Another problem facing artists on a deadline is that they can be rushed. Take a close look at this dinosaur art. It struck me as a little odd at first glance. The lighting on the dinosaur was nice, but there was something wrong. On closer look I realized that Gascó had created, textured, and lit a 3D model of the dinosaurs and then plopped a rendering of them onto a photo. That’s why it seemed a little strange. It is very difficult to make a combination of a 3D model rendering and a background work, even though Hollywood does it all the time. But they have zillion dollar budgets.Science Visualization's Christopher Sloan, the probable author of the post, is the chairperson of the Lanzendorf Prize, the annual award given to exceptional paleoart at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting. So his constructive criticism holds a lot of weight. He also brings up the issue of financial considerations for paleoartists, and bemoans the poor job the media does in properly crediting the art that accompanies their news stories. "The worst example," he writes, "is AP, which adds themselves to the credit! For what?!" It's a bizarre lapse, as after all, news outlets probably wouldn't care to run these stories if they hadn't seen the artwork in the first place.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Science Visualization on Brontomerus
Ferdinand Gascó's sensational Brontomerus is the subject of a new blog post written by the folks at the Science in the Media blog of Science Visualization, LLC.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Mesozoic Miscellany #22
The Big Stories
Boneyard 2.7! David Tana of Superoceras did a helluva job this month.
Terror Bird Gallery! ART Evolved is back with a new batch of paleoartistic pandemonium.
The supposed "dinosaur petroglyph" of Kachina Bridge was revealed definitively to be an illusion in a new study published in Palaeontologia Electronica. Read about it at the PE blog and Dinosaur Tracking, as well as my own post.
A bunch of interesting Triassic research has come out, including a redescription of the Postosuchus holotype skull, a paper on the anatomy of hilariously named basal sauropodomorph Pantydraco, and new tanystropheids (Chinleana, Pterosauria). As always, Chinleana is the ultimate way to keep up with new research into the Mesozoic's first act.
Victoria Arbour is the lead author of a new paper examining the pelvic shields of ankylosaurian dinosaurs in Journal of Paleaontology. Looking at the shields across the whole family, she has done the work of separating them into different categories and analyzing the differences between taxa and through time.
Around the Dinoblogosphere
Jack Horner is giving a TED speech today about his chickenasaurus quest. Read an interview at Wired.
Dave Hone waxed imaginative and shared his time travel wish list.
Saurian chronicles the winding-down of fossil hunting at Quarry 4, and a rainy spell reveals some new pieces of a lost Mesozoic ecosystem.
Paleontologist Scott Sampson continues his musings on biophilia at Whirlpool of Life, this time writing about human love. "I predict that future research will reveal solid evidence of a human bond with (nonhuman) nature—what people have referred to as 'biophilia' (see my previous post)—and that this bond will be facilitated by none other than our hormonal friend oxytocin."
Brian Switek shared fond remembrances of a formative documentary about dinosaurs, entitled... Dinosaur!
Everything Dinosaur reveals details about the Planet Dinosaur project.
Whales, Camps, and Trails shows off the new identify design for Beloit, Wisconsin's new tourism campaign, focusing on native son Roy Chapman Andrews.
Trish Arnold gets straight-up cruel all up in here, sharing dinosaur illos you can't un-see.
SV-POW goes into deep detail about the process of the raptor-kicking Brontomerus.
Along the same lines, Paleo Illustrata featured a post about the 3D modeling of extinct beasts.
Twit Picks
Stuff I've linked to at Twitter in the last week or so.
I Effing Love Dinosaurs notified us of a life-size T. rex model that can be yours for the princely sum of £32,999.99. It's butt ugly, though.
Also, another uncredited piece is pretty cool. Lookie.
Paleoart of the Week
Patrick Redman's Lancian scene is complete, with a moody, drizzly, misty look. I love his oviraptorids. Click the image to give him feedback - he's wondering about whether he should include individual raindrops.
Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence
For @tomhouslay:
Boneyard 2.7! David Tana of Superoceras did a helluva job this month.
Terror Bird Gallery! ART Evolved is back with a new batch of paleoartistic pandemonium.
The supposed "dinosaur petroglyph" of Kachina Bridge was revealed definitively to be an illusion in a new study published in Palaeontologia Electronica. Read about it at the PE blog and Dinosaur Tracking, as well as my own post.
