This Mesozoic Month: July 2018

And there goes July of 2018. Some good fun with sauropods and ankylosaurs this month, friends! Let’s dive in.

In the News

• Only one more day to get in those submissions for the “Picturing the Past” paleoart exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science! Instructions here; check out my post here at LITC for a quick read.
• We’ve got a beautiful new Laramidian ankylosaurid to check out: Akainacephalus johnsoni. The paper, published in PeerJ, describes a bumpy-faced ankylosaur more closely related to Asian taxa than northern Laramidian species like Ankylosaurus. Read more at PhysOrg, the NHMU blog, and from Fernanda Castano at Letters from Gondwana.
• A massive new lessemsaurid sauropodomorph, Ingentia prima, has been described in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Read more from Letters from Gondwana, Gemma Tarlach at Dead Things and Amina Khan at the LA Times.
• More sauropod news: meet Lingwulong shengqi, a dicraeosaurid that is also the first Asian diplodocoid, published this month in Nature Communications. Read more from Michael Greshko at NatGeo, Jessica Boddy at Gizmodo, and Justin Tweet at Equatorial Minnesota.
• As you sit and ponder the life appearance of non-avian dinosaurs, don’t neglect the tongue. Brian Switek writes about new research examining the hyoid bone across the dinosauria and what it means for their tongues.
• It’s always a treat to see new Burmese amber discoveries. The latest published is a wee lil’ snake from the Cenomanian.

Around the Dinoblogosphere

• Brian Switek writes about dromaeosaurid trackways at Laelaps.
• Maija Karala has been writing a series on coloration in dinosaurs, with the most recent post dealing with what colors are plausible in different ecological contexts. Also check out the first two posts in the series here and here.
• Dinosaurus! is in the crosshairs in David Prus’s latest dinosaur movie review.
• At Rex Machina, Nick Schofield continues a recent spinosaur series with a post on a partial tibia found in Brazil.
• The titanosaurs have been the subject of a new series at Equatorial Minnesota. Check out the first post and the second, on Aeolosaurus.
• Speaking of sauropods, Matt Wedel celebrates a beautiful pile o’ camarasaur bones at SV-POW. In another SV-POW post, Matt recounts a field trip to Utah and a visit to the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, CO.
• Darren takes us behind the scenes of Dinosaurs in the Wild at TetZoo.

Dispatches from Himmapaanland

A mix of fancy ladies, whimsical absurdities, and glorious extinct and extant wildlife: our Natee never disappoints! Be sure to follow their Twitter, Instagram, and WordPress sites. Buy them a cup of coffee, too!

Yokohama pair. Watercolour, approx. 210 x 135 mm. pic.twitter.com/bdRaYMMyiP

— Natee: In pieces (@Himmapaan) July 11, 2018

A Tricerasquid. Mea culpa. https://t.co/G5jzbGUYir pic.twitter.com/ECulxGcwCZ

— Natee regrets (@Himmapaan) July 25, 2018

Still giving side-eye. TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME, EUOPLOCEPHALUS. I'm not growing fonder of you at all. >:{ pic.twitter.com/dCCjhBsRpT

— Natee regrets (@Himmapaan) July 24, 2018

The LITC AV Club

Watch Máximo, the Field Museum’s Patagotitan mount, come to life, bone by bone.

Crowdfunding Spotlight

You can help make Jamale Ijouiher’s textbook on Mesozoic Africa a reality via this GoFundMe campaign. Money raised for Jamale’s text, entitled The Old Kingdom – the Palaeontology & Palaeoecology of Cenomanian North Africa will go to pay for artwork commissioned for the text.

The Empty Wallets Club

• How about an Archaeopteryx from Rebecca Groom? You can buy it in the Palaeoplushies store. She’s also made an adorable Anurognathus but I bet it’ll be sold out between the time I’m writing this and when I post it!
• Sharon Wegner-Larsen has created new versions of her awesome Geo-Rex Vortex and Triceratops Rocks designs, available at Redbubble. They look great!

Your Moment of Paleoart Zen

Rebecca Dart, a comic artist, animator, and art director from Vancouver, BC, has been posting some splendid paleoart lately. Here’s her dynamic scene of Carnotaurus chasing down Anibesetia.

Follow Rebecca at Instagram and Twitter!