Vintage Dinosaur Art: More Dinosaurs!

Keen followers of this blog (who surely number into the hundreds of thousands at least by now) may remember that, back in May, I took a look at the first issue of Dinosaurs! magazine from back in the early '90s. However, with all 104 issues at my disposal, it seemed a shame to stop there. Here, then, are 8 more images from throughout the history of the magazine, naturally selected for dino-nerd-entertainment value (rather than artistry. I'm just not fair).

First up: perhaps one of the strangest renditions of Brachiosaurus that I've ever seen, from issue 4. This is another creation from Neil Lloyd (he of brown tyrannosaur fame), and to be fair to him his other Brachiosaurus illustrations do resemble the slightly overweight Giraffatitan that was standard back then. That being so, this is probably an attempt at foreshortening that has gone horibly wrong. Have a gaze and a wonder. At least Lloyd's switched from brown to green. Lovely. (To Lloyd's credit, he's only included one claw on the forefeet - something artists still repeatedly get wrong to this day.)


















Going back to issue 3, as I didn't wish to open with an incomplete image: here we have a classic battle between Allosaurus and Stegosaurus by artist Tony Gibbons. Unfortunately neither of them look convincingly like the real thing, with Allosaurus coming off somewhat worse; note the generic head, tiny hands, enormous scales, and uncomfortably-positioned leg. Still, it could be worse - Stegosaurus' left foot appears to have become detached from its body. Whoops.














From issue 24: Baryonyx is one of the most famous British dinosaurs, with its long jaws, single midline crest and stumpy, four-fingered hand with three atrophied digits being instantly recognisable. Wait, what? I love how suave it looks, too. A spinosaur with class.















Speaking of spinosaurs, issue 29 profiled Spinosaurus itself, and as was de rigueur back in the early '90s (see also: Inside Dinosaurs) it had a 'carnosaur' head and four fingers, as in the below illustration by Barry Croucher. Except when, as on the front cover and centre spread, it had three. Consistency was not Spinosaurus' strong point.















Below: Saurornithoides as nightmare fuel. Don't look into the eyes. Don't look into the eyes. Don't look into the eyes.


















I still absolutely adore the 'History in Pictures' cartoons, detailing episodes from the history of palaeontology. The below image is an excerpt from the first part of 'The Bone Wars', chronicling the rivalry between Cope and Marsh. I think the expressions on their faces when Marsh mocks Cope for his Elasmosaurus error are just fantastic; Cope looks utterly horrified, while Marsh looks like a sneering Bond villain. Wonderful stuff.







Finally, two pages that just haven't stood the test of time at all. Issue 55 profiled "Ultrasauros", trumpeted as being "among the heaviest and tallest dinosaurs that ever lived", "taller than a four storey building", etc. etc. Illustrations depicted a green Giraffatitan-like behemoth, so incomprehensibly Brobdingnagian that it shrank the little palaeontologist used in the scale diagram to the extent that he was barely visible. A shame, then, that it turned out that "Ultrasauros" didn't exist at all - it was a chimera composed of Supersaurus bits and a big, but not THAT big brachiosaur scapulacoracoid (see this entry at SV-POW). The profile of "Majungatholus", the tiny pachycephalosaur from Madagascar, is just downright funny - you'll probably know it better as the abelisaur Majungasaurus. They weren't to know, they weren't to know...and hey, that's not a bad illustration of a generic pachycephalosaur by artist Graham Rosewarne.





































P.S. There will of course be even more Dinosaurs! to meet demand/if I run out of ideas. Stay tuned...

Mesozoic Miscellany #34

Around the Dinoblogosphere
New Boneyard Blog Carnival! It was hosted by Gary of Project Dryptosaurus, and he did a crackin' good job. I'm still looking for someone to take over for me as organizer of the carnival. I've had an offer but nothing's set, so I figured I'd put the word out again. It's not a lot of work, but I need to focus on school this fall. Email me at the email address in the sidebar if you want to take over, and we'll talk. As I've said before, if no one does, this December's edition will the the last one.