A bunch of interesting Triassic research has come out, including a redescription of the Postosuchus holotype skull, a paper on the anatomy of hilariously named basal sauropodomorph Pantydraco, and new tanystropheids (Chinleana, Pterosauria). As always, Chinleana is the ultimate way to keep up with new research into the Mesozoic's first act.
Victoria Arbour is the lead author of a new paper examining the pelvic shields of ankylosaurian dinosaurs in Journal of Paleaontology. Looking at the shields across the whole family, she has done the work of separating them into different categories and analyzing the differences between taxa and through time.
Around the Dinoblogosphere
Jack Horner is giving a TED speech today about his chickenasaurus quest. Read an interview at Wired.
Dave Hone waxed imaginative and shared his time travel wish list.
Saurian chronicles the winding-down of fossil hunting at Quarry 4, and a rainy spell reveals some new pieces of a lost Mesozoic ecosystem.
Paleontologist Scott Sampson continues his musings on biophilia at Whirlpool of Life, this time writing about human love. "I predict that future research will reveal solid evidence of a human bond with (nonhuman) nature—what people have referred to as 'biophilia' (see my previous post)—and that this bond will be facilitated by none other than our hormonal friend oxytocin."
Brian Switek shared fond remembrances of a formative documentary about dinosaurs, entitled... Dinosaur!
Everything Dinosaur reveals details about the Planet Dinosaur project.
Whales, Camps, and Trails shows off the new identify design for Beloit, Wisconsin's new tourism campaign, focusing on native son Roy Chapman Andrews.
Trish Arnold gets straight-up cruel all up in here, sharing dinosaur illos you can't un-see.
SV-POW goes into deep detail about the process of the raptor-kicking Brontomerus.
Along the same lines, Paleo Illustrata featured a post about the 3D modeling of extinct beasts.
Twit Picks
Stuff I've linked to at Twitter in the last week or so.
- Check out the podClast with @yorrike, @rschott, @allocthonous, and @hypocentre, about the Feb 22 NZ earthquake
- Coming issues of Palaeontologia Electronica to feature commentaries on "fossil collecting in the new legal environment"
- This dude loves his crystal.
- SV-POW's Mike Taylor profiled at NYTimes.com
- Iapetus Adventures: a frigid camping trip on a Carboniferous beach
- Louisville Fossils has featured very cool brachiopods lately, including this Orthospirifer with coral growing on it.
I Effing Love Dinosaurs notified us of a life-size T. rex model that can be yours for the princely sum of £32,999.99. It's butt ugly, though.
Also, another uncredited piece is pretty cool. Lookie.
Paleoart of the Week
Patrick Redman's Lancian scene is complete, with a moody, drizzly, misty look. I love his oviraptorids. Click the image to give him feedback - he's wondering about whether he should include individual raindrops.
Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence
For @tomhouslay:
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Radical Taxonomic Act by the Airfix Model Company
In 1979, the Airfix model company made a bold statement by rechristening the early Permian pelycosaur Dimetrodon as a dinosaur. What we now call the "Airfix Wars" raged throughout the eighties, resulting in rancorous disputes at toy fairs and SVP meetings alike which occasionally descended into fisticuffs.
Shared by combomphotos at Flickr.
I post this today not to reopen old wounds, but to remind the world of past mistakes so they might never happen again. Let's keep our toymakers out of taxonomy.
Shared by combomphotos at Flickr.
I post this today not to reopen old wounds, but to remind the world of past mistakes so they might never happen again. Let's keep our toymakers out of taxonomy.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Herpetology
This XKCD comic has been a hit with the online paleo community, and is was well worth sharing here.
The reason that XKCD is tremendously popular is that it deserves to be. Because it is pure excellence. Peer-ee-odd.
The reason that XKCD is tremendously popular is that it deserves to be. Because it is pure excellence. Peer-ee-odd.
Pareidoliasaurus, a new sauropodomorph of Utah
"Until now that claim has gone unchallenged."
So write Phil Senter and Sally J. Cole, coauthors of a newly published paper in Palaeontologia Electronica examining the purported dinosaur petroglyphs of Kachina Bridge, a rock formation in Utah's Natural Bridges National Monument. While folks have criticized the attempts of Young Earth Creationists to use these and other ancient markings of indigenous people as evidence of humanity's coexistence with dinosaurs - visit Stupid Dinosaur Lies to see a comparison of different images they've used in this particular case - it's now been addressed in the scientific literature. Analyzing the markings under a variety of lighting conditions, Senter and Cole were able to discern that what seemed to be superficially resemble a generic sauropod was actually an amalgam of deliberate ancient markings and natural variations in color on the rock.
