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May 2020

Two Rhomaleosaurus swim in the ocean, illustrated by Anthony James Hutchings.

This Mesozoic Month: May 2020

This Mesozoic Month

Yer boy David here, returning with another look back at the current month in Mesozoic paleontology. Pandemic or no, each month I look for a selection of interesting research and news stories, posts from the shrinking-but-still-kicking blogosphere, videos, and a piece of paleoart that grabbed my attention. And, of course, I gleefully shine a spotlight on our own Natee’s current palaeoartistic efforts. Thanks so much for reading each month! In the News Let’s just get this depressing news out of…

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Vintage Dinosaur Art: The Great Dinosaur Atlas – Part 3

Vintage Dinosaur Art

Right, it’s time for one last round of The Great Dinosaur Atlas (see part 1 and part 2), the greatest book that John Sibbick ever illustrated by proxy. Again, I must apologise for using (dodgy) photographs rather than scans, but the book is so Great that squeezing it under my scanner is an issue. At least we’re able to fully appreciate such double-page spreads as… …this stegosaur page, featuring the skeleton of Toujiangosaurus as it is mounted (as a cast)…

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Interview: Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong

Interview

If you’re a dinosaur fan on social media, you might have stumbled upon Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong, a long-running, brilliant educational YouTube series in which dinosaur enthousiast Steven Bellettini reviews toy dinosaurs and judges their scientific accuracy. One of the real joys of watching the show is seeing Steven’s animations, in which the toy dinosaur gradually transforms into a much more scientifically informed version of itself. After a long hiatus, during which the longtime home of the show, the National…

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Vintage Dinosaur Art: The Great Dinosaur Atlas – Part 2

Vintage Dinosaur Art

As discussed in the previous post, the artist most frequently referenced by Giuliano Fornari in illustrating The Great Dinosaur Atlas was John Sibbick. Specifically, art from the Normanpedia was often quite slavishly copied, right down to particular colour choices. As such, when Fornari shifts gears and opts to, er, pay tribute to the work of other palaeoartists with wildly contrasting styles, the effect is very jarring. Sibbick’s Normanpedia work, while beautifully executed and hugely influential, was also a little retrograde…

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