Videos Everywhere
Videos are a staple in modern news. Paleontology is no exception to the news and video melding in the world. Dakotaraptor, being a new discovery on a continent obsessed with dromaeosuars and all other...
View ArticleFluffy Kerfuffle
Anyone that reads this blog with a background in any of the "hard" sciences is probably aware of the fact that in the general news of the field lately there has been a lot of discussion of the peer...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Are You, You?
Dromaeosaurs are a rather unique and novel form of theropod. We may have described what makes a theropod a dromaeosaur at some point in the past, or at least what makes a bird a theropod; this is not...
View ArticleFamous and New
Many reasons that dinosaurs, in general, become famous center around the size of these animals. Large animals, whether mammals, fish, reptiles, or otherwise, are almost always intriguing to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Friday Ceratops
Almost everyone knows about Wendy. Wendiceratops is another North American dinosaur described in 2015 that was afforded a considerable amount of media attention. Discovered in 2013-2014, the turn...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Frills for Wendy
(C) Danielle DufaultThe frill of Wendiceratops is one of the things that sets the dinosaur apart from other ceratopsians. The highly ornamented fused parietals and squamosals that make up the frill...
View ArticleAnnouncements
There are announcements for newly discovered dinosaurs floating all over the internet. The announcements of Wendiceratops is still floating around the internet in full force, partly because it is so...
View ArticleFun Fact for Monday Movies
Last week, for the first time, I found a small series of videos on dinosaur facts that was fairly well done. The videos may just be starting out as they seem to have so far only covered a very few...
View ArticlePaper Dinosaurs
Partly due to the fact that David Evans, the lead author of the description paper on Wendiceratops, is an editor at PLOS One and partly because it is a quick publishing open source venue of science, we...
View ArticleAutapomorphies to Consider
Wendiceratops was described as possessing two novel autapomorphies and a distinct, but not novel, nasal horn. The horn is similar to others within the centrosaurine group. These similarities helped to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Popular Wendi
I cannot attest to the popularity of Wendy Sloboda post-discovery, but the dinosaur named for her, as the locality discoverer, is quite famous at the moment. Wendiceratops is not famous for being a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Effigies
© Giant Screen FilmsThe name Effigia okeefeae refers to a small archosaur discovered in New Mexico, at the Ghost Ranch site famous for its astoundingly populous Triassic fossil beds which include...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Confused Visage
Back in 2007 Raul Martin illustrated Effigia for National Geographic. Martin's interpretation of Effigia looks nothing like any kind of crocodylian animal that we know, fossil or extant. The reason for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Facts and Films
Effigia is a charismatic and beloved archosaur. The early suchian reptile appeared in a few venues in the past ten years directed at conveying facts to young fossil enthusiasts. The publisher of the...
View ArticleEffigia Goes to IMAX
Provided one wanted to see scientific videos of Effigia there are very few that are purely documentary related. The two quality videos that appear to be readily available online are very useful for...
View ArticleFighting Over Effigia
The debate over the placement of Effigia is at most a smoldering pile of ash and not a blazing inferno a decade after the announcement of the archosaur. The discussion included a pair of papers that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Anatomy of An Archosaur
Effigia has a different anatomy from the extant crocodiles and alligators that we know today. The femoral head, astragalus (the "ankle"), and the proportions of the manus (front "paw") have been...
View ArticleEffigia Has No Toys
The popularity of Effigia is mostly within the scientific community. There are some outlets that we have discussed and shared this week. These include a number of easily accessible videos like Dinosaur...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stegonaut
Last week extenuating circumstances did not really allow me to write up the weekend entries prior to my scheduled busy weekend. Instead, I decided not to write at all the past week and to save...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Day Later
My laptop is acting ludicrous, so I missed Saturday's post because I did not sit down at the computer until after 6, which is when the computer decided to stop working correctly. I have it limping...
View Article