Milk

One of the unique properties of mammals is their ability to produce milk, that nourishing emulsion of tiny globules of fat in water. Heck, I'm feeling thirsty just writing those words. Dinosaurs couldn't produce milk, being descended from the reptilian archosaurs, but that doesn't mean they can't be used to spread the milk gospel. For your consideration, I present a set of Canadian commercials for milk, likely inspired by the Ice Age movies.

First, a Pteranodon. Incidentally, while pterosaurs lifting humans off the ground has been around for a long time, it's not something to fear. It's not happening.

Next, some nude raptors...


And stick around for the stinger at the end of this one...


And I've saved the fart joke for last. As is customary.

You're Thwarting My Attempt at an Alliterative Greeting, Xixianykus!

Hot on the heels of Haplocheirus, another new alvarezsaur has been announced: Xixianykus zhangyi. As you might guess by the name, it's another gift from the Mesozoic strata of China, and the first chinese alvarezsaur. Paleontologists led by Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced the finding this week in the journal Zootaxa.


Xixianykus zhangyi by Matt Van Rooijen, used with the artist's kind permission.

Besides adding to our knowledge of the strange and wonderful alvarezsaurs, X. zhangyi is remarkable among theropods in general for its specialized adaptations for running. For a small critter like this - about the size of a small dog - the ability to dart around at high speed would have had obvious value. In Matt Van Rooijen's fine reconstruction, Xixianykus has been given cryptic coloring, and I can see the bugger scurrying away into the underbrush, where it would be well hidden from predators.

For more, you can head over to Archosaur Musings; Dave Hone is also one of the authors on the paper.

More Dinosaurigami

In September of last year, I featured a couple examples of Nicolás Gajardo Henríquez's dinosaur origami. Flickr user origamiPete also has a fondness for things paleo. Here are some of his.

Styracosaurus:


Ankylosaurus:


The Mesozoic aquatic bird Hesperornis:


Pete has also done some other ancient creatures, including the hammerheaded amphibian Diplocaulus and the saber-toothed cat, Smilodon.

LITC on the Facebook

I finally got around to making LITC a page on the popular website Facebook. Well, finishing it. I started making it a long time ago, then stalled as I fussed over a suitable profile image. Finally settled on this little turd.

Don't be shy - join up by clicking the badge to the left or clicking here.

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.

Preserved in Plastic

Plastic dinosaurs are a perennial inspiration for photographers, it seems. There's something comforting and nostalgic about them, and as models go, they're pretty easy to deal with. Flickr user Velvette Gypsy posted a bunch of them recently.


Too bad she didn't have a plastic Baryonyx or spinosaur! You know, because they liked the fish.


This one is described as "dinosaur riding," but if I was that T. rex, I'd be pretty nervous. I don't think Yoda has honorable intentions.

The City Museum

The other major stop of our weekend trip to St. Louis was the utterly wickedly wondrous and splendid City Museum. I won't get into the whole history of it; suffice to say that it's a giant indoor playground made of salvaged building materials, and is completely bananas. I didn't go expecting a lot of Mesozoica, but I figured there had to be at least a little. I was happily surprised at what I found.

First, there's this great sauropod staircase, leading from the entry level to the mezzanine and second floor. You can barely make out her head in the first shot...

...so here's a close-up.

On the second floor is a small room of natural history type stuff, presumably from other institutions' defunct displays. I was thrilled to find a glass case containing a bunch of fossil casts, including Tapejara, Velociraptor and Masiakasaurus skulls, and some others I didn't get good pictures of. Not that these are hot stuff; I've never been good at snapping photos through glass.

Opposite the display case is a diorama containing various reconstructions, including Bambiraptor, Compsognathus, Sordes, and Anurognathus. They were created by Missouri's Fossilsmith studios; unfortunately, it doesn't look like they've done a lot in the last few years (or maybe they're so busy they haven't had time to update their site). Their work here is excellent. Seeing that extravagantly feathered bambi when I walked into the room was such a great surprise.





The room also has a case full of other assorted fossils and casts, including various pterosaurs and a reproduction of Archaeopteryx. Really, its a lot of paleo crammed into a pretty small room. There's also a Pteranodon hanging from the ceiling on the ground level, somewhat out of place as the rest of the area has an undersea theme. But I'm not complaining.

Seriously, this is a must-see if you're ever in St. Louis.

Sighting at the Missouri Botanical Garden

As I mentioned yesterday, the little lady and I took a road trip to St. Louis this weekend. Whenever we hit the road, we party like we mean it. We hit thrift stores and antique malls. We find the illest museums. We invariably locate the top botanical gardens in the region and make sure they never forget the day we came to town. Thanks to her, the pictures actually made it to Flickr.

The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis is a good one, dominated by a 7-story geodesic dome called the Climatron. Inside the Climatron is a simulated rain forest. It looks like this:



The Climatron is populated by a gregarious group of Silver-Beaked Tanagers, imports from South America. They look like this:



There's also an orchid exhibit going on right now, and apparently the MBG knows how to keep the children entertained while their parents soberly appreciate the flowers: a dinosaur scavenger hunt. Well, one dinosaur may not make much of a scavenger hunt, but it's something. Luckily, Jennie and I found the little sauropod, tucked away in the greenery.



I suspect that the little sauropod is also a clever way to remind visitors that beginning on May 1, the Climatron will host the traveling exhibit DinoQuest. The Climatron will be stocked with reproductions of dinosaurs, which will be accompanied by further exhibits, including an egg incubator prop from JPIII. More info at the link above; images here or at their Flickr stream. Here's a Bambiraptor model, photographed during the exhibit's time at the Denver Botanical Gardens.


Image from MBG, via Flickr.

More on Linheraptor

SWAMPED. That's how I'm feeling right now. The first spring break I've had in several years, and I wish it had never happened - better to slog through and get done a week earlier than this. Jennie and I took a little road trip to St. Louis this weekend, and as soon as I get some time, I'll be sharing some relevant photos and thoughts here. In the meantime, watch this short video by Michael Pittman about Linheraptor!

Vintage Dinosaur Art: The Dragons of Eden

I recently picked up a used copy of Carl Sagan's The Dragons of Eden, and the cover folded out to reveal this impressive painting by Don Davis, which was cropped on the fronrt cover in the first edition. You can see a few dinos, including what looks like a Ceratosaurus and two dromaeosaurs frolicking in the background. There's also a well-camouflaged sauropod munching some leaves right above "Adam and Eve."

Like George Solonevich, Davis is more widely known for his space paintings, and his work on planetary models for Sagan's Cosmos series (which is thankfully available at Hulu). More of his dinosaur paintings are on display here.