At Schistotome, check out some paleoart collaborations Edyta has been doing with Deviantartist Kahless.

This week at the Dinosaur Toy Blog, Nathan Morris reviewed a new figure from CollectA, Concavenator.

At his blog Jurassic Journeys, Dr. Matt Bonnan recaps the start of the 2011 field season at the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry in Utah. It's a promising beginning, and I wish his team the best of luck throughout the summer.

Another update about a quarry excavation is provided by ReBecca Hunt-Foster, who is working at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry in Colorado. She discusses notable finds from the quarry... including sauropod skin impressions.

Is Andrea Cau a paleo-extremist? He responds to negative criticism at Theropoda.

Dave Hone interviewed John Sibbick this week at Archosaur Musings. You may recall that Sibbick was the very first interview I did for LITC. Check it out here.

Offering a rebuttal to a site that graded Triceratops a "B+" animal, Brian Switek argued that it actually deserves a plump, shiny "A+" at Dinosaur Tracking.

Twit Picks
For a little change of pace, this week I'll suggest you follow these tweeting paleontologists. It's not meant to be comprehensive; in fact, feel free to share any I haven't listed here in the comments.

• Matt Bonnan
• Andy Farke
• Darren Naish
• "Dinosaur George" Blasing
• Luis Azvdo Rodrigues
• Ashley Fragomeni
• Jennifer McGuire
• Anthony Martin

I also have a public list of dinosaur tweeps, including most of the above paleontologists and other dino researchers, experts, research institutions, and enthusiasts. It too is not as complete as I'd like it to be, since I began it well after I started tweeting and it's a big task to sift through all of my follows to add to it. So suggest away!

Paleoart of the Week
This was a really tough choice this week. I wanted to share something by Ville Sinkkonen, whose work astounds me. But there were two pieces I am particularly enamored by, an infant Ornithomimus and a juvenile Sinornithosaurus named "Dave." Both are gorgeous depictions of feathered theropods. In the end, I decided to go with Dave, on the grounds that he has a real winner of a name. Take a nice, long moment to enjoy Ville's artistry.

Follow Ville at Dots in Deep Time, as well.

Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence
These are my dawgz, Gregory and Mitzie. Ain't they just the peachiest?

Horner at TED, Part Deux

Following Jack Horner's November TEDx talk in November on his basis for lumping the species of the Hell Creek formation, he spoke at the TED conference in Long Beach, California. It's got some pretty great one-liners in it - the man is a great presenter of his ideas, that's for sure. Too bad the cultural tolerance for paleontology doesn't seem to allow for too many celebrity paleontologists. It would be great to see some other men and women getting the spotlight, too.

For your viewing enjoyment:

Naturalis

I've been away in the Netherlands for the past week, and took the opportunity to visit Naturalis in Leiden, the Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum or National Natural History Museum. The museum is the result of a merger between a number of Dutch natural history museums and is certainly unique - to enter the galleries proper, one must first cross an enclosed bridge (populated by model rhinos) from the rather unassuming entrance building over a stream and main road. While the taxidermy displays are absolutely stunning (and I'll come back to those), this is Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, and you're no doubt interested in the more Mesozoic offerings as I was. Although lacking in big dinosaur mounts, it nevertheless doesn't disappoint.



The centrepiece of the museum's 'Primeval Parade' of prehistoric animals is a Camarasaurus mount in a rather unusual rearing position, the likelihood of which remains a matter of contention - which is pointed out on a nearby sign, to the museum's credit. Whether or not you agree that Camarasaurus would have been capable of rearing up in this fashion, it does make a real impression - and its closeness to skeletons and taxidermy of big mammals (extinct and extant) is a great demonstration of just how much bigger sauropods were than anything before or since. Even mid-size Camarasaurus makes the nearby mammoth mount look small. Nearby is Edmontosaurus annectens, a common sight in museums but by no means unwelcome.



