Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday, because it's the one day in a year when I can openly worship Satan. It's almost expected. I had intended to slaughter a goat and use its blood to draw an enormous pentagram on the front lawn, then mark the points of that devilish shape with metal poles adorned with candles, but...eeehhh...I dragged my heels this year. The ground is frozen solid, so I don't think I'll be able to get poles in the lawn. However, I would like to do a pentagram with the poles, so...I'm gonna try, then use string to connect them.

And if I manage to raise some dark god, I'll be sure to take some pictures.

Epidexipteryx skeleton

Well, here's a basic skeletal drawing (skipped the vertebrae and ribs because they take forever) for Expidexipteryx. This drawing will serve as the basis for my life restoration this weekend. The skeleton is pretty beat-up, with lots of key missing parts (hands, feet) and a badly crushed skull. I took the unknown elements from Scansoriopteryx and imagined what they'd "grow into." For example, I made the third finger a little shorter in relation to the other two fingers with the assumption that it would have negative allometry compared to the 1st and 2nd digits. That's purely as assumption--the reverse could well be true. Not sure about what kind of dentition the little bugger had beyond the procumbent incisors, so I simply didn't include any.

Like I said, I didn't include a spine or ribs because it would've taken much longer. I made the tail stiff but a hair longer than the skeleton would imply. This is to cover two bases: One, that a few vertebrae might be missing in that irritating tail break in the fossil, and Two, I imagine that the tail was wrapped in a stiff bundle of tissue given the ribbon-like tail feathers (they must've had deep quills) which may have artificially elongated the "external" tail.

Let me know if anything is deeply wrong with this reconstruction before I start drawing skin and feathers onto it!

The Virtual Art Show Part 5: Effigia okeeffeae

From a distance, you would think that Effigia was a small dinosaur. In fact, although its family is from the Late Triassic, previously-named relatives have been considered to be very early representatives of the ostrich-mimic dinosaurs! It wasn't until Effigia was described in 2006 that the true nature of the family became clear. These were poposaurs, a group more closely allied to animals like Arizonasaurus than to dinosaurs. Aside from its crocodilian ankle structure and vertebrae, though, Effigia was just as "dinosaurian" (if not more so) than the theropods that shared its habitat. Aside from being fully bipedal, Effigia had a toothless beak, booted pubis, long, flexible neck, and lacked any kind of bony armor. What's more, Effigia's family may have predated the rise of dinosaurs. This suggests that dinosaurs may have been Effigia-mimics rather than the reverse.

Effigia and its cousins are wonderful examples of convergence, where two unrelated animals develop the same adaptations and look superficially similar. More familiar examples might be the resemblence betwee dolphins and ichthyosaurs, ore saber-toothed cats and saber-toothed marsupial predators. In all examples, similar body types evolved multiple times in wildly disparate synapsid groups, from pre-mammalian pelycosaurs and gorgonopsids to herbivorous brontotheres, machairodont cats, and even a few extinct and living deer!

Artist Notes

I hate this picture. I hate it so much. This was the last picture I tackled, and honestly, I was done with the show. The colors are terrible. Have you ever seen a neon-green crocodilian? Neither have I. The belly is too light, and I'm not sure what the f*ck I was doing with the eyeball. Then I gave it an orange beak. I was clearly under the influence of some covert drug. I actually knew after getting the "bottom layer" (neon green) down that it was a mistake, so I spent the rest of the time trying to cover it up with dark green scales. Didn't work, and this is probably the one piece I will burn when the show comes down in two days. Besides the cramp-inducing color scheme, the neck could use some of those tail vertebrae. In general, the proportions are alright, but the neck is too short and the tail's too long.

Fun Facts

Effigia is one of the only taxa to survive multiple reworkings of the taxa list for the show. It's my favorite example of convergence because, in some ways, it's more dinosaurian than the dinosaurs it shared its habitat with. My intention the whole time was to make its body outline look like an early dinosaur, but keep some of the traits that make it a crurotarsian, namely large scutes 'n' scales. There's a loss of osteoderms in Effigia, but that doesn't mean its skin was completely naked. Crocs have plenty of non-bony scutes, so why not Effigia?

In closing, I really hate this picture. As Darwin as my witness, I swear to you, the Cetacea show will be far superior.

One Week Left...

