Who would sit at paleontology's last supper?

Image by Nick Farrantello, via Rational Crank.

This parody image has been making the rounds lately. It's the work of Nick Farrantello, who posted it on his blog Rational Crank. On Facebook, I jokingly asked where Dr. Thomas Holtz was. Of course, he didn't think he deserved a spot, but let's face it: we'd like to see some paleontologists at the table. So let's put it up for debate: what paleontologists would we set at a Paleontology Last Supper? This needn't be limited to dinosaur paleontology, or even vertebrate paleontology. We've got thirteen spots to fill with the people who have given us the most insight into the lost worlds of the past. Who should sit at them?

Reminder: ART Evolved Gallery Deadline

Just a super-fast reminder that ART Evolved returns with a new gallery for February. The theme this time around is a real winner: Feathered Dinosaurs. There's sure to be a bumper crop of good work to share, so even if you're not the dinosaur-drawing type, keep your eyes peeled for the gallery's posting.

Artists, submit your work to artevolved(at)gmail(dot)com by February 1 for inclusion.

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Yet More Dinosaurs!

Today we'll be revisiting the wonderful early '90s world of Dinosaurs! magazine (do check out my first and second posts on it if you haven't already - for background if nothing else). Once again, I have primarily opted for the quirky and/or historically interesting, and it's for the latter reason I present...a FEATHERED DROMAEOSAUR!?!

Unsurprisingly, this (at the time) startling image appeared in the penultimate issue of the magazine (103) in 1995. Sculpted by Ulrich Zeidler and Susanne Henssen, this model was inspired by a Greg Paul illustration that outrageously depicted Velociraptor with feathers, instead of the super-cool Jurassic Park version that was obviously way cooler and better and badass and this just looks like a chicken and and *throws toys out of pram*.

Of course, this Velociraptor looks decidedly under-feathered these days, lacking the 'wings' that it should possess. Back in 1995, however, this model blew my mind. I wasn't persuaded by the idea of feathered dromaeosaurs back then (being a Jurassic Park-loving child and all), but I thought its highly realistic appearance was very cool. And I still do. It's a remarkable and prescient achievement for the time.

At the end of the article, the anonymous author commented

"If only we could go back in time! Then we could see if Velociraptor were a feathery beast like this model, or the scaly brute of Jurassic Park."

Fortunately there was no need for time travel in the end (or indeed cloning based on DNA fragments). And that's why palaeontology is awesome.

Such was the nature of Dinosaurs! magazine that, in the same issue as the wonderful Zeidler/Henssen model appeared, we were also treated to the following abomination.

Shudder. This giant-headed freak was lucky to avoid the Terrible '90s Dromaeosaur Face-Off...

Returning to art that was ahead of its time, Dinosaurs! had to be one of the first publications anywhere to feature restorations of the strange crested theropod Cryolophosaurus. Formally described in 1994, Dinosaurs! first featured an illustration of it that very same year.

It might only be a head, but you can't fault their rapid response to a new discovery - surely beyond the call of duty for a kids' magazine. Equally, while the crest may be a little off, the shape of the head is close to more modern restorations as opposed to the 'allosaur' look that prevailed for a while. The illustration used when the animal was profiled (in issue 101 (1995)) does depict a more allosaur-like head, but also - remarkably - correctly-orientated forelimbs, rather than the 'bunny hands' look that was still prevalent at the time. While this magazine's art might have been of a wildly varying standard, the creator of this piece - James Robins - certainly knew what he was doing. Only the scale diagram brings the strangeness on this page.

Regular readers will remember my featuring a book entitled If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today last year, which was a glorious cavalcade of Photoshop failures featuring ugly, ugly dinosaurs (and plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs). In its later issues, Dinosaurs! magazine had a pop at very similar 'what if' themes, but - in an age before photo manipulation became easy and cheap - actually hired illustrators to produce images based on their unlikely scenarios, and therefore did a much better job. In 1994.