Note in the photo above the Triceratops skull, which is being exhibited until July 1. Apparently it is 60% real fossil, 40% reconstruction. Again, it is to this museum's credit that one is almost always told how much of an exhibit is real, and how much of it has been reconstructed/cast; in the case of the Triceratops skull, the reconstructed portions are pretty easy to spot, but on some specimens it can be harder for us laymen/ignorant types, and this information is much appreciated. It's something I wish museums would do more often.

One of the best aspects of this museum is the ability to peer in closely at the many and varied specimens on show. None of the larger mounts are behind glass, and even those exhibits that are shielded still allow for a comfortable close inspection. Everything is also excellently presented. Particularly striking is a mounted cast of the relatively obscure pterosaur Coloborhyncus spielbergi, while I was quite taken with what I believe was a juvenile Platecarpus mosasaur (both below). The collections are diverse even if they lack giant dinosaurs; bits and pieces include a Diplodocus skull cast (as it originally appeared still partially encased in the rock matrix), Archaeopteryx and Pterodactylus casts, a dinosaur nest, and much more besides. The collection of prehistoric mammal fossils is quite extensive and very interesting in itself.



One curiosity came in the form of what looked like an old Dinamation Tyrannosaurus head and cutaway leg, on display near the café and main staircase. Mug in the second picture provided for scale.




By far the most impressive aspect of this museum, however, is the taxidermy. Rather than being housed in glass cabinets down vastly long corridors, this thoroughly modern museum has them standing on platforms that you are able to walk around and view from all angles. Naturally I was particularly taken by the display of birds as it included many of my favourite species, including the southern ground hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri - but sure, the mammals are nice too. (There's even a stuffed dog on the floor next to one of the platforms, seemingly placed there just to trick people.) In the 'Life' gallery, a series of stuffed pigeons demonstrates the flight stroke in a very inventive and visually striking way. There's also a cheetah balancing on one leg, which just looks plain cool.






In all this is a superb museum, and I thoroughly recommend a visit if you happen to visit/live in the Netherlands (which, by the way, is a superb country in itself to spend a week - although my opinions on the matter may not be entirely objective). It's a short walk from the central station in Leiden and you can expect to pay €11 for entry, which is perfectly reasonable. There's an excellent temporary exhibition on whales this year, with skeletal mounts of whales both extant and extinct and fascinating exhibits on cetacean zoology - but that's all rather drifting from the theme of the blog. Go and see for yourself!

Explaining Haplocheirus

Newly added to the Why Evolution is True Youtube channel is a video from the National Science Foundation, explaining why Haplocheirus sollers, a basal alvarezsaur from Jurassic China, was such an important discovery last year.



In addition to piles and piles of good documentaries on the varying facets of evolution, the WEIT channel also hosts the dino docs T. rex: Warrior or Wimp, What Killed the Dinosaurs, Mystery of the Jurassic, and The Four-Winged Dinosaur.

Project Dryptosaurus hosts Boneyard 2.10

Today is the first Tuesday in June, which means that the Boneyard Blog Carnival, specializing in all matters paleontological, has arrived. Taking hosting duties this time around is Gary Vecchiarelli of Project Dryptosaurus, who has accomplished his mission admirably. Check it out!

Next month, hosting will be handled by Brian Switek at Laelaps. He's decided to host with a theme of saber-toothed fauna throughout prehistory, so whip up a post along these lines or share one that you've already written.

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Return of the Dinosaurier Trading Cards!

In an April Vintage Dinosaur Art post, I featured a selection of cards from the Dinosaurier trading card set, manufactured in the early nineties by German company Altenburger Speilkarten and shared with me by reader Olliver Krone. Today, we return to the set as promised, this time to look at the sauropods.

In following with the trend we saw in the theropods in the last post, these sauropods are of a distinctly reptilian nature. This isn't to the same bizarre extent of the Velociraptor, who could double as Wally Gator if it wore a hat and tie. But each of these still has a certain lizardy character, especially in the design of their heads and the texture of their scaly hides. Though they're hard to see, the eyes seem to be of the slit pupil persuasion.

