Odobenodon, or, the Walrodont

This is a part of a little project that Will Baird and I are cooking up. Scott Elyard might also lend a hand. What you're looking at is Odobenodon bairdii, a large member of the Odobenodontidae, which itself nests in the larger Phocicheiria. Our idea is that, had the Permio-Triassic extinction simply failed to occur, non-mammalian synapsids might have evolved in strange and unique ways. The Phocicheiria seems to be an offshoot of the dicynodonts.

But perhaps I've said too much. This project is Will's baby, after all. Look for more at The Dragon's Tales in the coming days! Life restorations, skeletal details, and should the Lords of Kobal grant it, a beach scene.

Deinowyvern enigmatus

You would think that the world's largest living wyvern would be easier to find, but it's not. It was "discovered" quite by accident, flying over the Panama Canal in 1925. Since then, sightings have been brief and rare. Draconologists are unsure where, exactly, such a beast would hide, but most accounts would have you believe that it makes its home in the mountains of the Sierra Madre. Indeed, most sightings are from Guatemala and Honduras. Calvin (1945) attempted the first scientific description of Deinowyvern enigmatus based on a bevvy of interviews. He characterized the monster as having "a wingspan exceeding 100 feet," and "massive hindlimb talons for tearing prey assunder." Most (but not all) interviewees made mention of large bull horns on the head. The exact number of wing fingers varied between interviewees, from three to five. Calvin's necessarily short description concluded that Deinowyvern enigmatus was a "holdover from some mythical time in the past when giants ruled the Earth, perhaps making meals of humanity's greatest natural predators including saber-tooth cats, mammoths, and bears." If nothing else, Calvin seems to have had a flair for the dramatic.


It would be another 25 years before science was presented with a more factual description, based on a corpse, by Reed (1970). The specimen in question had been found on a beach in Costa Rica and immediately quarantined. And while not quite as awe-inspiring as Calvin's monster, Deinowyvern has proven to be every bit as fascinating. Reed's Deinowyvern had an eighty-five-foot wingspan (larger than Europe's massive Megalodracos), and a nose-to-tail length of forty-four feet. The wings, aside from being long, were surprisingly broad and supported by three massive fingers. Like most wyverns and dragons, the thumb was free of the patagium and featured an oversized claw. The animal's tail is long and fairly inflexible. It is topped by three rows of keratinous spines. Deinowyvern's torso is narrow but extremely deep, and the chest is covered in large overlapping scales. Reed found the beast's head to be most peculiar. He noted that it seems to share features with Africa's Tauropesa ungulatus including a squared muzzle, external fleshy nares, and the anteriorly-directed, curved "bull" horns. Also like Tauropesa, Deinowyvern has a sizeable "chin."

Odd for a wyvern, Deinowyvern exhibits a true tridactyl foot and a hallux which is only partially reversed. The two forward-pointing toes are large and broad, while the hallux toes point inward, toward each other. Reed was struck with the contradictory nature of the foot: While the reduction in toe number is a derived trait for the Wyvernia, the lack of a fully-reversed hallux is quite primitive, and in fact missing entirely from central Africa's Eowyvern. "Whether at some point the perching toe was lost, or it had simply not formed yet," he wrote, "I am unable to say." He also noticed that, with just four wing fingers, Deinowyvern was more derived in the structure of the hand than most other wyverns, which retain all five wing-fingers.

Deinowyvern's range has been nominally estimated to run the distance of southern Mexico to Costa Rica by Mandelbaum (1992) in his review of extent wyvern species' ranges. His estimate was based on reported sightings and physical evidence in the form of shed teeth and scales. A few sightings in Jamaica since then suggests that Deinowyvern is able to frequent great distances overseas, perhaps in an effort to find food. Despite its enormous range, the enormous wyvern's main population seems concentrated in the Sierra Madre mountains, as the vast majority of sightings still occur in and around them.

Although frustratingly secretive, Reed's corpse was able to provide Mantell (2001) with some idea as to the creature's taxonomic significance. Given the monster's size, he placed it in a family previously occupied by the large North American fossil form Gigantowyvern dawsonii (Brahe, 1987), the Gigantowyvernidae. Frustratingly, the foot skeleton of G. dawsonii is unknown, so Reed's musings about the animal's derivity are still unknown. However, Mantell suggested that the Deinowyvernidae is a derived family, and that its closest living relative may be Caprawyvern mencotti from the American southwest. Mantell cautioned that the two groups probably split sometime in the Miocene, and that Caprawyvern is the odd duck in its family. The suggestion that the Gigantowyvernidae and the Ceratowyvernidae share a common ancestor is based mostly on fossil forms from the latter group.

References:

Calvin, R. R. (1945). Reports on a new, massive wyvern from Central America. European Journal of Draconology 35(2): 340-346.

Reed, R. (1970). Description of a corpse of the giant Central American wyvern, Deinowyvern enigmatus Calvin, 1945. Draconium 11(3): 413-456.

Mandelbaum, I. J. (1992). A review of known wyvern home ranges. In Wyverns: A Global View (Bordel & Barnes, eds.). University of Liverpool Press: 108-122.

Mantel, G. (2001). A broad look at wyvern systematics. European Journal of Draconology 102(2): 305-311.

Brahe, T. E. (1987). A new fossil wyvern from Texas and a new upper size limit for Wyvernia. Natura Historia 394: 1252-1256.