Here, for example, is an illustration from an article looking at how nonavian dinosaurs might be domesticated and put to work if they lived with us today, in which a policeman (probably from the Met) is struggling to prevent a slavering Deinonychus from brutally murdering a 1980s-style genero-crim. Something worth noting: at the end of this article, the author admits that it's actually incredibly unlikely that a nonavian dinosaur would have sufficient brainpower to be trained like this, thereby essentially admiting that the whole thing's an excuse to print awesome illustrations of policemen restraining their pet raptors.

Speaking of dinosaurs as pets, Dinosaurs! tried that one too. Here we see a girl playing with her 'cuddly' Compsognathus, while one of them raids the goldfish bowl.

In its 92nd issue, Dinosaurs! posed an important question - could (nonavian) dinosaurs survive today? This resulted in the only illustration I've ever seen of a giant tyrannosaur facing off against a rhinoceros. I only wish they'd drawn it cowardly running away as described in the text.

Previously, I mentioned that on one occasion 'Dr David Norman of Cambridge University' (for it was he) answered a rather amusing question in his 'Ask the Expert' column - namely, who the victor would be in a fight between Tyrannosaurus and Smilodon. Happily, I've found the issue in which it appeared.

I also found the issue in which he said this:

...Well, neither did a lot of people in 1994.

And finally (until next time), here's a Tylosaurus with a good ol' sea monster fin lunging at some pterosaurs. Enjoy.

My letter to the State Senators of Indiana

Today, I have emailed every State Senator in Indiana, including my own Senator Vi Simpson, a democrat serving us in Bloomington. On Monday, SB 89 will be on the agenda. Here is what I wrote.

As a concerned, life-long citizen of Indiana, I am driven to write to you today to express my opposition to SB 89, which provides "that the governing body of a school corporation may require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science, within the school corporation."

One of the defining qualities of our country is the separation of church and state. The founding of the United States of America was largely rooted in the intellectual revolution of the Enlightenment; modern science is as well. When properly put to use, our government and science both provide a common ground from which people with dramatically different beliefs can coexist, participate in a common society, and communicate effectively for the betterment of all.

This is a precious thing. It is threatened by SB 89. We gain our values from the traditions we were raised in, and those we've explored as we've grown. Living in a country like the United States allows this flexibility. We can test our ideas against those of our fellow citizens. Bills like this are often couched in language which espouses "freedom of choice." And I do believe that we all are free to choose what we believe. But we also have a duty to change our minds in the face of new evidence.

The evidence is firmly in favor, for example, of evolution as a means of explaining the incredible diversity of life on Earth (a fine starting point for this is provided by the National Center for Science Education's evolution page located at http://ncse.com/evolution). The vast majority of the scientific community recognizes this, though it will always be possible to find a minority who disagree, for whatever their reasons. These reasons needn't be because of religious dogma; it's well beyond the ability of scientists to be experts in all fields of science. Of course, SB 89 pertains to the "origin of life," which is quite a different topic than evolution. It is an open question in science. But it is not one that is beyond its purview, and as knowledge progresses, I for one think it is likely that a purely natural theory of abiogenesis, as strongly supported as evolution, will be reached in my lifetime. To invoke a supernatural creator, as creationism, creation "science," and intelligent design do is the opposite of science. It is to quit in the face of a difficult challenge. It is, in my opinion, un-American.

The traditions of the religions of the world, the multitude of creation stories devised by humans, is a fascinating topic worthy of exploration in an educational setting, though I doubt it's one for the K-12 curriculum. But as the espousing of one religion's views is far beyond the purview of the United States government, no creation stories belong in our classrooms as a counterpoint to scientific hypotheses on the origin of life. I believe that allowing the teaching of material that is firmly religious in nature in our schools erodes the integrity of our country, and I cannot stay silent when this is proposed for the state I'm proud to call my home, a state built by fields of science including biology, chemistry, geology, and physics which have provided the knowledge to power its industries.



I appreciate your patience as I take this little detour into the broader topic of science education. And I sincerely thank everyone who has been so kind as to link to our posts and spread the word otherwise. Feel free to distribute this as you wish as well, and of course any fellow Hoosiers can use my set of graphics opposing SB 89, shared via Flickr. For more, also check out Reba Boyd Wooden's blog post for the Center of Inquiry for Indiana.