...until Talk of the Nation and Science Friday (NPR shows) talk about something other than the election. I stopped caring so deeply about the presidential race a loooong time ago, because it feels like it's been going on for at least half of Bush Jr.'s second term. And it probably has. I tripped over a Time magazine from early last year and it was talking about the Republican race for the primaries. Ironically, it said that McCain wouldn't make it. I'm an Obama supporter, if for no other reason than Sarah Palin makes me cringe and McCain very well may die in the White House, then leaving Ms. Devil Bones in charge of both the country and the Big Red Button.

And, you know, I'm sick of all the name-calling from the McCain camp. Obama's not a socialist, or a terrorist, or a Muslim. I'm not even sure how these names ended up sticking. Are the American people that stupid?

(Yes, sometimes they can be)

Just one fine point: McCain's people are calling Obama a socialist because he wants to "spread the wealth," which is apparently a socialist tenant. I have to read more about socialism, but I always thought it was more about the government owning property and doling it out among the populous as it saw fit. Anyway, this is after McCain helped pass the bailout bill, in which every man woman and child in American "shares the wealth" by giving it to the government, who then uses that money to take partial control of the banking system. Seems...ironic.

But in all honesty, I'm ready for it to be over. I'm not going to lose my head over whether my boy wins or loses. I'll just be happy when the news is not dominated by gaffs, flubs, and stumps.

Opinions on Les

Okay, thanks to Chris Taylor, I now have that Epidexipteryx paper in my meaty paws. I am working on a restoration (well, not right now), but I need some help. I need some opinions. Here is what I've decided I am going to do:

1) It's gonna have a long third finger. The one hand that is preserved in the fossil is not preserved well, but there's a good rationale for a long third finger based on the measurements of the first two bones of Digit III (read this on Tet. Zoo).

2) It's gonna have "fuzzy" feathers in the manner of Sinosauropteryx and Caudipteryx. I still have no idea what the authors mean when they say "membraneous structure." Does that mean that a whole bunch of feather filliments are arising from a single point, but held together at their base by some kind of membrane? That doesn't make any sense, and doesn't really jive with what we know about how feathers grow.

3) The elongated tail feathers are not going to be terribly rigid, but flowing and flexible, as I imagine they were in confuciusornids.

4) It will have a fully-reversed hallux, as Scansoriopteryx does.

Now, here are my questions. I encourage discussion here.

1) What should I do about the tail? Scansoriopteryx has a very long tail, but Epidexipteryx seems to have a really short one. As I learned on the DML, a break is possible where the "middle section" of the tail was lost. However, I just don't see that. The fact that the "snapped off" section of tail is so very close to the articulated section seems (to me, anyway) to imply that there's not a whole lot missing, there. On the other hand, it would also be strange that Scansoriopteryx and Epidexipteryx, which are sister taxa, have such wildly different tail lengths.

2) Should I give Epidexipteryx "flight feathers" along its arms? I know they weren't preserved in the fossil, but absence of evidence is not neccesarily evidence of absence. The animals directly below (deinonychosaurs) and above (birds) Epidexipteryx have contours along the arm, so why would this new animal lack them?

3) How do you think that long third finger would be carried when not in use?

Thanks for the help!

Uncle Ted Found Guilty

Can't say I'm surprised. I'm also quite happy--Ted Stevens did a lot for the state, sure, but ultimately he became corrupt, and that's when it's time for a change. I don't care how much good you do--if you think you're above the law in any regard, you don't deserve that power, and your punishment should be very harsh. Unfortunately, even though Ted got five years, he probably won't serve much, if any, of it. This also means he's out of the running for his senate seat on Election Day, and that his opponent, Mark Begich, a democrat, will win by default. I'm all for that, too.

Gaming Once More Takes Hold

Guitar Hero: World Tour came out. I had reserved it at Best Buy, and excitedly tore the box open and built the instruments within only to find that my drum kit does not work. The "control panel" does, so I can navigate menus within the system and the game, but the drum pads, cymbals, and foot pedal do not. The guitar is great, and so is the microphone, but I emailed Activision's support...website asking what I should do about the drums. My supreme hope is that I'm doing something wrong, and they can tell me how to fix it. I don't want to wait lord-knows-how-long for a replacement kit, only to find that IT doesn't work either (these things happen to me). Despite the malfunctioning percussion section, World Tour is awesome. The songs are fantastic, the guitar riffs are awesome, and I feel like they were finally able to craft the character models they'd always wanted to use. There's nothing quite like playing the lead guitar on a master recording of Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

In Playstation Network news, Yoda was made available for Soul Calibur IV, a move we always knew would happen, given that obviously-placed blank square on the character roster, right between Vader and Starkiller. I imagine that 360 owners can look forward to Vader on the Xbox Live Arcade. Yoda plays very differently than the other characters in that he's extremely short and surprisingly fast, and I can see how a skilled Yoda player could really spam that advantage.