Coming Up: The most aggressive wyvern on record just happens to be suspected of erroneously starting the myth of the European dragon!

Gracilipterus pyros

This small wyvern, one of the only members of its order found in South America, was described in 1927 by Winston Kramer. The creature lives in the lowlands of Brazil, although unconfirmed sightings have been reported as far south as Chile. Gracilipterus, meaning "slender wing," is an apt name, given the wyvern's overall small, slender build but especially in reference to the wings themselves. The arms are very thing, and the widely-spaced fingers are long and splint-like. Gracilipterus lacks a propatagium, but it makes up for this absence by way of a very flexible wrist which allows the overall plane of the hand to be nearly perpendicular to that the lower arm. At a mere five feet long, with a nine-foot wingspan, Gracilipterus is one of the smallest living wyverns. It certainly stands out in its forest home with a grey-to-black body and red spots on the neck leading to a red chest. Uniquely, this wyvern's neck is adorned with dorsal spines, although the spines do not have bony cores. Instead, they seem to be made of flexible cartilage and dermal tissue. They can be folded back against each other or raised straight up. Adams (1967) suggested that the spines were used in courtship or threat displays.

Aside from its miniscule size, Gracilipterus is not far removed from the typical wyvern bauplan. Its head is triangular and the jaws end in a small rostrum. Small cranial horns sweep back behind the orbits. The feet are functionally tridactyl, but a prominant reversed hallux is present and is used, like most wyverns, to get a better grip on the substrate. In Gracilipterus' case, that substrate is tree branches. It is surprisingly capable in the jungle canopies, leaping and parachuting from branch to branch, and dive-bombing small vertebrates, toes outstretched--ready to grab the target in a second. In fact, Kramer rarely saw any Gracilipterus individuals on or near ground-level. Hicks (1982) would later relay that, in fact, Gracilipterus spend a large amount of time near the ground, where larger-bodied prey items could be caught. In one instance, Hicks witnessed three wyverns consuming a large boar, which he assumed had been killed by the group. While grounded, Gracilipterus lopes about awkwardly, in what Hicks described as "knuckle-walking, but more like a bat than any gorilla." He determined that, given their slow movement on the ground, the wyverns must have attacked the boar from above.

While not the first wyvern to display fire-breathing, Gracilipterus was the first wyvern studied in hopes of explaining this odd phenomenon (thus the species name). Arsenault (1944) described the "fire-breathing apparatus" of a dead wyvern, determining that large chemical glands existed on either side of the wyvern's tongue, wedged in a depression of the mandible. The glands, when compressed, would each squirt a chemical compound diagonally at such an angle that the two unique compounds would collide in mid-air about six inches in front of the dragon's mouth, at which point the chemicals would ignite. As neither compound was itself flammable, the resulting fire could not travel back down either stream, thus the wyvern did not risk burning its mouth. Bizarrely, the chemical makeup of either stream has not been analyzed to this day.

Gracilipterus pyros is placed in its own family, the Gracilipteridae, which does not have any other living members. However, the fossil record of the family is quite robust. A partial skeleton of Graciliwyvern lewins (Dawson, 1955) from the Miocene of Paraguay. Another fossil form, Lagopterus isopus (Dawson & Clarke, 1973), hails from Panama and may be from the Oligocene, suggesting that the Gracilipteridae is older than most other living clades. Only the Gigantowyvernidae may be more ancient. The unique manual anatomy of the group separates it from all others, but pedal morphology suggests a kinship with the Wyvernidae.

References:

Kramer, W. (1927). A small Brazilian wyvern. There be Dragons 12: 213-225.

Hicks, A. (1982). Feeding strategies of Gracilipterus pyros (Kramer 1927). Natura Historia 391: 333-41.

Arsenault, J. J. (1944). A chemical component for the fire-breath of Wyvernia. European Journal of Draconology 34(1): 92-104.

Dawson, R. L. (1955). Graciliwyvern lewins, a new Miocene relative of the modern Gracilipterus pyros. Draconium 19: 33-45.

Dawson, R. L. & Clarke, A. C. (1973). A fossil wyvern from Panama. Draconium 37: 245-251.

Next Up: Deinowyvern, a giant monster of a wyvern from Central America!

I'm Going to PAX!

I forgot to mention this sooner, but I'm going to the Penny Arcade Expo in August. If you haven't pre-registered online (pre-registration ended on June 1st), you can still pay $50 at the door to go. Head over to Penny Arcade (click on the PAX banner) for more info. I think PAX is like E3 for the gamers as opposed to the media, so I'm really excited.

If any of you readers out there are going to PAX, let me know--we'll try to meet up, and it shall be glorious!

Chicken chicken: Chicken chicken

Chicken chicken chicken. Chicken chicken chicken chicken chickens. Chicken chicken!

Chicken-chicken chicken Chicken Chicken chicken chicken chickens.

A Book Review on WPFR?

As most of you probably know, I don't read very often. And by "read," I mean "real books" in the vein of fiction or non-fiction. I read gaming magazines, dinosaur books, certain comics, and The Literature. Well, and any book by Patrick McManus. There are times, it's true, where I accidentally pick up a random book, and end up enjoying it (i.e. The House of the Scorpion). Well, I was perusing Borders the other day with a coupon for 40% a TV show (House M.D. FTW) and I stumbled over to the paleo section. First, I should make it known that Anchorage bookstores are woefully lacking when it comes to paleo. There's a single shelf (or sometimes half a shelf) dedicated to the subject, and the books rarely change.