A bit of levity

A child's drawing of Chasmosaurus, shred on flicker by Kurt Best. Love the description: "Chasmosaurus was a rhinocerosish dinosaur."

Mesozoic Miscellany 50

I feel like I've been running at waaaaaay too many revolutions per minute for the last week, so what better way to relax a bit than to share some of the excellent work my fellow dinosaur bloggers have been doing? Maybe indulge in a bit of inspiring dinosaur art while we're at it? The fiftieth edition of our occasional roundup series is here, so pour the tea, light the stogies, put on a bit of Kenny G, and slip into your Forever Lazy. It's chill time.

The prize for coolest paleo story since the last coolest paleo story has to go to the discovery of a Massospondylus nesting site in Africa. In a long in the works paper released online prior to publication by PNAS, a team from the Royal Ontario Museum has described discovery. It's a real one-two punch for the sauropodomorphs after Heinrich Mallison's great paper about bipedal Plateosaurus, covered recently here in a terrific post by Marc. Check out a terrific Julius Csotonyi painting from 2010 about the site at his site. Also covered by Dinosaur Tracking, Palaeoblog, and Chinleana.

Dave Hone on big-ass carnivore battles: "Who cares?"

At Green Tea and Velociraptors, Jon Tennant tackles that perpetually thorny issue: What makes a fossil species?

Stephen Fry has returned to the Mesozoic, lending his vocal talents to a new iPad dinosaur Encyclopedia. Switek has the skinny at Dinosaur Tracking.

I love the stuff Raven Amos has been doing, and yesterday she shared a wonderful Pachyrhinosaurus with booty-quills.

For the serious sauropod nerds out there, Mike Taylor has a puzzler for you: Can you identify these sauropod cervical vertabrae?

Terrific Rubeosaurus by Andrey Atuchin. Go look!

Scott Hartman has shared his thoughts on Eoraptor, with a new skeletal diagram to book. Check it out at the Skeletal Drawing blog.

I was unable to join the good folks at ScienceOnline in North Carolina this year, but Andy Farke was, and he's got some cogent thoughts on the whole affair. Check out his summary thoughts at this post at The Open Source Paleontologist, which includes links to his daily reports.

Newt Gingrich, armchair paleontologist. At DinoGoss, Matt Martyniuk shares his perspective on a debate between Jack Horner and Gingrich, on the topic of whether T. rex was a scavenger.

DeviantArt remains an excellent source of dinosaur art, and a prime example of just how freaking lucky we are to live at this moment in time, when access to the science of paleontology is better than ever and the means to share one's artwork is so readily available. My newest discovery on DeviantArt is Julio Lacerda (H/T to Albertonykus for the introduction), whose portrait of a Gorgosaurus pair in the snow I shared on Twitter this week. Once again, superlatives fail me.

Illustration by Julio Lacerda, via DeviantArt.

I'm still overwhelmed by the amount of artists on DeviantArt, and find the interface less than optimal, so please don't hesitate to share your own favorite artists in the comments, so I can add them to my watch list.

Finally, one last bit of shameless self-promotion: I've been adding items to my Cafepress shop this week, as you may have seen in my Wednesday post. Besides the LITC design, I've added a line of "I Left My Heart in (geological period)" t-shirts. Four geological periods are represented, with more to come. If you do happen to buy one of my shirts, send me a photo of yourself wearing it and I'll post it here! It just so happens that I've been cranking out dinosaur themed designs and Jennie and I have been trying to get some traction with our Etsy shop, so you can expect more cool stuff to be shared here in the coming months.

Indiana's new state flag

UPDATED! Tweaked my first design, added a second.

UPDATED AGAIN! Using this as a landing page for my efforts to spread the word, so added context.

I've designed two posters to help fight creationism in Indiana schools, after our state senate's "Committee on Education and Career Development" voted to let Senate Bill 89 through (Marc and I have already posted twice about the issue). Forgive the intrusion of this issue here. It's much broader in scope than our usual subject matter here, but I think I speak for both Marc and myself when I say that the reason we write about dinosaurs is that we're passionate about science, reason, and the educated appreciation of nature. So not to use this platform would be wrong. If this doesn't interest you, feel free to disregard it; we'll not be turning this into an Evolution Vs. Creationism blog, and all things saurian will continue to rule here. Anyhow.

