Small Either Way
Aquilops was small regardless of the moniker or adjective used to describe it. Various news outlets reported it as being the size of a cat or the size of a rabbit; these are similarly sized for the...
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Terrorized by Mammals
Illustration by Brian Engh, courtesy of Raymond M. Alf Museum of PaleontologyWhen an animal is only a few mice in size (see Thursday's post on Aquilops size in terms of mice) then even the smallest...
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Raphus the Pigeon
Exploring directions for this week over the last twenty-four hours (I was out all day yesterday and will post twice today to make up for it) I found a glaring hole in our discussions. Recently extinct...
View ArticleDodos for Little
Raphus cucullata has captured the imagination of the world in part because it is so recently extinct. This plays well into having hundreds of links, images, and even coloring pages at our disposal....
View ArticleDodos in Action
There are videos online that purport to have captured a live dodo in a Costa Rican rainforest. This is clearly not real and therefore has no place at all in this conversation. What is as real as a...
View ArticleRaphus History
The history of human knowledge about Raphus cucullatus is stunningly light considering that it was an animal which lived with humans for an appreciable amount of time. There are a considerable number...
View ArticleFamous Dodos
Dodos that were brought back to Europe and Asia this is less likely, but there are accounts of this having happened) often ended up being taxidermied when they died. Those animals then made their ways...
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No Dodos
Ustad Mansur; Dodo and Indian birdsThere are no complete specimens of Raphus cucullatus. Every interpretation, museum or otherwise, is based off of the specimens originally brought back to their...
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The Museum's Art
©Roelant SaveryKnown as "Edwards' Dodo", this painting was given to the British Museum in 1759 and now rests in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London. The painting was created by the...
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Staying Grounded
Kelvingrove, Glasgow displayPhoto by Mike PenningtonThere are many extinct birds that we do not know about. Covering the extinct birds that we do know about is important though because we can learn a...
View ArticleAuks and Science
For a day of facts here is a video that summarizes some of the extinction causes of the Great Auk.Emma Caton does a fairly good amount of homework prior to posting videos. These make her videos...
View ArticleAnother Episode
Last week I shared an episode of an older show called Extinct that focused on the dodo. This week we have another episode of that show that focuses on the Great Auk. Like last week, the show features...
View ArticleNaturalists Missed It
There are countless mentions of Great Auks in historical accounts of the peoples of the northern Atlantic, but there is also specific mention of the fact that there are no accounts recorded by known...
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Neanderthal Chicken
Paintings showing variation in egg markings (Eggs no. 35, 51, 49 and 48), as well as seasonal and ontogenic differences in plumage, based on museum specimens (Birds no. 22, 15, 9 and 50).Approximately...
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Fame by Proxy
Photo of Great Auk sculpture at Zoo Chleby, near PragueFor similar reasons as the Dodo, the Great Auk was and is famous mostly because of its relative "newness" as an extinct species. European sailors...
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Icons of Extinction
©John James AudubonWhen the subject of North American bird illustrations is approached there are a small number of extremely well known artists that automatically come to mind. Great Auks have been...
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The Boss is Back
Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis has one of the most iconic, discussed, and debated nasal areas in all of paleontology. The nasal boss in these fossils is enormous, leading some to believe the rugose...
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Facts About the Fat Nose
Mental Floss calls their fact page about Pachyrhinosaurus"resilient"; apparently they have a lot of faith in the facts that they are presenting. There are facts about this dinosaur all over the...
View ArticlePachyrhinosaurus Moving Pictures
Pachyrhinosaurus has managed to make it into the film industry as not only an interesting documentary dinosaur but also as a main character. In the popular movie Walking with Dinosaurs, not related to...
View ArticleBossy Papers
One of the few well known dinosaurs from Alaska, the remains of Pachyrhinosaurus from that state have been well studied. Purportedly belonging to one of the species I have not mentioned (P. perotorum...
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