But that night I found the book above, and you can read more about it here. The warning label ("Dougal Dixon") is better hidden that usual, but I picked it up anyway and flipped through it. Shock and awe, I was sort of impressed. I bought the book, but not for the reasons you might think.

This "World Encyclopedia" aims to show people that Earth's tetrapod prehistory was not limited to the Dinosauria. Just about every major group is represented here, from fishapods to primates and everything in between. The coverage of early amphibians is surprisingly robust, as are the sections devoted to crurotarsians and non-mammalian therapsids. The book is layed out much as you'd expect: One or two critters dot each page, with a brief description including a "factoid" box. What impresses me most about the book, and the whole reason I bought it, is that the "factoid" box includes known species, locality, original describer, and year of publication. For the wealth of taxa this book covers, the "World Encyclopedia" is a great quick-reference tool.

And most of the illustrations are great. Now, like any book of this calibur, the pictures do not all fall to one artist. I will say this: Whoever is doing the gorgonopsid pictures (and many others--the style is instantly recognizable) should get some kind of award. Whoever is doing the ceratopsid (and many others--the style is instantly recognizable) should not be drawing prehistoric animals. There's another artist (allosaur section and a few others) who is very good too. And virtually all of the mammal illustrations are fantastic. Brian (Laelaps) will be glad to know that Thalassocnus is not portrayed as long-haired, but more mole-like. So in addition to any one taxa's publication information, most of the illustrations offer accurate depictions.

Unfortunately, the text is something different. I don't know if Dixon actually wrote the book or what, but whoever did has a few questions to answer. There are two unforgivable errors: First, the book claims at one point that dinosaurs evolved from birds. Really? Surely it's a typographical error, a simple case of accidental word switching, especially given the rest of the book's tone (birds evolved from maniraptors), but it's a careless one that shouldn't have been made. Second, and worst of all, an entire section of the book is dedicated to the "Thecodonts." This section including Marasuchus and Silesaurus, so "thecodont" seems to mean "ornithodiran" here. But the word "thecodont" has been out of favor since the 80's (or earlier) so it shouldn't be turning up in a book from 2008. Seriously, that's a BIG error.

There are smaller factual errors throughout the book. Dixon doesn't seem comfortable with letting any sauropod dinosaur get much bigger than 49 feet (which seems to be the maximum length attainable by the Sauropoda), and most of the ankylosaurs are fully restored yet admitted, in the accompanying text, to be known from scrappy remains. There are restorations of dinosaurs which might be other dinosaurs, dinosaurs which themselves are also in the book. Why not just avoid potentially synonymous animals, Dougal?

Dixon also makes very strange, unfounded statements regarding some taxa. The picture of Hypuronector, everyone's favorite bizarre monkey-lizard, shows the usual deep tail and thin body but, bizarrely, the limbs are held laterally and connected by...a...patagium. The text says that the animal is currently hypothesized as being a gliding animal which used its deep tail as a...rudder. And in the next sentence, Dixon admits that the limbs are incompletely known. In the text for Jeholopterus, Dixon buys into David Peter's idea that the little anurognathid led a vampire bat lifestyle, using it's large manual claws to hook onto large dinosaurs and its fangs to suck them dry. There are a number of bizarre interpretations like this, and they don't often put Dixon in the best light.

So this isn't a book you read for the text. Rather, you read it for the (at times) wonderful illustrations, impressive array of taxa involved, and the factoid boxes. The book is certainly not great, but it's not awful either, and it serves a very specific purpose.

The Theropod Archives

You would all do well to check out The Theropod Archives, a website devoted to collecting PDF papers about theropod dinosaurs. The site is constantly being updated, so check back often! And if you have one of the missing papers in electronic form, send it along! Theropods are the new Pokemon: Gotta collect 'em all!

It's Like Christmas in June!

Com'on, you knew this post was coming. Tomorrow, at 9 a.m., I am waking up and calling Fred Meyer, who better freaking have the game. If they don't, I guess I'll call Best Buy. But mark my words, I will be playing MGS4 tomorrow. In the evening hours, I intend to drag the game over to Erik's house, where I will regale him and my other compatriots with its awe and wonder. Next goal: buy a PS3, possibly using Craig's List. Expect a review!

Fugaxotitan elegans

Fugaxotitan elegans was the first wyvern to be described, by Gilbert, in 1854. This large Australian wyvern was at first erroneously ascribed to the Draconia, but further inspection by Green (1872) warranted the erected of a new group of flying reptiles, the Wyvernia. Green's approach to the differentiation was as follows: "Wyvernia is separated from the Draconia by the lack of a third pair of limbs. Wyverns have opted to take to the skies by the usual method for vertebrates--by modifying the existing forelimbs into large wings." In addition, Green noted many other anatomical differences from Eudracos. Among them, Fugaxotitan has a roughly triangular head, with a thin snout. It also has a reversed hallux. As draconologists would see over the next century, these features are fairly diagnostic of wyverns in general.