The first poster is a play on our state flag - in case you're not familiar with it, there's supposed to be a flame on that torch.



The second is a cheeky travel poster. I flipped the state upside down. How clever!


These are web versions, but I've got them ready to go at 300dpi, 11" x 17" in TIF or PSD. Available at request. Please share to your heart's content.

I feel really crummy that this has gotten this far. I've been so swamped with school, work, and family life that I haven't really stayed abreast of the issue, except to read NCSE's updates and RT them. I doubt I have the eloquence or poise to make a convincing argument to any elected official. Or a fellow citizen, for that matter. But luckily it's not all in my hands. NCSE reports that these fine people have spoken up for our childrens' education:

John Staver, professor of chemistry and science education at Purdue University; Chuck Little, executive director of the Indiana Urban Schools Association; David Sklar, the Director of Government Relations for the Jewish Community Relations Council; the Reverend Charles Allen, a chaplain for Grace Unlimited, a campus ministry in the Indianapolis area; and Reba Boyd Wooden, executive director of the Indiana Center for Inquiry.

I admit to a feeling of despair that their words didn't persuade the seven Republicans and one Democrat who voted this through the so-called "Committee on Education and Career Development" in the State Senate.

But that's as far as it's going. SCIENCE THROWDOWN. For more, please do keep up with the National Center for Science Education, who does excellent work to protect our intellectual future.

Hey, Indiana - REALLY?

David's already made his anger quite clear, but I wanted a word too, and it wouldn't fit in a comment I'm afraid...

This is a sad day, and I really hope this rapidly evolving religious fundamentalist contagion doesn't spread to other states (see what I did there?), and doesn't pass in the state senate. Perhaps the worst thing about creationism is that, when compared with reality, it's just so bloody boring. Apart from the fact that the notion of a 'divine creator' raises more questions than it answers (and renders invalid pretty much all science ever), the real truth about the history of life on Earth - its constant struggles, the ever-spiralling complexity from simple forms, the beauty of evolution through deep time - is far more glorious than some ancient myth.

Emu skeleton. By Sklmsta, via Wikipedia.

In case you haven't noticed, this blog is about dinosaurs, and they are the perfect ambassadors for the teaching of the truth of evolution - through their pop culture popularity and their living descendants. Avian dinosaurs, with their huge suite of inherited theropod features, and a whole other load of glorious derived adaptations, are one of the most fantastic and evocative examples of evolution over millions of years. Next to that, 'God did it' just doesn't cut it, I'm afraid.

Of course, as a Britisher, I could have a good snooty chuckle and point out how our education secretary recently outlawed the teaching of creationism in science classes in the new-fangled 'free schools'. However, I won't for various reasons - not only because I would sound like a dick, but because we have an established church and a bleedin' monarchy ferchrissakes, so we don't really have a leg to stand on when it comes to rationality and enlightenment and all that noise.

In fact, I've always admired the United States for lacking those things, and for its separation of church and state, enshrined in the constitution. Remember this, and don't let them get away with it. For as David says, "creationism is bullshit".

Indiana's new state motto

I've got a new state motto for the good ol' Hoosier state, which I've called home since I was born.

Seems about right. Seriously.

I am an Indiana citizen, and Creationism is bullshit.

I left my heart in the Jurassic!

Shameless capitalism in t-minus 3... 2... 1...

I just uploaded a new line of paleontology tees to my on-line shop, so you can head over there to check 'em out. At the moment, I just have them in white, but I'll be adding designs for black shirts really soon. I pretty much just designed shirts that I'd like to wear, proclaiming my desperate and irrational desire to travel to an ancient era of Earth's history. Here's the (so far, only) Mesozoic representative, based on a Josef Smit illustration of Stegosaurus.



There's a mastodon, dimetrodon, and trilobite available as well. Sorry to interrupt your blog reading with this advertisement. Now back to regular scheduled programming.