And just like that, 2019 is done. Let’s look back on what this last month brought us from the Mesozoic, shall we? From the entire LITC crew, here’s to a fantastic 2020. In the News The first Cretaceous dinosaur fossils ever discovered in Ecuador belonged to a newly described saltasaurid, Yamanasaurus lotaensis. Tralkasaurus cuyi is a brand-spanking-new abelisaurid from late Cretaceous Argentina. New Zealand has a new pterosaur, the lonchodectid Parirau ataroa (Note to self, remember to avoid biorxiv in…
December 2019
Vintage Dinosaur Art: The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure – Part 2
Vintage Dinosaur Art December 29, 2019Today we’re back following the Dollybutt Children and their great uncle Lancelot as they journey through the Age of Dinosaurs, meeting some unusual critters along the way, as written down by Gerald Durrell and illustrated by Graham Percy. Part one is here. We’ve arrived in the Jurassic now, which means… Sauropods! Diplodocus are a case where the simplified, “broad strokes” approach to dinosaur depiction works reasonably well. After all, what is a sauropod but an animal that is skinny on…
In my first post on this book, I exclusively looked at model dinosaurs, most of which were created by Arthur Hayward. (This is Vintage Dinosaur Art, after all.) However, ignoring the many, many models of other prehistoric animals would be doing the book a great disservice, especially because – surprise – Hayward sculpted rather a lot of them too. He even turned his hand to the odd giant ocean-going arthropod, as shown below… Yes, it’s Pterygotus, a “particularly cruel-looking” (in…
Vintage Dinosaur Art: The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure – Part 1
Vintage Dinosaur Art December 21, 2019Merry Christmas to you all! For the festive season, I decided to treat myself, as well as all of you fine, fine readers, to a very nostalgic book for me. I loved this book as a kid. In primary school I did a presentation on it. I never owned it, however, until now. So grab a hot cocoa as we take a trip down memory lane, and review some vintage dinosaur illustrations along the way. The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure is…
An Open Letter from Paleoartists to the Paleontological Community on the Subject of Fossil Measurements
Uncategorized December 11, 2019Dear paleontologists, Please FOR THE LOVE OF THE ELDER GODS provide measurements for the fossils you publish. P.S. How did this not sink in 10 years ago? P.P.S. Post inspired by Gabriel Ugueto’s anguished tweet this morning.…
I’m really not sure how this one managed to evade my attention for so long, but here it is, finally – Prehistoric Animals: The Extraordinary Story of Life before Man, written by Ellis Owen and published by Octopus in 1975. It’s unusual in that the palaeoart within it consists almost entirely of photographs of models, many of them created by the renowned Arthur Hayward, who worked not only for the Natural History Museum in London (then the British Museum (Natural…
Here’s part two of my big review of Naturalis Biodivesity Center, the new natural history museum in Leiden! Part one is here. Last time, we visited the stuffed animals of the Life hall and admired the mounted skeleton of Trix and other dinosaurs. I promised you I’d give you a rundown of the rest of the museum as well. This will be a dinosaur-light post, but there’s still a good few palaeontological subjects to cover. EARTH “Earth” is a deceptively…
This is the first of an occasional series of “golden oldies” posts from LITC 1.0. From time to time, we’ll share beloved pieces from the first home for LITC, with small edits and updates. Niels’ recent posts featuring public dinosaur sculptures brought this one to mind. Enjoy! It’s not what I’d call a centerpiece of the city’s public art, but Bryan Park in Bloomington, Indiana does boast a “dinosaur” sculpture of its very own. And since it’s my own hometown,…