Fugaxotitan exhibits several unique features all its own. Although quite large (twenty-five feet long, fifty-two foot wingspan), Fugaxotitan is by no means the largest wyvern. But unlike its bigger cousins, Fugaxotitan is bipedal while on the ground, walking along in the manner of birds, but with the upper body held more or less vertically. This ability is achieved thanks to a unique development in the lower back: Fugaxotitan has a mammal-like spine, with distinct dorsal and lumbar regions. The lumbar vertebrae are far more flexible than the dorsal series, and permits the wyvern's unique posture. Like Eudracos and many other dragons, Fugaxotitan has developed large, caudally-directed cranial horns. Males and females have different horn shapes--while male horns are thick at the base and are directed straight back, females have thinner horns which curve toward each other toward their distal ends.

Females are about 30% smaller than males, and tend to be a lighter green color. Hune (1945) detailed the animal's nesting behavior. Females build a nest atop some canyon ledge or rocky structure with large sticks and tree trunks. Very often, the animals will beachcomb for suitable nesting materials. The nest is relatively circular and is supplemented with vegetation. Females lay between two and four eggs, depending on their age, and the chicks stay in the nest for their first four months of life. Hatchling wyverns are very small and bright green. Their skin is smooth but their wings are large.

The chicks grow very quickly, and by the time they are six months old, they are half the size of their mother. By that time, they are capable of flight. However, chicks do not stray far from their nest site for the next year. Because Fugaxotitan nests in such hard-to-reach places, mothers will actually abandon the brood to find food for herself while the eggs are still in the next. She will also find food for her hatchlings until they can feed themselves. Fugaxotitan mothers are not terribly aggressive, but will squawk and make threat displays toward unwelcome guests. Actual physical confrontations are rare and short-lived. The only dangers facing the eggs (or chicks) are young, hungry dragons. Even so, raids on nests are extremely rare, and present mothers always scare away would-be raiders.

Fugaxotitan, while tolerant of humans, does not actively pursue their company. The animals do not live near large human settlements, and indeed seem to prefer the badlands. These large wyverns have also been sighted in New Zealand, indicating that they are able to fly across the sea. Despite their size, the wyverns are perfectly happy to hunt any small game they can find, although they have a preference for pigs. There have been several sightings of Fugaxotitan taking down kangaroos. Stowers (1987) reported finding a tasmanian wolf skull in an abandoned wyvern nest!

As the original wyvern named, Fugaxotitan occupies the type family, Wyvernidae. Its features are seen as generally diagnostic of the group, although the Wyvernidae itself is not a terribly diverse family. In fact, as draconologists would soon discover, the living Wyvernia is just as fragmented as the extent Draconia. Luckily, the fossil record for wyverns is much better, so not only do we know their origins (Archosauria), we are also far better aware of their ancient relationships.

References:

Gilbert, W. E. (1854). A large new dragon from Australia with a brief comparison to Eudracos. Journal of Zoology 14(3): 213-238.

Green, L. (1872). Fugaxotitan elegans (Gilbert, 1854) and a new category of flying vertebrates, wholly separate from the European Draconia. Royal Journal of the Natural Sciences 73(1): 45-72.

Hune, B. (1945). The nesting habits of Fugaxotitan elegans. Draconium 9(3): 313-352.

Stowers, N. A. (1987). Contents of an abandoned wyvern nest in Australia. Science Notes 64: 432-438.

Next up: A small South American form, known by most as the "spitfire" wyvern.

Thursday Approaches

I had to send my Wii to Washington today to get it fixed (it won't read multi-layered disks, like Super Smash Bros. Brawl), so I won't be able to complete MGS: The Twin Snakes by the time Guns of the Patriots releases on Thursday. However, I have popped Sons of Liberty in the PS2 in the meantime. While both games will undoubtedly weigh heavily on the plot of the finale, I haven't played through MGS2 in probably a year and a half. Like every other MGS game, it's technically very short. There's not a whole lot of gameplay, but there are a bunch of cinematics and Codec cutscenes. I should have Sons of Liberty wrapped up by Wednesday, which will prepare me nicely for MGS4, which if you haven't been listening, will be launching on Thursday.

Get Well Soon, Jeff!

Looks like the embargo has been lifted. Jeff, the Blue Collar Scientist, has been diagnosed with liver cancer. Luckily, his chances are pretty good, as his lifestyle in no way suggests the potential for cancer. In fact, it's a mystery as to how Jeff developed such a malady. Click on over and wish the man well. He'll be at a Washington liver cancer treatment center getting the best liver cancer treatment available, so cross your fingers!

Wyverns are not Dragons

After a long hiatus from writing about dragons, I decided it was probably time to continue my discussion about large flying modern reptiles. But we're finished with the Draconia (for now), so what else is there to write about? How about wyverns? Although often mistaken for dragons, wyverns are an entirely different group of reptiles. Their poor fossil record suggests that the group evolved fairly late, perhaps originating as recently as the Miocene. Wyverns are generally larger than dragons, have more triangular skulls, can "breath" fire, but most importantly, wyverns only have two pairs of limbs.

Dragons are unique, of course, in having three functional pairs of limbs: Two sets of forelimbs and one set of hindlimbs. The upper pair of forelimbs have been modified into large wings, but they retain (in most cases) the same general structure as the unmodified forelimb. Wyverns, however, took the bat route: they modified their only pair of forelimbs into enormous wings by way of elongating (and strengthening) the individual fingers. Wyverns are more widespread than dragons, occupying the North and South America. They also have a strong presence in Africa and Australia. The largest and heaviest flying vertebrates to ever live are wyverns, and exactly how they manage to take flight while being so bulky is one of the great mysteries of evolution. Wyverns do not have the tendancy to abandon flight that dragons do, although this probably has to do with the inability to depend on a second pair of arms. Wyverns are a fascinating group, and I look forward to discussing them in the coming days (and weeks).

