How about a little more from the world of palaeontological philatelelely? Last time, we took a look at stamps from various countries including the UK, Poland, Cuba, and China, with the promise of more to come, because “we haven’t even talked about Tanzania yet.” Best get right to that, then. Although they date from 1988 and 1991, the artwork on these stamps borrows from(/outright copies) much earlier palaeoart, most obviously Burian. Most stamps simply name the animal, but the lovely…
Here’s part two of our tentative exploration into the early 2000s with the World Atlas of Dinosaurs. Lots of Todd Marshall and Luis Rey to discover, but also I will tell you the real reason I couldn’t resist this book when I found it. Without further ado: Here’s one half of a Tendaguru spread by Todd Marshall. It depicts ceratosaurs in a bout of speculative intraspecific combat. The animals themselves are entirely speculative; the only ceratosaur material from Tanzania is…
Another day, another dinosaur book that is too bloody big for my scanner. Written by the ever-prolific Mike Benton and published in 1989, On The Trail Of The Dinosaurs is one in a series of three books on palaeontology and prehistoric life. There’s also separate volumes on palaeozoic and cenozoic animals. What makes this one of interest to us is that, in the life reconstructions, we recognize the steady hand of perennial LITC darling Graham Rosewarne. We mostly know Rosewarne…
Funny story, this one. As a science educator, I visit primary schools all over the country, and I often can’t resist scanning their school libraries for dinosaur books. Most of the time, I run into these awful late-2000’s stock-CGI schlockfests, but last week, I hit paydirt. A beautifully illustrated German-made children’s book from the late 80s, well-worn by the tough love of so many children’s hands. As one of the teachers saw me gushing, she actually offered to give the…
I’ve been having a pretty crazy summer, so when a dear friend of mine offered to take me to Dierenpark Amersfoort, a lovely, lush, forested zoo in the town of the same name, I jumped at the chance. Within the zoo is a bit of forest dedicated to dinosaurs: Marc visited for the first time in 2011, and I’ve been a few times as well. I was wondering if anything had changed and how the pandemic measures would affect my…
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)…
Welcome to the sixth annual Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs holiday gift guide! This is always a lot of fun to put together, a true labor of love. As ever, we choose books, art, clothing, and other items that strike our fancy, feature copious independent artists and creators, and never take any money or other considerations in exchange for inclusion in the guide. So now that you feel warm and fuzzy about this whole enterprise, we shall commence. Books…
Never judge a dinosaur book by its cover. The first edition of Naish and Barrett’s Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, back in 2016, had an eye-wateringly dreadful example of NHM (London) stock image muck on its cover, but the book itself was excellent, as I noted at the time. While the art on The Day of the Dinosaur‘s dust jacket isn’t bad in itself – it’s the Age of Reptiles mural, for crying out loud – it also does…
November! You came and went so fast, it seemed. But you brought us much to chew on, and for that we’re thankful. It’s your eleventh This Mesozoic Month of 2018, and it is stuffed to the max. In the News The passing of Ralph Chapman hit the community hard this month. Our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. Another big, charismatic dinosaur is up for auction [PDF link], and as ever, these companies try to make it look all…
Several years ago at LITC 1.0, I put up a post poking fun at the past-time of imagining prehistoric animals in one-on-one, Mortal Kombat style battles. I let my imagination fly and came up with my own wishlist of ludicrous match-ups: A hundred Mononykus vs. Carcharodontosaurus: They’d swarm the big brute and crawl into all sorts of uncomfortable places. Four strategically-placed Incisivosaurus vs. Giraffatitan: Two words: beaver style. Citipati vs. Gigantoraptor: I see the little dude running circles around Giganto…
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Chasmosaurus belli silhouette in custom bulleted list by Scott D. Sampson, Mark A. Loewen, Andrew A. Farke, Eric M. Roberts, Catherine A. Forster, Joshua A. Smith, and Alan L. Titus, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sourced from PhyloPic.