It's my birthday this week (the 26th), so how timely that that most long-awaited of books - Tom Holtz and Luis Rey's Dinosaurs should arrive this morning (Holtz 2007). This huge, lavishly illustrated work - it's one of those volumes that will get called 'the ultimate dinosaur book' a lot - has been in the pipeline for, I dunno, months and months and months, and I'm very pleased to see the final finished version. After visiting Luis and seeing some of the artwork he was preparing for the volume (see his thoughts here), I previously blogged about it (at ver 1) here and here. The official…
If I hadn't spent so much time yesterday socialising and celebrating Will's 6th birthday, then this post - the third part in my series on the events of the Wellnhofer pterosaur meeting (part I here, part II here) - might have been finished earlier. Oh well, priorities and all that. Before I start: I assume everyone who visits Tet Zoo knows that scienceblogs is holding a 500,000th comments contest: whoever posts the 500,000th comment will win a 5-day trip to the 'greatest science city in the world' (and there is a vote as to exactly which city that might be). So, anyway, as if you didn't have…
On to more of my thoughts about the outstanding Wellnhofer pterosaur meeting, held at the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie (Bavarian State Palaeontological Collection - BSPG) in Munich last week. For part I go here, and for initial thoughts on what a neat conference it was go here. For those of you wondering (and for those of you that know that the pterosaur meeting was the third of three conferences I attended during August and September 2007), my plan is to talk about all three conferences, but in reverse order. Once I finish talking about pterosaurs, I'll do SVPCA…
The day-job, a dinner date, a committee meeting, and some work identifying Tanzanian reptiles from photos means that I don't have time to post more conference thoughts on the blog today. In, as always, an effort to keep hits coming in (remember: visit, visit, and visit again), I'll therefore default to the 'picture of the day' game... By now, I'm guessing that everyone who's been reading the stuff on the Wellnhofer pterosaur meeting has seen the above pic: Mark Witton used it in his talk on pterosaur mass estimates - he discusses that issue here, and I'll say things about it whenever I post…
I've caught up on my sleep; I've watched the Star Wars trilogy and The Wicker Man; I've listened to at least one Kate Bush album (well, two.. ok, three); and I've spent an appropriate amount of time catching up with my family (on Sunday we went to Longleat Safari Park). While it's true that I have thoughts on three quite different conferences to report, I thought that I'd start by writing about the one that's freshest in my mind - and, anyway, I have to write up a proper article on this specific conference for publication, so it helps if I do this now. As readers will know (first thoughts…
As a famous lady recently said: "I'm back". At last - having just returned from the Peter Wellnhofer Flugsaurier Conference (held at the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie [BSP] in Munich) - conference season is at an end and I can try to return to normal life. At the risk of spouting forth with the usual gushing over-enthusiastic hyperbole I have previously engaged in on returning home from conferences, it was an awesome meeting that I really, really enjoyed. I'll cover a few highlights here, but am planning to discuss more details later on (the conference blog can be seen here).…
Once more it's that time again, I'm leaving for conference # 3 (well, I'm not leaving right now, but I won't have the chance to blog before I do)... It should be great, and in particular I look forward to the fist-fights and rock-throwing that will doubtless ensue over whether Anhanguera really is synonymous with Coloborhynchus, over the mass of Quetzalcoatlus, and over skim-feeding habits (or lack of) in tupuxuarids. On Dave Unwin's advice, rest assured that I will get Mark Witton all beered-up in front of an audience so that he'll stand before all and relate the Thalassodromeus flume of…
Here is another thrown-together collection of things relating to SVPCA... well, I photographed the Short-billed echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus and Platypus Ornithorhynchus anatinus in the Zoology Museum at Glasgow (during SVPCA); the photo of the echidna checking out the camera came from elsewhere. Monotremes have been in the news recently, what with the alleged recent rediscovery of the poorly known Attenborough's echidna Zaglossus attenboroughi Flannery & Groves, 1998 (photo below). I think this is the second taxon named after Sir David: the other is the controversial basal plesiosaur…
In celebration of the upcoming Flugsaurier conference (conference # 3), I thought I'd post some nice pterosaur pictures. I'm speaking at the meeting, so am spending 'spare' time on pterosaurs and not much else (I am happy to report that I'm able to continue with the day-job on marine reptiles - more on that in the future). The large picture is yet another I've nicked from Mark Witton: it depicts the Lower Cretaceous Chinese dsungaripterid pterosaur Dsungaripterus weii Young, 1964, and for the full-size version of the picture (this version is cropped and resized) you need to go here. Mark was…
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…
Well done to whomever gets the most enlightenment out of the images shown here. As before, they're relevant to the conference I'm about to leave for and, again, all will be revealed when I get back. Many thanks to those who have been assisting with financial aid, and I look forward to meeting further Tet Zoo readers whom I haven't met before. By the way, Tet Zoo the book is now go. As for the TV series...