Prehistoric Pokemon, Part II

A short edition today. Chris Taylor posted about crinoids, which reminded me of two prehistoric Pokemon from the Emerald series: Lileep and Cradily. They both vaguely resemble crinoids, although I'm not sure exactly what they're supposed to be based on.

Lileep, which is most easily found in Diamond/Pearl in the Underground.

Cradily shares its Rock/Water type with most other Fossil Pokemon, including Kabuto, Kabutops, Omonyte, Omanyte and Omastar.

In Case You've Forgotten...

Just six more days until Metal Gear Solid 4. I have vowed to purchase the game, though, alas, I do not own a PS3. My brother (who is currently staying with us), however, does, and he's gone at work all evening, so its rumbling machinations will be mine to control. I'm considering replaying MGS: The Twin Snakes and MGS2: Sons of Liberty before diving, headlong, into the series' final entry. That would require me to tear myself away from the excellent Odin Sphere, but that's a sacrifice I'm perfectly willing to make...for Snake.

Linnaeus' Legacy Part the Eighth!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome, welcome, to the latest edition of Linnaeus' Legacy, the premier taxonomic blog carnival of the Interwebs. Christopher Taylor, that handsome devil, was gracious enough to permit me to host the carnival at my humble blog. A round of applause, ladies and germs! Now, step right up and get your tickets, and behold the wonder that is...taxonomy.

Behold, behold! In this tent, marked "Biological Ramblings," you will find to your horror questions regarding Toucan Systematics. Those sly birds do get around!

Step this way, please, no crowding. There's room for everyone! Gaze, and be amazed at this unique Podblack, and its discussion on the natural historian in Douglas Adams. He may have written a certain guide to the galaxy, but I'm betting the man never hitchiked to the Galapagos! Oh, I amuse even myself, folks!

You may have thought it merely mythical, but ladies and gentlemen, I assure you, The Barcoded Ant really does exist! Lest you forget, horrible mutated ants once reigned supreme across the New Mexican desert, and barcoded insects would only terrorize our population further!

Watch in wonder as Chris Taylor himself takes aim at problematic taxa, including microbes with names like Rhenocystis latipendunclata and poor taxonomic practices!

Darren Naish (and many others) regales us with tales from the front lines of Aetogate, and Chris Taylor muses on who actually owns the data in question. Fascinating stuff, and very important questions are raised! Read on, and be enlightened!

Look--up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...a flying trilobite? Alright, who let them out of their cages? I was Glendon, wasn't it?

The International Institute for Species Exploration has knocked out a list of the Top Ten New Species of 2007. Although, between you and me, folks, I think there are probably plenty of fossil animals a lot cooler than Gryptosaurus up for grabs in 2007. Maybe that's just my ornithopod bias talking, but hey!

And before you go, folks, gaze--if you dare--into this aquarium of Mesozoic marine monsters! They will terrify and potentially eat children--which is why you had to sign that release before coming in--so keep back, and for God's sake, don't tap the glass!

Thank you, thank you, ladies and germs, for attending this edition of Linnaeus' Legacy! Are there stragglers among you? That's just fine--we'll be updating this list until Sunday, so if you weren't able to make it out here today, just let me know, and I'll add you to the list! Until next time!

Society is on the Verge of Collapse

Every time a homosexual couple kisses, an angel drops a nuke (apparently).

Headline of the day: People are retarded. I've never weighed in on the issue of homosexual couples, but I'm gonna go ahead and make my opinions on the subject known.

1) Who freaking cares. We're fighting a war in Iraq, gas and food prices are at an all-time high, the Euro has surpassed the American dollar to such an extent that if it becomes the new world economic standard, we're screwed, America is facing an unbelievably important election year, and what are people making a flap about? Two lesbians kissing at a sporting event. Way to prioritize, America.

2) Who freaking cares? Does it affect your straight marriage in the least? Will atomic bombs be dropped from Heaven Above if we allow these sinful unions to continue? Is God shaking his Almighty finger in our general direction right now? It seems like (forgive my generalization) it's the religious conservatives who really get riled up over gay unions. And why? It's an affront to their religion, sure, but why condemn it? How does it affect you, religious guy? If God takes you into Heaven and casts the gays into a lake of fire, why do you care? Are you actually concerned for their souls, or are you worried that God will say to you, "Hey, you could've done something about this, but you didn't do enough, so into the flames with you!" Are you worried about their soul(s), or yours?

3) Jim Ridnour, a 54-year-old, close-minded moron, says that he "would be uncomfortable" seeing lesbians kiss in public. "If I had my family there, I'd have to explain what's going on." Really? Are kids really going to say, "Daddy, why are those two women kissing?" No, they're not, unless you've beaten it into the heads specifically that two women kissing making God mad. Innocent children are going to think (Allah forbid) that kissing is associated with affection or love. They're going to think--wait for it--that the two women are in love!

If you don't take the time to explain, in great detail, why two women (or men) kissing is wrong, kids are going to grow up thinking it's perfectly all right, which is what we're trying to accomplish. If, for whatever reason, your kid turns to you and says, "Daddy, why are those two ladies kissing?" You can say, "They're in love, sweetie." And the kid can think whatever s/he wants. Don't make an excuse for the homosexual couple, but accept it as what it is.