More importantly, a game I never thought I'd be able to play finally arrived on the PSN: Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipise of Darkness: Episode 1 is just $15. I loved the demo, but alas, my own computer was unable to run the tech-heavy game, so I languished in agony, thinking I'd forever miss out on this very funny game. Well, now I can. I played Precipise for like two hours last night and loved every second of it.

And on Tuesday, Fallout 3 comes out. No rest for the weary!

Look, it's Les!

Nature reported today on a strange new feathered theropod from China. You might recognize this picture from other blogs. Indeed, it's covered elsewhere (Tet. Zoo, Archosaur Musings, HMNH) far better than you can expect here. I don't even have a copy of the paper!

*wink wink nudge nudge*

The new animal, Epidexipterus, is a subadult scansoriopterygian that's a mere 20 cm long--itty bitty to the extreme. As a subadult, I doubt the whole animal would've grown too much more, especially since its ribbon-like caudal display feathers have grown in (implying it's hit sexual maturity). I believe this makes Epidexipterus the smallest known non-avian dinosaur, beating Microraptor and Mei by a large margin. Among the more unique features to the animal: Procumbent dentition in the manner of Masiakasaurus, a surprisingly primitive pelvic arrangement, and very strange feathers that appear tufted but lack a central rachis. Indeed, the paper suggests that the feather filliments arise from some vague "membraneous" structure. Four very long "ribbon-like" feathers originating from the tail, which reminds me of Confuciusornis. The feathers appear very stiff.

Unfortunately, Epidexipterus lacks features (mostly due to incomplete preservation) that might synonymize it with Scansoriopteryx. The fossil does not preserve the hands very well, so that long aye-aye-like third finger is nowhere to be found. Epidexipterus has a mouth full of teeth, unlike its toothless baby cousin, and the tail seems incredibly short, although there's a break between the pelvis and the preserved caudals. While this could mean that a section of the tail was not preserved, the very close association between the back of the pelvis and the preserved caudals says to me that the tail really is very short. Once I somehow get ahold of the description, I plan on doing on my usual B&W line drawing restorations. Look forward to it, kiddies!

Pachyrhinosaurus teaser

Yesterday, I got the Pachyrhinosaurus monograph in the mail! Well, I actually had to go to the post office to pick it up--the Canadians package books in a strange way. Anyway, you would think that book is enormous. After all, it's the first ceratopsian monograph in over a century. However, this is not the case. I flipped through the book last night, and while I hadn't actually read it yet (Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia also came out yesterday...priorities, y'know), I can tell you a few things about it:

1) It's a scant 140-some pages long;
2) It is divided into three sections: Cranial osteology, taphonomy of the bonebed, and a detailed CT scan and description of the brain and inner ear;
3) The book does not cover post-cranial osteology, despite the fact that the introduction boasts that virtually every bone of the skeleton is known;
4) Juveniles look a whole lot like Brachyceratops and Monoclonius before transforming into what looks like a completely different animal upon reaching adulthood;
5) Whether the nasal and orbital bosses held keratinous horns (like rhinos) or rugose structures (like musk ox) is still a matter of debate.
6) Mike Skrepnick did a wonderful cover painting, but also a gorgeous life restoration within--he drew two possible head shapes: one with a traditional bony boss, and one with a gigantic keratinous horn on the nose and two smaller horns over the eyes. And I gotta say, although it looks a little odd, that giant horn is awfully cool.

I'll have a more adequate summary after I've gorged myself fully on Pachyrhinosaurus. I'm a little disappointed that there's no post-cranial osteology, but maybe that'll be in a second book...?

Warning! Warning!

People have been telling me that I might be in violation of the SVP embargo on presentations and poster sessions (although I didn't blog about any poster sessions). I may have to take the post down, so keep that in mind if it disappears in the next day or two.