Have now returned: much more on the details later. Think chickcharnies, giant pigeons, mekosuchines, 40 years of the Patterson footage and Patty's hamstring tendon, Siberian roe deer Capreolus pygargus in England, and statistics and sea monsters. A fun time was had by all. Oh, and on the way back home Jon McGowan and I discovered the adjacent road-killed Polecat Mustela putorius at Bere Regis, Dorset. Anyway, all I have to do now is prepare for conference # 2. Yikes, a week to get ready. Alas, the silence will continue. And many, many thanks to Michael Traynor, Aaron Kralik and T. Keesey!…
Farewell my friends: I go on to a better place. Or: conference # 1 is now go, I will be back soon. And no chatting about the above image while I'm away (even though many of you know full well what it's about). Oh, and please remember to assist the Tet Zoo survival fund if you are at all able (see paypal button at extreme lower left). Byeee.
In another desperate effort to bump up the number of hits, I thought I'd go with a provocative title. There is, sorry, no such thing as a Frasercot: but it is, however, the answer to the question... to what animal, exactly, does that mysterious skin actually belong? No, it was not feathers, nor scales on a moth's wing (!), nor the skin of an octopus (!!), but most definitely the pelt of some sort of carnivoran (I enlarged and rotated a section of the adjacent image). But the problem is: that's about as far as we can go, as no-one really seems to know what it is... The skin is now owned by…
I figured: if I just keep calling them 'picture of the day', you might be less inclined to come have a look. So here's another mystery photo: can you identify the animal involved? Some people who visit Tet Zoo (that includes you Tommy Tyrberg, as well as members of a certain research organisation that involves a certain group of animals) have already seen the image in its entirety, so no cheating please. All is still progressing slowly on the conference preparation front. I booked my flight for SVPCA Glasgow yesterday, so that's one less thing to worry about; all I have to do now is prepare…
I just saw the above on Stephen Bodio's Querencia, where it was posted by Matt Mullenix, and just had to steal it (sorry). Long-time readers will know that mammal-killing eagles have been a Tet Zoo mainstay since the very beginning (and then here and here, with Haast's eagle here). I'm on lunch right now, and after scoffing down a bowl of noodles am comparing limb : body depth ratios in assorted carnivorans. Let's just say that it's relevant to a certain grey shaggy beast photographed on Dartmoor...
Among the most popular of areas I've covered on Tet Zoo ver 2 has been speculative zoology. Those of you who know the articles in question (go here) might recall Steve White's picture of future animals, which I'm posting here again. I've recently learnt that Steve now has his own blog, Thunderlizard, and in this article he explains some of the thinking behind the animals in the piece. I must elaborate on my own contribution some time: surely you all want to hear more about the future evolution of eusocial miniaturised naked mole rats. I blame Chris Lavers (see Lavers 2001)... The finches are…
The other day I had to prize the skeletal jaws from a dead hedgehog. Well, ok, I didn't have to... And what's with all the Green woodpeckers Picus viridis that are around at the moment? Still, I remain very very busy with day-jobs and conference preparation, but in the interests of - as promised - keeping Tet Zoo ticking over, here is a lovely picture that will have many of you cock-a-hoop with excitement. My god, I'm turning into Mark Witton... ... no, of course not. The picture depicts (left to right) the basal placodont Placodus gigas from Middle Triassic Germany, the cyamodontid…
My job at Impossible Pictures finished last week (though I am still doing the odd day here and there and am likely to go back to them in the future). Sigh, so much for digging myself out of that immense financial pit I'm still in. Anyway, today I start work on a new job involving... marine reptiles. I'll say more about it in the future. Partly as a result of this, I post here another picture very kindly supplied by Mike Skrepnick, and used with his permission (image © Mike Skrepnick, used with permission). Created for a new mural at Dinosaur Provincial Park, it depicts a scene in the…
Hello loyal readers: I know you're still there. Yet again I can't resist the lure of posting something new when I really shouldn't. Most of you, I'm sure, think that archaeopterygids - the archaic basal birds of Late Jurassic Germany (and Portugal too if Weigert's (1995) identification of isolated teeth is correct) - are long extinct, but here is evidence indicating otherwise. Ha ha ha. This is actually a monument at Dotternhausen in Bavaria; it's near a bridge that crosses the Altmühl, but I forget the exact location. If you want to see more of those archaeopterygid statues... ... below is…