway, Mike Atkinson, and Graham Allen, with Coombs' name most prominent. None of them are particularly visible on the web. Mr. Atkinson has a website, but the style doesn't quite match what we see here.

Paleo Plushies

Solid. Cartoonist, illustrator, and toymaker Megan Baehr, who runs an Etsy shop called Nonesuch Garden, has begun creating a series of dinosaur plush dolls. The first two are a Stegosaurus and a Triceratops, and she says that she is working on more, inluding a Brachiosaurus. I'd love to see how she pulls it off. They really are more works of art than toys.


Jenski the Stegosaurus, via Etsy


Tertia the Triceratops, via Etsy

Megan has crafted a menagerie that ranges across the animal kingdom and beyond, including mythical creatures. Bully to her for digging into the Mesozoic! You can also check out her creations on her Flickr stream. Her comics and illustrations also reflect a major paleo interest, so be sure to take a good, long gander.

Dinosaurigami

Cool!


These origami ornithodires were made by Nicolás Gajardo Henríquez.



More members of his paper menagerie are featured on his Flickr photostream. Way cool!

We Heart Dinosaurs

I tried to explain why I like dinosaurs so much yesterday. It's hard, because it's essentially an exercise in complicating something pretty simple. I suppose my reasons, and most of ours, can be pretty well expressed by this compilation of Google results. Most of which, I'd guess, are from children.

I like dinosaurs because...
...they are humongous!
...I live with them!
...they go rahrrrr!!
... they give you a real sense of the vastness of time.
...it fascinates me that millions of years
ago these big creatures lived on our planet Earth and that
they would still be alive if it hadn’t been for the disastrous
comet.
...they're so interesting.
...Triceratops eats plants.
...they are fun to read about.
...they are so fierce and they ruled the earth many times.
...they are fierce.
...they were big, fierce, and extinct.
...they tell me about distant times and lands and they are visually striking.
...they beat each other up and they have stinky breath.
... they lived log ago and I read lots of books about them and I know lot of them kinds I want to visit natural museum.
...they are special to me.
...they are purdy.
...they are my best animal.
...they are big and they have very sharp teeth like no other animal.
...they're really awesome, and I like the Tyrannosaurus Rex's teeth because they're really sharp.
...they are so different from anything today.
...I was excited when I think of them.
...they are good.

Mitikusa via Flickr

But we also have our favorites from within the ranks of the dinosaurs. So to get more specific...

I like velociraptor because...
...he is smart,fast,neat and COOL!!
...it's fast, has sharp claws and it's real cool!!
...they are swift and sneeky and you would never know there was one behind you until your flesh is getting torn off your bones.
...they hunt in packs and eat meat like me.
...it has a big claw.
...it could take down almost any dinosaur!

I like stegosaurus because...
...of those cool fans on its back.
...it had bony plates on its back.
...they have many ways to protect themselves.
...THEY HIT OTHER DINOSAURS WITH THEIR SPIKED TAILS.
...it has spikes on it and I spikes.
...he has four spikes on his tail for protection and I think thats really neat!
...I like my meat to be grass-fed and free range.
...its plates could turn red.
...they always appear to me as the "intelligent noble" dinosaur.
...he looks good.
...of those cool fans on its back.

I like triceratops because...
...it has three horn.
...he's the bestest herbivore fighter!
...they are cleaver and tuff.
...he is smart and he is cute.
...I'm in a band called the dinosaur project and we all have stage names, and mines the best because it's tri-sarah-tops.
...he has horns and fights T-Rex.
...THEY HAVE 3 HORNS.
...it was not afraid to stand up to any other dinosaur.
...of what it's name means - 3 horned face.
...it is a plant eater.
...it has a cool head with the sticky-uppy crown thing and three horns.
...it is big.
...he has big horns.
...it had three horns to protect it'sself from danger.
...of its three horns.
...they have my name in them.
...it is a cool name.