This Mesozoic Month: September 2018

Not the best month. The world watched as the National Museum of Brazil burned to the ground, destroying an incalculably valuable collection of historical, archaeological, palaeontological, and biological artifacts. Our hearts go out to all of the dedicated museum workers who scrambled to save what they could. It’s a tragedy to the global community.

In the News

• Fitting to start with new research out of Brazil, then. A new species of the sphagesaurid genus Caipirasuchus has been described from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation in southern Brazil.
• The world of the Late Cretaceous Winton Formation of Australia comes into clearer view with a new paper in PeerJ. Warm and rainy, with meandering rivers and seasonal floods.
• We’ve got a new ichthyosaur from Russia, the ophthalmosaurid Sveltonectes insolitus. Check out the paper here. OOPSIE! Paleoarxiv confused me with its submission date. This one was actually published seven whole years ago (as pointed out by Darren in the comments) and it is to my eternal shame that I had never heard of it.
• Into weirdo early birds? Well, here’s Jinguofortis perplexus for you. Read more from John Pickrell at NatGeo.
• Anchiornis. Gastric. Pellets. Anchiornis gastric pellets!
• A big ol’ bundle of juvenile spinosaurs was discovered in the Kem Kem beds. Paper here.

Around the Dinoblogosphere

• What would it mean if your most firmly held beliefs were wrong? Matt Wedel proposes a mental exercise to work those skeptic muscles for you.
• Albertonykus celebrates the two new alvarezsaurs the great gods of prehistory recently bestowed upon us.
• What’s up with Pterodactylus crests? Matt Martyniuk is here to help sort it out.
• Do you like your dinosaur books EXTREEEEME? Herman Diaz has some advice for you.
• Trish Arnold invites us all to watch the delightful stop-motion antics of Bill Maylone’s dinosaurs in his 1981 short, 64,000,000 Years Ago.
• Tag along with Victoria Arbour as she recounts her recent adventures in the field.
• Franzi Sattler interviews Femke Holwerda about the experience of working as a woman in paleontology.
• At Extinct Monsters, Ben Miller writes about Field Museum taxidermist Leon Walters and his process of using layers of cellulose acetate to make his mounts more life-like.
• The term “living fossils” is a controversial one. Writing for Extinct, Scott Lidgard and Alan Love reconsider the concept.
• Zach Miller writes about Eorynchochelys and its stem-turtle kin at Waxing Paleontological.
• At Laelaps, Brian Switek turns his eye to the mighty masters of the Mesozoic seas, and what their teeth tell about niche partitioning.
• Lisa Buckley has moved her blog to a new home. Update your feed reader! And read her post on the Museo Nacional fire and the sadly common state of underfunded museums.
• Can you spare a moment to consider Achillobator? David Prus makes his case for the oft-overlooked dromie.

Dispatches from Himmapaanland

In addition to the saurian fare we thirst for so, our Natee delighted us by taking part in a 1″ x 1″ illustration challenge this month – a challenge suited for them if ever there was one.

This 1 inch square ink heron is part of Changeling Artist Collective's 'Small Things' auction for this month. Bidding has started at $40. Please take a look at all the other artists' gems on offer, too! https://t.co/VntXCa5caj pic.twitter.com/U0kfWAUbWU

— Natee 'Misery made me a fiend' (@Himmapaan) September 24, 2018

If my P. longiceps was called 'Shogun', I shall call this P. sternbergi, 'Mikado'. pic.twitter.com/29OXhwEdXy

— Natee 'Misery made me a fiend' (@Himmapaan) September 20, 2018

Hypsilophodon walks are seldom, if ever, beset by squirrel pursuits.

I may work this up in colour one day (half a century later, if we're lucky). pic.twitter.com/zn0dF9sKPh

— Natee 'Misery made me a fiend' (@Himmapaan) September 4, 2018

The LITC AV Club

Head over to the CBC website for a video of our beloved Zuul‘s rocky sarcophagus being flipped over.

Palaeocast takes us to the Bay of Fundy to visit the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a Carboniferous site.

Benjamin Burger talks about the Ornithoscelida hypothesis.

Crowdfunding Spotlight

Help Beth Windle safely transport her amazing plastic pollution cake to TetZooCon! She needs to raise a bit of money for first class train tickets, and you can pitch in at GoFundMe.

Dr. Jacquelyn Gill had a health crisis while in Siberia working on a documentary. Pitch in to her GoFundMe here!

The Empty Wallets Club

• If you’re into dinosaurs of a more abstract nature, check out the cool low-poly artwork of Tash Hatcher. She’s got a variety of sweet products available at her Hatchling Makes website.
• Don’t eat meat? Still a badass? Chris DiPiazza’s “Deadly Herbivore” tee may be just the shirt for you. Buy it at his shop!

Your Moment of Paleoart Zen

The dynamic pose of this Bambiraptor as it leaps for an airborne snack grabbed my attention immediately when Stephanie Dziezyk shared it in the FB Paleoartists group recently.

Awesome work, Stephanie. And it’s available as a print in her shop! Follow her on Twitter and DeviantArt, check out her portfolio site, and pledge to support her work at Patreon.