It's most evident in their Camarasaurus, which seems to have the head of a monitor lizard. Especially odd is the bump on the top of the snout. This may be a gaffe on the part of the uncredited artist, who may have thought that the enlarged nasal openings characteristic of macronarian sauropods were further forward on the head. An odd mistake for such a well-known sauropod, and it effectively makes this illustration unrecognizable as Camarasaurus.


On another famous macronarian, Brachiosaurus, the artist fared better. However, it nicely demonstrates a commonly botched aspect of sauropod anatomy: the hands. A classic post from Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology covers this in depth, and he says that when consulting on dinosaur pop-sci books, "every single artist whose work I've had to check has screwed up on these."



The same mistake Naish sees over and over again is repeated here; the hands and feet are illustrated as being basically the same. In reality, the hands and feet of sauropods were completely different. Dr. Matt Bonnan, a paleontologist with a keen interest in the hands and feet of sauropods, wrote last year on his blog Jurassic Journeys,

"...the hand of sauropods is essentially a nearly fingerless block, sometimes with one good thumb claw, made up mostly out of the five bones in the palm of the hand (the metacarpals), arranged like the columns in a Roman or Greek temple. No elephant or any other heavy vertebrate that I’d ever seen had that. And then the feet: toes with banana-shaped claws, splayed out, and flat-footed, not at all like the fore-feet (hands)."

These poor sauropods, like so many other noble failures in dinosaur books, have two pairs of hind limbs!

The other two sauropods present are famous diplodocoids, Diplodocus and Apatosaurus. Diplodocus gleefully attacks a palm tree with its snake-like gape.


Apatosaurus has a snakey look to it, too. When I saw the card, I got a little excited by what I thought was a rare desert scene. Then I saw the two apatosaurs in the background, and unless the poor beasts are half-buried in sand, this is just a typical lake-side illustration, rendered in the warm colors of sunset.



I'll come back to this collection in the future to show some of the other featured dinosaurs. The whole collection is in a set at my Flickr photostream, as well as being part of the Flickr Vintage Dinosaur Art pool. Thanks again to Olliver for sharing them with me.

Mesozoic Miscellany #33

New Research
The new issue of the Argentinian Paleontological Association's journal Ameghiana has been released, including papers on the crurotarsan Saurosuchus galilei, a reevaluation of a collection of Middle Jurassic dinosaur footprints in Santa Cruz province, and a study on abnormal dinosaur eggshells.  In addition to this, all articles from the last issue of 2010 are available freely. Click here to check 'em out.

Around the Dinoblogosphere

The May 27 episode of Sir David Attenborough's Radio 4 program Life Stories covered the history of pterosaurs. Listen here.

Dr. Phil Manning describes the process of organizing a paleontological dig at Dinosaur CSI. He writes, "Funding such excavations is not much fun. The economy is hardly booming and this impacts directly on many areas of research, especially in the UK. Last year I had to use my own savings to keep some of my field team in South Dakota. I should say, it is not uncommon for palaeontologists to dip into their own pockets to fund digs."

In his first Vintage Dinosaur Art post as an official contributor to this blog, Marc Vincent wrote about Inside Dinosaurs.

Ian Garofalo writes about the career of Stephen Czerkas at Other Branch, sharing a photo of his feathered Deinonychus. For more on Czerkas, including an earlier, non-feathery Deinonychus, also see my post from February.

Peter Bond shared a cute animated piece, Dinosaur Battle Town, at ART Evolved.

At Dinosaur Tracking, the Beehive State's newest celebrity resident Brian Switek writes about the way two paleontologists had two different ways of being wrong about live birth in sauropods.

How engaged with the science are museum visitors? Saurian discusses this issue and his own experiences as a paleontology ambassador.