From Senter and Cole's "Dinosaur" petroglyphs at Kachina Bridge site, Natural Bridges National Monument, southeastern Utah: not dinosaurs after all.
In their discussion section, Senter and Cole write of pareidolia, "the psychological phenomenon of perceiving significance in vague or random stimuli, e.g., seeing animals in clouds or the face of a religious figure in a food item. The results of this investigation indicate that the dinosaurs of Kachina Bridge are examples of this phenomenon and exist only as pareidolic illusions." This is one of the great perceptual hurdles we must leap in our attempt to accurately perceive our world. It happens to all of us. It's happened to me. In the latest episode of Point of Inquiry, Neil DeGrasse Tyson makes the point that science is essentially a tool to protect our observations from the biases and failings of our brains. One of these failings is our zeal for pattern-recognizing. Drop the Mentos candy of pareidolia into the Diet Coke of ideology and stand back.
While this study could be seen as just a bit of housecleaning to dispense with yet another creationist claim, it perfectly illustrates the power of science to allow us to observe that which fools the eye. It demonstrates that science is about the willingness to admit our physical limitations, to go beyond the superficial and rigorously analyze that which seems obvious. Creationists don't do this. They don't attempt to test and strengthen their arguments by poking holes in them. Any creationist proclaiming Kachina Bridge as evidence for a young Earth could have done exactly what Senter and Cole did; their methods were not beyond the capabilities of anyone with the time and will to try. But none did, because the truth of the claim wasn't their concern. And that says everything.
It also must be said that if you look at the alleged sauropod, it doesn't quite match our understanding of the real animals' physiology. If the Kachina Bridge petroglyph was the work of an ancient artist who had actually had seen a sauropod, it would have sported a horribly broken tail. On a more basic level, I'd imagine that had any early artists actually shared their environments with dinosaurs, their depictions in petroglyphs would be so widespread that the creationists would have no trouble finding abundant evidence for their claims. Bison and aurochs and horses are really cool animals, but if I was a guy in a cave with a bit of ochre paint, I'd personally be more interested in populating the stone walls with the titanic saurian beasts that dwarfed them. Then again, who am I to make assumptions about the priorities of ancient artists?
So write Phil Senter and Sally J. Cole, coauthors of a newly published paper in Palaeontologia Electronica examining the purported dinosaur petroglyphs of Kachina Bridge, a rock formation in Utah's Natural Bridges National Monument. While folks have criticized the attempts of Young Earth Creationists to use these and other ancient markings of indigenous people as evidence of humanity's coexistence with dinosaurs - visit Stupid Dinosaur Lies to see a comparison of different images they've used in this particular case - it's now been addressed in the scientific literature. Analyzing the markings under a variety of lighting conditions, Senter and Cole were able to discern that what seemed to be superficially resemble a generic sauropod was actually an amalgam of deliberate ancient markings and natural variations in color on the rock.
From Senter and Cole's "Dinosaur" petroglyphs at Kachina Bridge site, Natural Bridges National Monument, southeastern Utah: not dinosaurs after all.
In their discussion section, Senter and Cole write of pareidolia, "the psychological phenomenon of perceiving significance in vague or random stimuli, e.g., seeing animals in clouds or the face of a religious figure in a food item. The results of this investigation indicate that the dinosaurs of Kachina Bridge are examples of this phenomenon and exist only as pareidolic illusions." This is one of the great perceptual hurdles we must leap in our attempt to accurately perceive our world. It happens to all of us. It's happened to me. In the latest episode of Point of Inquiry, Neil DeGrasse Tyson makes the point that science is essentially a tool to protect our observations from the biases and failings of our brains. One of these failings is our zeal for pattern-recognizing. Drop the Mentos candy of pareidolia into the Diet Coke of ideology and stand back.
While this study could be seen as just a bit of housecleaning to dispense with yet another creationist claim, it perfectly illustrates the power of science to allow us to observe that which fools the eye. It demonstrates that science is about the willingness to admit our physical limitations, to go beyond the superficial and rigorously analyze that which seems obvious. Creationists don't do this. They don't attempt to test and strengthen their arguments by poking holes in them. Any creationist proclaiming Kachina Bridge as evidence for a young Earth could have done exactly what Senter and Cole did; their methods were not beyond the capabilities of anyone with the time and will to try. But none did, because the truth of the claim wasn't their concern. And that says everything.