4) Gays and lesbians aren't out to thumb their noses at society. They're in love.

5) Over 50% of straight marriages end in divorce. Clearly, same-sex marriage is a pillar of excellence. What I'm really saying, perhaps sarcastically, is who are we to judge?

And that's basically my little political rant. I try not to get involved in these heated debates, but the Seattle story (hat-tip to Greg Laden) threw me into a miniature rage.

Predatory Mesozoic Marine Reptiles

During the Mesozoic period (and even stretching back to the Permian), reptiles coontinuously invaded the seas. One of the first marine reptiles was Mesosaurus, an Early Permian anapsid with needle-like dentition. During the Triassic period, an enormous range of marine forms developed, primarily belonging to two distinct groups--the Ichthyopterygia and Sauropterygia. But even as these more basal forms filled the oceans, still more reptiles poured into the sea. During the Jurassic period, crocodilian archosaurs invaded nearshore environments, and during the Cretaceous period, varanid lizards got in on the action, producing some of the largest predatory marine animals to ever exist. In this post, I will examine three very distinct groups of Mesozoic marine reptiles, all of which produced species well suited for large-game hunting. Far from being strictly picsivorous, these animals were the ones to look out for while diving (or snorkling) in the Mesozoic seas.

Askeptosaurus italicus, a long-snouted thalattosaur from the Late Triassic

The Sauropterygia developed into a menagerie of forms, including pistosaurs, plesiosaurs, and placodonts, but one of the more understated groups are the thalattosaurs. These near-shore lizard-like creatures grew fairly long (two meters or so) and probably lived a life similar to that of the modern marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus). Anguilliform swimmers, the thalattosaurs had long, flexible bodies and short but stocky limbs. They are divided roughly into two main groups: Clazariids and askeptosaurids. The former have bizarre downturned snouts and vomers, and their diet is problematic because of that. Askeptosaurids, however, were predators through and through. Askeptosaurus italicus and Anshunsaurus huangguoshuensis are the best-known species within the group, and while they certainly would have snacked on fish, the large, recurved teeth lining the jaws suggest a more varied diet.

Additionally, the skull of Askeptosaurus has plenty of room for jaw muscles. Note the large recess behind the orbit, where jugal simply fails to connect to the back of the skull. The bump on the lower jaw also suggests a muscle attachment point, and unlike other sauropterygians, Askeptosaurus may have possessed a sizeable adductor mandibulae muscle, allowing the jaws to snap shut strongly and quickly. The recurved teeth may imply a method of feeding enjoyed by mosasaurs, varanids, dromaeosaurs, and allosaurs--that is, grabbing a chunk of from a victim and running, leaving the prey to bleed to death and/or go into shock. But what would Askeptosaurus be eating? Ichthyosaurs and other basal sauropterygians are a possibility. By the Late Triassic, enormous ichthyosaurs (Shonisaurus) were already swimming the seas.

Pelagosaurus typus, a large Jurassic teleosaurine thalattosuchid

During the Jurassic, crocodilians briefly took to the sea. Like thalattosaurs, thalattosuchids can be divided into two groups: the gharial-like teleosaurs (above), and the far more menacing metriorhynchids (below). Although not terribly closely related to actual gharials, the teleosaurs evolved long, slender jaws with needle-like teeth. Their bodies are dorsoventrally compressed, and the limbs are more laterally placed on the body than gharials, with surprisingly short forelimbs. Teleosaurs kept their dorsal armor, but augmented it with significant ventral armor. They were mid-sized crocodilians, about the size of the average American alligator. Their dentition reveals teleosaurs to be specialized fish-eaters.

Dakosaurus andiniensis, a giant metriorhynchid thalattosuchian

Among the most fearsome creatures in the Jurassic sea, however, must have been Dakosaurus andiniensis, a giant South American marine predator. D. andiniensis is very much unlike its sister species, D. maximus, so much so that I wonder why it didn't recieve a separate genus. While most metriorhychids were fish and cephalopod feeders, D. andiniensis must have been able to eat whatever it wanted. At six meters in length, the beast could have fed on fish, cephalods, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and sharks. Dakosaurus andiniensis' skull is short and massive, quite unlike its metriorhychid cousins. The large frontal (prefrontal?) bone projects laterally outward as sort of a palpebral immitation, giving Dakosaurus a sort of "eyebrow" bone. The jaws are huge, with plenty of room for powerful jaw muscles. Additionally, the teeth are ridiculously long and large, and reminds me of Ceratosaurus' oversized dentition. Dakosaurus' teeth are serrated, and the teeth of the premaxilla are noticably shorter than those of the maxilla. I am reminded somewhat of Tyrannosaurus rex' teeth, all of which are huge, but the teeth of the premaxilla are smaller and more tightly packed than those of the maxilla. Given the obvious strength of the teeth, skull, and musculature, one wonders if Dakosaurus andiniensis was able to slice through flesh and crush bone.

