Tetrapod Zoology

The best conference ever

Posted by Darren Naish on September 3, 2007
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i-0d18b04a5f76cd14bd2bb463146799a5-SVPCA Hone comp.jpg

I’m back, and thanks to all readers for still checking on the blog even while I was away (I can tell all this from the visitor stats). I returned yesterday from the best conference ever: more info forthcoming, but not yet as I’m still in conference season, with the pterosaur meeting now only a week away. This meeting (the 55th SVPCA) was held in Glasgow; it was excellent to meet lots of people for the first time, and in particular I enjoyed meeting Dave Hone, Steve Wroe, Steve Brusatte, Neffra Matthews, Brent Breithaupt, Neil Clark, Julia Heathcote (The Ethical Palaeontologist now finally added to the Tet Zoo blogroll: sorry for the delay Julia), Nizar Ibrahim, Roger Benson and others. Think a totally revised taxonomy of metriorhynchids, tons of new plesiosaur stuff, notosuchian dentition, new English tyrannosauroids, euhelopodids revisited, dwarf hippos and their brains, and tons more…


I didn’t take any particularly good or amusing photos at the meeting (the best photos were taken by others and I have yet to see them), so above are a couple of random things I threw together. The main image is me (with many extra chins, on the right) and Dave Hone (aww, look at his cheeky little face). Marc Jones and part of Paul Barrett make it in at the left of the photo (we’re on the Glasgow underground). The excellent 3-D Cryptoclidus from the Hunterian Museum is at top right, and on the left is the giant anteater skeleton at the University of Glasgow’s Zoology Department. There weren’t any anteater talks, for shame, but I have to use the picture just because it’s so neat. Anyway, thanks for bearing with me while Tet Zoo remains ‘ticking over’. And I really need to get my pterosaur talk ready, yikes….

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Comments

  1. #1 Dave Hone
    September 3, 2007

    Cheeky little face! Certain elements of Pots and Kettles there Darren!

  2. #2 Mike
    September 3, 2007

    Glad to hear you had a good conference. Even though just something you threw together, that anteater skeleton was worth posting on its own. Very alien looking it is. And the shoulder blades, even to my anatomically naive eye show signs of supporting quite awe-inspiring muscles.

  3. #3 Mike
    September 3, 2007

    Glad to hear you had a good conference. Even though just something you threw together, that anteater skeleton was worth posting on its own. Very alien looking it is. And the shoulder blades, even to my anatomically naive eye show signs of supporting quite awe-inspiring muscles.

  4. #4 Sordes
    September 3, 2007

    Skulls of giant anteaters look always cool, it remembers me also once again at the predator.

  5. #5 David Marjanovi?
    September 3, 2007

    What does a plesiosaur do with such tall neural spines? ~:-|

    [from Darren: that's an optical illusion - those are the ribs from the right side. The neural spines are pretty short, as you'd expect.]

    it remembers me also once again at the predator.

    It reminds you of what predator?

  6. #6 Nathan Myers
    September 3, 2007

    Anteater walks into a bar. Bartender asks, “Hey buddy, why the long face?”

    [from Darren: last time I heard that joke, it was Celine Dion who walked into the bar.]

  7. #7 Mike
    September 3, 2007

    Anteater walks into a bar wearing a Celine Dion mask. Bartender says ‘Why the long face?’

  8. #8 David Marjanovi?
    September 3, 2007

    Oh yeah. Now I can see it…

  9. #9 Alan Kellogg
    September 3, 2007

    Anteater walks into a bar wearing a Celine Dion mask. Bartender says “Why the long face?”

    “Because I’m being worn by an anteater, you idiot!” replies Celine Dion’s mask.

  10. #10 Sordes
    September 4, 2007

    I was talking about the “predator” from the same-titled 1987 sci-fi/horror/action-movie. This guy wears some kind of trophy chain with several strange skulls, among them the skull of a platypus and a giant anteater…wow, what a glorious hunter!

  11. #11 Marcel Opitz
    September 4, 2007

    Yeah! New Posts! Welcome back! :-)
    I have to admit: I first thougt that the anteater is some kind of ancient elephant.. shame on me..
    Can’t wait to hear something about the Euhelopodids Revision! :-)

    Best wishes

    Marcel

  12. #12 John Hopkin
    September 6, 2007

    Great to see another post, Darren. And yes, that anteater is simply spooky-looking – like something off the cover of a sci-fi book.

  13. #13 DDeden
    September 12, 2007

    Two anteaters are at the end of the bar french-kissing…eww sorry.

    I actually guessed right surprisingly on the anteater (thanks to the knucklewalking). Very interested in the dwarf hippos and their brains, I just read a bit about them, wondering how they compare to stegodons on Flores and mammoths on Wrangels & Cal. Channel islands.

  14. #14 Sarda Sahney
    September 20, 2007

    Glad you enjoyed the conference. I am dissapointed I missed it and I will be missing PALASS this year too! Oh well, next year!

  15. #15 Darren Naish
    September 26, 2007

    Make sure you come to the next SVPCA Sarda – it’s being held in Dublin. I’ll see you there then :)

  16. #16 Graham King
    January 28, 2008

    I remember one of my fave times in Zoology course at St Andrews was display of assorted skulls unlabelled, we students were to attempt conclusions on lifestyle – diet, main sense relied on, etc – and maybe identification.

    The anteater (a small one) was there. No eyesockets, no jaw to speak of… just a tapered tube – very weird. Not what the person-in-the-street would glance at and instantly think ‘skull’.
    Dolphins are a surprise too, since all that familiar domed forehead is soft tissue, and the bare skull is very toothy and concave on top instead – no suggestion of a cheerful smily dolphin face.

    Fortunately I’m a bone admirer with a particular taste for novelties so knew a bit better than my classmates what to expect.

    Hippo teeth grow so far round into the skull… !
    And babirusas… whuh?