It also must be said that if you look at the alleged sauropod, it doesn't quite match our understanding of the real animals' physiology. If the Kachina Bridge petroglyph was the work of an ancient artist who had actually had seen a sauropod, it would have sported a horribly broken tail. On a more basic level, I'd imagine that had any early artists actually shared their environments with dinosaurs, their depictions in petroglyphs would be so widespread that the creationists would have no trouble finding abundant evidence for their claims. Bison and aurochs and horses are really cool animals, but if I was a guy in a cave with a bit of ochre paint, I'd personally be more interested in populating the stone walls with the titanic saurian beasts that dwarfed them. Then again, who am I to make assumptions about the priorities of ancient artists?
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Boneyard 2.7, Alive and Kicking
March is roaring in like a ferocious lion with the arrival of the seventh edition of the Boneyard 2.o. The world's greatest (and only) paleontology blog carnival is being hosted by David Tana at Superoceras this time around, and he's done a bang-up job of pulling together a disparate bunch of posts and making them all gel into a cohesive whole. It's a perfect model for future hosts, arranged in a sensible way and pulled together by David's personal insights. Reading it is really great. I heartily encourage it.
I've got some ideas to keep the carnival growing, as it's hit a bit of a plateau. Things aren't as dire as they were a few months ago, but this critter needs to keep moving forward. There's no reason it can't have the visibility of Carnival of Evolution, Accretionary Wedge, or Carnal Carnival. Part of my strategy is to talk some of the better known bloggers and scientist bloggers into hosting (yeah, I'm coming for you). Another idea is to ask paleo bloggers to consider hosting some of the other blog carnivals themselves - as David says very well in today's Boneyard, paleontology pulls in such a diversity of scientific disciplines that many carnivals could relate to the usual content of a paleontology blog.
Anyway, scoot on over to Superoceras!
I've got some ideas to keep the carnival growing, as it's hit a bit of a plateau. Things aren't as dire as they were a few months ago, but this critter needs to keep moving forward. There's no reason it can't have the visibility of Carnival of Evolution, Accretionary Wedge, or Carnal Carnival. Part of my strategy is to talk some of the better known bloggers and scientist bloggers into hosting (yeah, I'm coming for you). Another idea is to ask paleo bloggers to consider hosting some of the other blog carnivals themselves - as David says very well in today's Boneyard, paleontology pulls in such a diversity of scientific disciplines that many carnivals could relate to the usual content of a paleontology blog.
Anyway, scoot on over to Superoceras!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Vintage Dinosaur Art: Flash Card Bonanza
I recently scanned a whole bunch of dinosaur flash cards to Flickr. They were published by a company called Media Materials in 1989, and unfortunately the artist is unknown. I reckon that there's more than one responsible, unless it's a single artist who got tired of the project when coloring time came along, because some of the backgrounds are simply sloppy.
The set surveys most of the major dinosaur families, with the ever-popular theropods making up almost half. My set is missing eight; a current eBay auction for the set indicates there were originally thirty. I thought it was a little suspicious that Stegosaurus and Triceratops were left out of the party.
As for the artwork, it's not very remarkable, for the most part reflecting old tropes in dinosaur restoration, including the kangaroo-stance Iguanodon.
Megalosaurus is depicted, as it so often is, as an odd, skulking hunchback. This is another meme I'm going to have to explore in more detail. When I think of Megalosaurus, two images pop into my mind: Buckland's jawbone, and this old pose of the theropod sneaking around.
For Allosaurus, the artist played it safe and ripped offKnight's classic pose.
It's also not exactly up-to-date, with Teratosaurus, then known to be a non-dinosaur rauisuchian, popping in. Of course, these are meant for reading instruction, so researching the literature probably didn't rank high on the list of priorities.
Spinosaurus, not well known in the eighties, looks a bit like a Dimetrodon that's been hit by the notion to rise up on its hind legs and go for a sprint, and is clearly based on the Lapparent and Lavocat reconstruction from 1955 (more on this, and the changing understanding of the big guy in a recent post at The Bite Stuff). He also looks like he's just done something naughty and is fleeing the scene.
You get a bit of submerged sauropod action, too. Such a beloved old chestnut.
There's more where these came from, included in the set linked above as well as the ever-growing Vintage Dinosaur Art pool.
The set surveys most of the major dinosaur families, with the ever-popular theropods making up almost half. My set is missing eight; a current eBay auction for the set indicates there were originally thirty. I thought it was a little suspicious that Stegosaurus and Triceratops were left out of the party.