Update: Notice that the post is gone. Sorry, folks, but I'm erring on the side of caution. I don't want to step on any toes. Dave Hone informed me that at least one topic I discussed was currently in review, so it's probably best to take the post down. This leaves me asking an irritating question, though: What's SVP for? Dibs? If the topics can't be discussed in a public venue (like the Interwebs), it seems like the presentations were for telling people, "I found this, you didn't, just lettin' you know. You can't talk about it until my paper is in print." That seems selfish and counterintitive. Remember Julia's rule of thumb? "Don't be a dick!" Is claim-jumping that big of a problem? As long as you cite the author(s) and make sure you don't make it sound like YOU made a particular discovery, what's the big deal?

Anyway, it's annoying. I was going to write several blog posts on particular talks, but now I can't. I had drawings and everything! :-(

New Blog

Sarah is a student at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. She has a new blog, and it's pretty cool. Unfortunately, she appears to be taking classes from Larry Martin, who thinks that Longisquama is related to Archaeopteryx. Sarah, if you give me your email address, there's a new paper on Longisquama that you should probably read, and I can send it to you. :-)

Pictures from SVP

A barely-viewable picture of Matt Celesky and his wonderful drawing of a pack (herd? flock?) of Coelophysis running around New Mexico while a monkey-lizard looks on.

Amanda, the Self-Designed Student. Maybe I should start using my flash...

ReBecca, from ReBecca's blog. The flash seems to work okay! If only I'd taken MORE PICTURES OF PEOPLE. Instead, I have three more pictures of fossil mounts from the museum.

My Return from SVP

Whoo! I just flew in from Cleveland, and boy are my arms tired! But seriously, I've never had more fun on a vacation, even if it was woefully short. I'll talk about the experience in another blog post, but I wanted to get this picture up, which I totally stole from Julia's webpage, because I was a fucking moron and didn't bring my camera to the luncheon. I think Scott brought one, so if Paul took a picture with Scott's camera, then I'm sure he'll send it my way.

At any rate, this picture is from the Blogger Luncheon that Julia organized, and I thank her for it. We all had a great time! From left to right, top to bottom, here are the attendees:

Thomas Holtz, Jr.
Matt Wedel
Patty
Andrew Farke
Nick Gardner
Alton Dooley
J & Amanda
Julia Heathcote
Jerry Harris
Matt Celesky
Zachary Miller
Scott Elyard
Neil Kelley

Fun times had by all! During the course of the four days I was there, I spent the most time with Scott (duh), Nick, Amanda & J, Matt Celesky, and Julia. I was not able to get as much chatting in as I might have liked with Neil, Andrew, Jerry, or Dr. Holtz, but hey, there's always next year! All of the people above are genuinely nice people. And while I didn't introduce myself to everyone I wanted to at SVP (I should've said hi to Phil Currie), there's always next year. And yes, I fully intend to go again next year, even though the meeting is across the pond.

I was also lucky enough to spend time with two of Scott's friends, Tony and his wife Alicia. Both of them are wonderful people, and I hope to see more of them when the snow melts. And I have to shout out a special thanks to Julia, who more or less acted as my guide for the meeting, and offered me a wonderful opportunity for next year--and she might regret it! Now then, on to the meeting itself!

Off to SVP Tonight

Well, kiddies, I'm leavin' on a jet plane at 10 p.m., heading for Cleveland, Ohio. If you want to meet up before Julia's luncheon on Friday, shoot me an email at either my Hotmail or Gmail address and I'll give you my cell number. I hope to run into at least a few of my fellow paleobloggers at lectures and poster sessions! I also plan on going to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History while I'm down there, so I hope there's a break in between talks I want to attend for that to happen...

Anyway, see you all down there! I'll be the guy with glasses, a cowboy-like hat, and a heavy laptop bag. SVP '08, whoo!

P.S. Would it be a dick move to make a copy of Dr. Holtz's paper in Tyrannosaurus rex: Tyrant Lizard King about how the obligate scavenger hypothesis is crap and, if I stumble across Mr. Horner at the conference, give it to him? :-)

The Virtual Art Show Hiatus

Sorry, folks, but until Scott and I get back from SVP, I won't be able to post any more pictures from the show, and indeed there is one more: Effigia, but we need to take its picture (digitally). This was going to be accomplished on Saturday, but we both overslept and decided to leave it for our return. Scott left that day, and I leave tomorrow night.

Also, a few people have asked me if we're going to do prints. The short answer is: Probably. They will most likely be on foamcore, and I'm hoping to sell them for $20 apiece, which would cover copy costs on our behalf and give us a little bit of profit. It'll all be worked out when we return, and digital pictures are taken of all the pieces. Apart from the foamcore, buyers will also get the text and Venn phylogeny for that particular animal.

