With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
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....
Comments
Cheeky little face! Certain elements of Pots and Kettles there Darren!
Posted by: Dave Hone | September 3, 2007 12:20 PM
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.
Posted by: Mike | September 3, 2007 2:41 PM
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.
Posted by: Mike | September 3, 2007 2:44 PM
Skulls of giant anteaters look always cool, it remembers me also once again at the predator.
Posted by: Sordes | September 3, 2007 3:36 PM
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 reminds you of what predator?
Posted by: David Marjanović | September 3, 2007 5:17 PM
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.]
Posted by: Nathan Myers | September 3, 2007 6:11 PM
Anteater walks into a bar wearing a Celine Dion mask. Bartender says 'Why the long face?'
Posted by: Mike | September 3, 2007 7:01 PM
Oh yeah. Now I can see it...
Posted by: David Marjanović | September 3, 2007 7:37 PM
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.
Posted by: Alan Kellogg | September 3, 2007 10:42 PM
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!
Posted by: Sordes | September 4, 2007 4:09 AM
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
Posted by: Marcel Opitz | September 4, 2007 6:02 AM
Great to see another post, Darren. And yes, that anteater is simply spooky-looking - like something off the cover of a sci-fi book.
Posted by: John Hopkin | September 6, 2007 6:44 PM
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.
Posted by: DDeden | September 12, 2007 10:17 PM
Glad you enjoyed the conference. I am dissapointed I missed it and I will be missing PALASS this year too! Oh well, next year!
Posted by: Sarda Sahney | September 20, 2007 5:48 AM
Make sure you come to the next SVPCA Sarda - it's being held in Dublin. I'll see you there then :)
Posted by: Darren Naish | September 26, 2007 4:43 AM
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?
Posted by: Graham King | January 28, 2008 7:32 PM