As for the artwork, it's not very remarkable, for the most part reflecting old tropes in dinosaur restoration, including the kangaroo-stance Iguanodon.
Megalosaurus is depicted, as it so often is, as an odd, skulking hunchback. This is another meme I'm going to have to explore in more detail. When I think of Megalosaurus, two images pop into my mind: Buckland's jawbone, and this old pose of the theropod sneaking around.
For Allosaurus, the artist played it safe and ripped offKnight's classic pose.
It's also not exactly up-to-date, with Teratosaurus, then known to be a non-dinosaur rauisuchian, popping in. Of course, these are meant for reading instruction, so researching the literature probably didn't rank high on the list of priorities.
Spinosaurus, not well known in the eighties, looks a bit like a Dimetrodon that's been hit by the notion to rise up on its hind legs and go for a sprint, and is clearly based on the Lapparent and Lavocat reconstruction from 1955 (more on this, and the changing understanding of the big guy in a recent post at The Bite Stuff). He also looks like he's just done something naughty and is fleeing the scene.
You get a bit of submerged sauropod action, too. Such a beloved old chestnut.
There's more where these came from, included in the set linked above as well as the ever-growing Vintage Dinosaur Art pool.
Submit your Paleontology blog post to the Boneyard 2.7
Boneyard 2.7 goes up... tomorrow. That's right, tomorrow. David Tana is hosting at Superoceras. Send in your blog posts about paleontology or related fields! Email submissions to boneyardblogcarnival(at)gmail(dot)com.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Mesozoic Miscellany #21
The Big Stories
Brontomerus thundered onto the scene this week, with two posts at SV-POW introducing the new early Cretaceous sauropod. It's gotten a lot of press, including pieces by Superoceras, Pterosauria, 80 Beats, Dinosaur Tracking, Live Science, Discovery, Everything Dinosaur, Palaeoblog, and me. Here's a fantastic short video from University College London, featuring paper co-author Mike Taylor.
That's not all, though. The journal Palaios announced that the March issue will include a study that looks at the purported burrow in which a specimen of the hypsilophodontid Oryctodromeus was entombed. From the abstract, "To test whether this skeletal arrangement reflected in situ burial from within or transport into the burrow, we constructed a half-scale burrow model using PVC pipes and conducted a series of sediment infilling experiments with appropriately scaled, disarticulated rabbit skeletons." Cool, Mythbusters-esque way to test this!
The seed cones of conifers were also the subject of recent research soon to be published in the Proceedings fo the Royal Society B. Andrew Leslie of the University of Chicago looked at the evolutionary trends of seed cones since the Pennsylvanian, noting an increased investment in protective structures since the Jurassic, which may be tied to the feeding behavior of the giant sauropods. Read Switek's piece at Dinosaur Tracking.
The Tate Geological Museum at Casper College in Wyoming has announced the discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which looks like it's going to be a wonderful specimen. They promise to follow the excavation closely beginning this summer.
Around the Dinoblogosphere
Saurian: I definitely relate to Saurian's appreciation for the scientists, writers, and artists who brought the new ideas of the Dinosaur Renaissance to light, as well as his continuing love of all of the obsolete representations of years past.
The Bite Stuff: Jaime Headden looks at those wonderfully long vertebrae of Spinosaurus and suggests an alternate alignment, giving the big lug a very different look.
The Great Cretaceous Walk: Tony Martin shares memories of the Dinosaur Dreaming coastal dig site in Australia.
Paleochick's Digs: Watch some knucklehead get his rear-end handed to him by an enraged mother duck.
ART Evolved: A simple tutorial for creating silhouettes from photos of wildlife, written to help folks contribute to PhyloPic. I'm a pen tool man myself, but it's an acquired taste! Also a must read: Scott Person's guide to reconstructing theropod tails.
House of Bones: Jeff Martz begins a series on taxonomy and systematics.
Whales, Camps, and Trails: Big thanks to Michael Ryan at Palaeoblog for sharing a link to this new blog written by Clive Coy and dedicated to legendary dino-hunter Roy Chapman Andrews. While you're at it, check out the University of Alberta's slideshow of a recent Cryolophosaurus excavation in Antarctica, shared by Coy and Ryan.
Twit Picks
Stuff I linked to at Twitter in the last week or so:
Thank you to I Effing Love Dinosaurs for sharing this piece by illustrator Joey Chou, a nice take on the meme of titanic fossilized beasts hidden just under the Earth's surface.