Metriorhynchid thalattosuchians had a unique body plan. The body is devoid of armor, and the end of the tail is downturned, indicating the presence of a vertical tail fluke. Metriorhynchids may have also had a short dorsal fluke. What's really odd, though, is that the forelimbs became incredibly short and stocky and would have resembled muscular "flappers" rather than true flippers in the mode of, say, mosasaurs or ichthyosaurs.The hindlimbs, however, were long and lean, with elongated metatarsals. They, too, are completely unlike the flippers of other marine reptiles. Metriorhychids probably swam in a manner similar to modern crocodilians, with the limbs folded against the body, only to be used for maneuvering.

Clidastes prophyton, a small Creataceous mosasaur

With the extinction of most ichythosaurs and plesiosaurs at the close of the Jurassic, varanid lizards took advantage of this ecological vacuum and invaded the Cretaceous waters, eventually becoming the mosasaurs, giant predatory monsters who ruled the seas until the end of the Mesozoic era. These beasts grew from between two and fifteen meters, and probably ate whatever they felt like, including other mosasaurs. The creatures are unique in a number of ways, but especially in terms of skull anatomy. The mandible is double-hinged, allowing the dentary to slide back and forth and outward, allowing the mosasaur to engulf large prey items and swallow them whole. Aiding in this effort was a double-row of sharply recurved palate teeth, which, along with the motions of the jaw and tongue, would have "pulled" the prey deeper into the animal's gullet. Clidastes prophyton was a fairly typical, if small, mosasaur from Kansas. Like Askeptosaurus, Clidastes has a recess behind the orbits, suggesting very powerful jaw muscles. Also like thalattosaurs, mosasaurs were anguilliform swimmers, but unlike thalattosaurs, they were fully marine and would have been unable to come ashore.

Relative sizes of Askeptosaurus (bottom), Clidastes (middle), and Dakosaurus (top)

With the close of the Cretaceous period, only one branch of marine reptile survived: the turtles. They became fairly diverse during the ensuing Cenozoic, only to face gradual extinction during the current Holocene with the rise of humanity. The predatory roles once dominated by thalattosaurs, thalattosuchids, and mosasaurs are now in the hands (fins?) of sharks and whales.

Postscript: Thalattosaurs might not be sauropterygians. They are usually considered close to that group via good deal of hedging, but after reading a paper on sauropterygian skull morphology provided by Neil, I believe that even if they're not sauropterygians proper, thalattosaurs must be darn close, and a lot closer than they would be to ichthyopterygians. Also, as you'll see in the comments, Will mentions that a few ichythosaurs and plesiosaurs did push through the J/K boundary, so they weren't entirely absent. Finally, Dakosaurus is one of the few inherently evil tetrapods on the planet. It would not hesitate to eat a baby. Gleefully.

Notices

The season premier of Venture Bros. is up at the Adult Swim website. If you're a fan of the show (and who isn't?), the premier is a laugh riot.

I've added a new cartoon-related link to the blogroll. The Dreamland Chronicles is a wonderful webcomic that's entirely CG. It looks like a Pixar movie! When you have a few hours to kill, click back to the first entry and read through 'til the latest comic. Great stuff, folks.

Don't forget--the next edition of Linnaeus' Legacy will appear on this humble page tomorrow! If you haven't gotten your submissions to me, either through email or comments, time is running out!

I know I was promising a big post about Mesozoic marine reptiles a few days ago, but I decided to draw another skull and some life restorations, which took some time. I will probably have the post up tonight, and surely before the Legacy.

Now I Know How Opthalmosaurus Must've Felt

I went to the eye doctor today to get a checkup and new glasses. We found out that I'd developed a slight stigmatism, but my new lenses will correct that. More importantly, I got eyedrops which dialate the pupils for the first time. It's crazy, dude. My near-vision is ruined, and when I'm outside it's like I'm constantly looking directly into the sun. Even though it's overcast. My eyes are just being flooded with light, forcing me to squint.

Linnaeus would be proud of this Legacy

The next edition of Linnaeus' Legacy, a taxonomic blog carnival, will be arriving in this humble space on June 5th. Get those submissions in to either via comment or email!

The Long, Involved, Ever-Changing History of Selena Isley

Our journey begins with an excellent manga series by Johji Manabe called "Outlanders." Back when I was a freshman or sophmore in high school, I was just beginning to discover manga comics. In general, I didn't care for them. The art was, most of the time, unappealing to me. Manabe's work, however, blended more traditionally cartoony styles with ridiculously detailed background work and menacing bad guys. Although I never read the entire series, the basic plot was: Boy meets alien warrior girl whose father wants to destroy the Earth. Boy and girl try to stop evil father but fail. Earth is blown to smithereens by a Death Star-like weapon. The library's collection ends right there, so I never found out what happened after that.

Anyway, I decided right then that I really wanted to learn how to draw people (I don't know exactly why) and expand my artistic talents beyond "various members of the Dinosauria." So I set to work trying to duplicate Manabe's work but add my own take on the form, something I've been doing ever since (I call it "assimilation"). But Manabe's art didn't work on some level for me, and I began looking to other sources of inspiration. One of them was Bruce Timm. I noticed this excellent book at a bookstore one day and promptly bought it. I'd always loved the Batman Animated Series, and now I could assimilate it!