Another review of March of the Dinosaurs has popped up, this time provided by Albertonykus at Raptormaniacs. Still need to catch this one - hopefully I'll get some time this weekend.

James Gurney, who writes a continually enlightening blog, has been interviewed by Dave Hone. Head to Archosaur Musings to learn about his background and his favorite prehistoric creatures.

The paleontologist students of Montana State University have returned with their blog chronicling the second of a three year field expedition to China. This week, team member Betsy talks about their dinosaur egg studies, including a fabulous specimen that may preserve a hatching window.

Yesterday I shared Maija Karala's take on Shastasaurus, but that's not the only one inspired by recent research. Check out Nobu Tamura's post about the shastasaurids at Paleoexhibit.

Twit Picks
Links I shared on twitter in the last week or so:

• PALAEOBLOG: Cretaceous Feathers From Spain
• Nice shot of NHM Opthalmosaurus!
• New Yixian scene from Edyta at Schistosome. Might be my favorite Raptorex yet.
• Andrey Atuchin's beautiful painting of a Campanian sea with the turtle Protostega
• Al Jarreau shows how it's done with "Roof Garden."
• How big was Brachiosaurus‘s forelimb?

Paleoart of the Week
May as well continue the theme, eh? In a whimsical take on those beloved marine reptiles of the Mesozoic, here's a steampunk Ichthyosaurus by Flickr user Feytech.


Outrageously Off-Topic Indulgence

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Will Ferrell from Will Ferrell

Ichthyosaur Odds and Ends

I have been a little bit obsessed with the alien creatures of the deep sea for the last week or so. I blame last week's research on the shastasaurids, a cool group of ichthyosaurs whose short snout, long bodies, and enlarged hyoids make them out to be precursors to the bodyplan of today's beaked whales.

In my post about the Shastasaurus paper, I shared my infatuation with the vision of shastasaurs diving deep to hunt bioluminescent cephalopods, and ended my post with a friendly challenge to paleoartists to make this happen. I'm happy to report that at least one has responded! Here's a take on that theme by Maija Karala, who posted it at DeviantArt.


Illustration © Maija Karala, via DeviantArt.

This little obsession has also added a stop on my future road trip that keeps getting bigger and bigger. In northeastern Nye County, Nevada is Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, where over three dozen ichthyosaurs have found their final watery resting places transformed into arid desert by the Earth's intractable geological processes. In addition to multiple skeletal remains in situ, the site boasts this enormous mural of Shonisaurus, the specific ichthyosaur discovered on the site. It's a bit outdated, as Shonisaurus is now believed not to have sported a dorsal fin, given its close affinity to Shastasaurus.


Photo by AlishaV, via Flickr.

I'd feel like a failure of a blogger if I mentioned Shonisaurus without sharing illustrator Shyama Golden's recent surreal take on it, housing what appears to be the call center of Sterling Cooper.


Illustration © Shyama Golden, via Flickr.

Finally, I'll share one more place that my deep sea imaginings have taken me: the Youtube channel of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Here's a new one posted this week, exploring the diverse forms of gelatinous dwellers of the deep. As you watch it, take a moment to think about how lucky we are to be a part of this endlessly wonderful natural world. Maybe you're having a crummy day. Maybe it will help. It helps me.

Dr. David Martill on MonsterTalk

Caulkicephalus, which, like all of its pterosaurian brethren, has been extinct for millions and millions and millions of years. By Mark Witton, via Flickr.

I've been working on a post dealing with cryptozoology for the last couple months (thankfully, it's almost done). Poking around for bits of good information on-line, I found a 2009 episode of the podcast MonsterTalk I had not heard. It features Dr. David Martill of the University of Portsmouth, who discusses what science has to say about pterosaurs and the ropen, a supposed bioluminescent pterosaur from New Guinea. Besides poking holes in the feeble hypothesis that there is a population of living pterosaurs there, or anywhere else for that matter, Martill provides a nice summary of what paleontologists know about the pterosaurs. Check it out here.