Paleoart of the Week
The wonderful Brontomerus restoration got a lot of attention this week, but I'd also like to draw your attention to Andrey Atuchin's wonderful Europasaurus, created for the International Europasaurus Paleo-Artwork Contest.
Europasaurus by Andrey Atuchin, via DeviantArt. Used with the artist's permission.
Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence
With gusto, I recommend Dan Carlin's podcasts. Insightful political and historical commentary from a firmly independent point of view.
Brontomerus thundered onto the scene this week, with two posts at SV-POW introducing the new early Cretaceous sauropod. It's gotten a lot of press, including pieces by Superoceras, Pterosauria, 80 Beats, Dinosaur Tracking, Live Science, Discovery, Everything Dinosaur, Palaeoblog, and me. Here's a fantastic short video from University College London, featuring paper co-author Mike Taylor.
That's not all, though. The journal Palaios announced that the March issue will include a study that looks at the purported burrow in which a specimen of the hypsilophodontid Oryctodromeus was entombed. From the abstract, "To test whether this skeletal arrangement reflected in situ burial from within or transport into the burrow, we constructed a half-scale burrow model using PVC pipes and conducted a series of sediment infilling experiments with appropriately scaled, disarticulated rabbit skeletons." Cool, Mythbusters-esque way to test this!
The seed cones of conifers were also the subject of recent research soon to be published in the Proceedings fo the Royal Society B. Andrew Leslie of the University of Chicago looked at the evolutionary trends of seed cones since the Pennsylvanian, noting an increased investment in protective structures since the Jurassic, which may be tied to the feeding behavior of the giant sauropods. Read Switek's piece at Dinosaur Tracking.
The Tate Geological Museum at Casper College in Wyoming has announced the discovery of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which looks like it's going to be a wonderful specimen. They promise to follow the excavation closely beginning this summer.
Around the Dinoblogosphere
Saurian: I definitely relate to Saurian's appreciation for the scientists, writers, and artists who brought the new ideas of the Dinosaur Renaissance to light, as well as his continuing love of all of the obsolete representations of years past.
The Bite Stuff: Jaime Headden looks at those wonderfully long vertebrae of Spinosaurus and suggests an alternate alignment, giving the big lug a very different look.
The Great Cretaceous Walk: Tony Martin shares memories of the Dinosaur Dreaming coastal dig site in Australia.
Paleochick's Digs: Watch some knucklehead get his rear-end handed to him by an enraged mother duck.
ART Evolved: A simple tutorial for creating silhouettes from photos of wildlife, written to help folks contribute to PhyloPic. I'm a pen tool man myself, but it's an acquired taste! Also a must read: Scott Person's guide to reconstructing theropod tails.
House of Bones: Jeff Martz begins a series on taxonomy and systematics.
Whales, Camps, and Trails: Big thanks to Michael Ryan at Palaeoblog for sharing a link to this new blog written by Clive Coy and dedicated to legendary dino-hunter Roy Chapman Andrews. While you're at it, check out the University of Alberta's slideshow of a recent Cryolophosaurus excavation in Antarctica, shared by Coy and Ryan.
Twit Picks
Stuff I linked to at Twitter in the last week or so:
- The new Houston paleo hall: "Everything will be chasing something; everything will be eating something."
- Pterosaur.net: Too Big to Fly? Giant pterosaurs take wing in PLoS ONE
- Dino Tracking: What Do We Really Know About Utahraptor?
- Check out this beautiful take on the duckbill Olorotitan by Angie Rodrigues
- Neanderthals Wore Colorful Feathers | Early Humans Capable of Creating Art | LiveScience
- Climate change & evolution before our very eyes RT @stevesilberman #Climate change turning tawny owls brown in Finland
- Coelophysis gets pwned by a pseudosuchian. Amazing detail of a mural at Petrified Forest NP
Thank you to I Effing Love Dinosaurs for sharing this piece by illustrator Joey Chou, a nice take on the meme of titanic fossilized beasts hidden just under the Earth's surface.
Paleoart of the Week
The wonderful Brontomerus restoration got a lot of attention this week, but I'd also like to draw your attention to Andrey Atuchin's wonderful Europasaurus, created for the International Europasaurus Paleo-Artwork Contest.
Europasaurus by Andrey Atuchin, via DeviantArt. Used with the artist's permission.
Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence
With gusto, I recommend Dan Carlin's podcasts. Insightful political and historical commentary from a firmly independent point of view.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)