Thus, my character was named Selena Isley, a combination of Selena Kyle (Catwoman) and Pamela Isley (Poison Ivy). That remains her name to this day, but she doesn't really look like either of her namesakes. The Bruce Timm approach didn't really stick. At that point in my artistic maturation, it was almost too simple. Does that even make sense? I suppose anatomy is kind of like writing--you can't start breaking the rules until you really know them. The beautiful, simplified outline of Catwoman did not give me enough information to really build on. Thus, I virtually abandoned the Batman approach and stuck with Manabe, to questionable results:

The resemblance to Outlanders is kind of painful now, but at least I tried to do my own thing with it. For one thing, Selena is wearing a tank top (or something) behind her breastplates. She's got cool gauntlets, and I have no idea to this day where those came from. Additionally, she has jeans and tall leather boots. The jean design actually comes from the awesome, but short-lived, modern Turok comic book series. Back at her inception, the idea was that Selena was sucked into an interdimentional vortex (or something) and wound up on a parallel Earth where most dinosaurs had not gone extinct and had instead evolved into essentially human roles. The dominating race was derived from Psittacosaurus. There were rock-people called the Groxen, and a bunch of aliens called the Morphae. The Morphae were trying to take over the planet, but their big roadblock was the dinosaur-people (whose name escapes me now), and Selena fulfills some prophesy of being the "chosen one" and develops psionic powers. Thus, the fire around her hands. I HAD a really freaking awesome picture of Selena (at this stage in her development) standing waist-deep in water with a green bikini, pointing at the "camera" with blue flame around her hand and saying something like "It's not polite to stare." Truly epic work, kiddies. I miss that picture, though. It was the best of her from her anime period.


And then you've got these wierd attempts to change her costume, including the Fire Emblem-inspired outfit to the left. I actually like this look more given her parallel Earth setting. Where's she going to get a breastplate and jeans? Dinosaur people don't wear jeans. They don't even know what jeans are. Another disturbing aspect of this look is that Selena doesn't really have breasts. I mean, she does, but not to the extent that she would later develop. Some part of my brain must not have switched on yet while Selena was in her manga phase.














And then there's the full catsuit, inspired (blatantly) by Samus Aran's Metroid Fusion suit with Metroid Prime Phazon Suit colors. I think. The colors may have been of my own design. I really need to play the original Metroid Prime again. God, that's a good game. Notice that the hair is changing--diagonal tendrils of hair are now framing her face. I think I got that idea from Dead or Alive 3 (this was during the launch of the Xbox, or perhaps just before it). If I recall correctly, Helena's hair is sort of like that, and I thought the "face-framing" was kind of cool. I have since abandoned the idea.

I did get a lot of good material from that era, though. I slaved over expressions for hours, but the manga style eventually began showing its limitations (for me) in that there were only so many expressions I could successfully pull off. Squinting and understated rage were beyond my abilities. And holy cow--look at that little mini-headshot in the bottom right. I was trying to develop some kind of cheat sheet for headshots. I was, and still am, obsessed with figuring out why something works. Around this point, Selena's life story began to change.



I had just seen The Matrix and I was really getting into the Silent Hill series. In what can only be described as a bizarre episode of "Will It Mix?," I slapped the two together, imagining Selena as a sort of paranormal investigator who gets stuck in an abandoned town where demonic creatures have consumed the populous and are now looking to escape their confines. I had a great opening shot worked out in my head--I may still use it (someday). The plot, though, of Selena's introductory story was boarderline idiotic, though. A maniacal cult had resurrected a bunch of demons from The Pit (as I called it) and then...are you ready for this? Genetically and mechanically manipulated them to make...super demons. I had a lot of concept art for the beasties. I think I was more interested in the creatures than the heroine. All of these critters were heavily inspired by Silent Hill, but with a disturbing cybernetic component. Anyway, Selena's head began to change, as did her outfit. She took on a blonde Lara Croft look:




See, I kind of like this version. The hair isn't nearly as poofy, the bangs aren't spikey, and I like those cool shades. I clearly had (and have) no idea how to draw guns. Notice that while the jeans remain essentially the same, Selena has graduated to a black tank top and has gone from a B-cup to a D. I think her pointy face was just me screwing around with a different face shape. Our girl is starting to move into the modern period! The paranormal thing remained the same, and I actually dropped all of Selena's psionic tendancies in favor of straight-up run and gunning. And this is about where Selena stayed for the next few years...








And then two things happened. First, I discovered my favorite comic artist, Frank Cho. I rapidly consumed and assimilated every piece of Cho art I could get my meaty hands on, and I actually began to understand human anatomy. Let me just say, as a brief aside, that people are ridiculously difficult to get right, and that's because our anatomy is so horrifyingly different than every other mammal on the planet. We're upright. Our backs and shoulders are wierd. Our legs attach to our bodies vertically instead of horizontally. We have waists and inward curves in our backs and...humans are nightmares to draw.

Now then, I was also playing a lot of Metal Gear Solid at the time, and I'd just finished Portable Ops, so I tried drawing a Cho-esque Selena with Big Boss' FOX gear. I actually really like this version, but it was a bear to draw, and the pencil sketch looks a lot better than the final inked version did (that's actually the case quite often). I still draw Selena like this for the most part, although from my last post, it looks like I'm experimenting with Tim Fischer's style. Selena's backstory is now somewhat in disaray, although I've always liked the paranormal investigation angle. But I like her sneaking suit, too, so maybe she could be some kind of paranormal investigation spy?

Selena is continuing to evolve, and it's absolutely maddening, but it's fun, too. Someday I'll finalize her design and come up with a competant backstory for her. But it's probably a ways off.

Ten bucks says this post won't come out right! I WIN!