The Virtual Art Show: Part 4

Arizonasaurus babbitti

Although Arizonasaurus has been known since 1947, a clear picture of the beast was not provided until 2002, when a nearly complete skeleton was unearthed in—you guess it—Arizona. The new material revealed a spectacular dorsal sail formed by the neural spines of the vertebrae, a strangely persistent feature throughout tetrapod evolution. The skull is large and filled with vicious, recurved teeth. Arizonasaurus would have been a formidable predator. Sails have appeared in virtually every major group of tetrapods, including amphibians, pre-mammalian synapsids, several dinosaur groups, and even some modern chameleons!

The function of dorsal sails remains a mystery. It was once thought that, among cold-blooded animals like Dimetrodon, the sail helped to gather heat. And indeed, this may be true. But in larger, potentially endothermic animals, the sails may have been used primarily as display devices, almost like living billboards advertising an animal's presence. If the solar panel function is the primary one, though, one would expect to see more cold-blooded animals with sails. But while sails occur independently among several tetrapod lineages, they are quite rare overall.

Artist Notes

Arizonasaurus made it into the show more by sloth than anything else. In fact, you may recognize it from a previous post. We threw this sailbacked poposaur in because, most importantly, the work was already done, and second, we felt we needed another piece. Looking back, we probably didn't, but the addition of a sail-backed member of the Crurotari certainly brought some flash to the show. Arizonasaurus has the distinction of being the single piece resulting from a collaboration between Scott and I. A loooong time ago, back in Version 1.0 of this blog (now defunct and deleted--thanks, Google!), I did a fairly lengthy post about crurotarsians, and the centerpiece for that post was the inked drawing of Arizonasaurus, shown below. That picture, however, failed to really "pop," so I begged Scott to color it for me using his latent psychic powers and knowledge of com-poo-tors. He did a wonderful job.

Fun Facts

Arizonasaurus' sail is strange to me. It doesn't really rise until it gets past the shoulderblades, giving it a somewhat abbreviated appearance. This is in contrast to animals like Dimetrodon and Ouranosaurus, who have sails that begin at or cranially to the scapulae. Arizonasaurus also has unusually flared neural spines, meaning that there wasn't a whole lot of skin between the vertebrae of the sail. Again, this is unlike Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus, who had spike-like neural spines. Many other sailbacked tetrapods had flared neural spines though, including Platyhystrix (an amphibian) and Spinosaurus. One wonders if there was a functional difference between these constructions, or just different ways of building the same structure?

For more Virtual Art Show fun, click the "Virtual Art Show" tag, because I'm too lazy to link to all the individual entries. Scott has several of his own pieces up at Coherent Lighthouse, too, so be sure to check those out! And Raven--all you've gotta do is Tupandactylus! Get on it!

I'm So Sorry: The Me Meme

Amanda went and tagged me for "The Me Meme," which I hear is the worst meme ever. Can't really disagree! Now you good people are forced to bear witness to my horrifying vistage. I cheated somewhat: I took two pictures, because the first one made me look like a resident of Innsmouth. The second picture was not quite as stagnant, so I'm using that.

Aaaand here are the instructions:

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.

2. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair...just take a picture.

3. Post that picture with NO editing.

4. Post these instructions with your picture.

LOOK AWAY!

Thank Cthulhu I shaved last night! I condemn the following blogger brethren to follow in my cursed footsteps: Scott (Elyard), Glendon (Mellow), and Christopher (Taylor). WAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The Virtual Art Show: Part 3

The Dinosauria

The Dinosauria is one of the most successful groups of tetrapods that ever existed. The first dinosaurs appeared during the Triassic period, some 250 million years ago, but did not rise to dominance until 20 million years later, in the Early Jurassic, after a minor extinction event wiped out the competition. With their larger archosaurian contemporaries out of the way, dinosaurs proceeded to explode in diversity. There were three main branches of the Dinosauria: Ornithischia, a group which included the armored, duckbilled, and horned forms; Sauropodmorpha, the giant long-necked animals; and Theropoda, the (mostly) carnivorous dinosaurs.

Individual dinosaur groups experienced high turnover rates until the Cretaceous period, when they diversified again, perhaps due to the appearances of early grasses and flowering plants. One group of theropods, the Maniraptora, gave rise to birds, the only dinosaur group to survive into modern times. At the end of the Late Cretaceous, 65 million years ago, a comet the size of Mt. Everest smashed into the Gulf of Mexico and blanketed the world in darkness and ash. Virtually all of the dinosaurs, as well as other large-bodied tetrapods (including marine reptiles) were annihilated. Even the prevailing group of birds, the Enantiornithines, were drowned out. Another, smaller family of birds, the Neornithines, somehow survived the fallout and diversified during the Cenozoic to include all living forms.

Artist Notes

I'm only responsible for the Allosaurus in this picture. Scott did the Brachiosaurus and Raven drew both the Triceratops and Corvus. Both of Raven's pictures are absolutely stunning. Her ornithischian has a certain William Stout quality to it, which is funny considering she doesn't know who William Stout is. Compared to the competition, I'm pretty unhappy with my contribution. It looks like a textbook drawing--the other pictures look like real animals. This is something I have to work on: giving my animals some life and personality. And context, as Scott would say. I'm also sad that my animal has pads on his left hand, but lacks pads on his right hand. I chalk it up to pathology or inattention to detail, take your pick!

Fun Facts

Why these four animals? We wanted to include a bird, an ornithischian, and a theropod. I chose Allosaurus and Triceratops because they were considered the anchor taxa before the dinosaur-bird connection was established. We were going to do a pigeon (or a dove, whatever the current saurischian anchor is), but went for the raven because Alaskans love their ravens. Also, Raven loves ravens (wonder why?). Originally, Scott was going to do the Triceratops, but we both thought that sauropods needed to be represented. The connection between sauropods and theropods isn't especially obvious to the common man, so we threw Brachiosaurus in there, too.

Games for Non-Gamers

In the comments section of my last post, Sean Craven asked what kind of games he could get into as a non-gamer. This post attempts to answer that question, as I think it's a good one. Honestly, Nintendo has really cornered the non-gamer market. They have embraced this unique demographic, and the Wii is certainly the way to go for anyone looking to ease their way into gaming or just play some easy-to-enjoy video games.

The console itself will cost you $250. Sorry, no price drop in the near future. As long as the system continues to sell out the second stores get new shipments, there's no reason to lower the cost. But honestly, you get a pretty good deal. You get the system, one Wii Remote with one of the new grips and a new wrist strap, composite cords, and a copy of Wii Sports. That game is interesting for two reasons. First, it's the first time since the SNES that Nintendo has included software with a console. Second, Wii Sports not only teaches you how to use the Wii Remote, it's just a really fun game, especially for a group of people. I took my Wii down to Kansas when my wife and I visited the in-laws over Christmas last year, and we all played Wii Sports every night!

Although you can simply trade a single Remote between players for most games, you'll need two (or more) to do multiplayer versions of Tennis, Boxing, and Baseball. Luckily, Nintendo's got you covered there, too. An "expansion pack" to Wii Sports, called Wii Play, is available in a bundle with a Wii Remote. For either $40 or $50 (depending on where you go), you can get a second Remote and more games like ping-pong and Duck Hunt.

What makes these games fun and accessible is that the motions used for the games mimic real-life. None moreso than Bowling, which is the most fun game, although once you get the hang of it, Golf is a real treat, too. Playing solo allows you to do a "Body Test" in which you are given an age based on how well you perform in different short games. Over time, your score decrease dramatically (which is good)! So a Wii plus Wii Play will run you about $300. That's less than the cost of a new PS3, and less than the cost of an Xbox 360 Arcade set plus one game. And if you want to get to the gym but are unable to find the time, Wii Fit may be the answer.

Here's a review. It's a pretty fun game--I still use it today. If you get comfortable with the motions in Wii Sports and Wii Play, your next step up may be Super Mario Galaxy or Mario Kart Wii, both of which use the Wii Remote's motion functions to affect gameplay. Mario Kart Wii is bundled with a "Wii Wheel," essentially steering wheel shell that you slide the Wii Remote into, and drive by turning the wheel in your hands.

So I'd recommend the Wii to non-gamers looking to get into gaming. There's the handheld option, too. The Nintendo DS offers some very non-gamer oriented games, like CrossworDS, which my wife loves, Nintendogs, which is beyond charming, and Tetris DS, which everyone knows how to play instinctively. If you like puzzles, you'll probably get a kick out of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. So there are plenty of options out there for the non-gamer!

Are Video Games Bad?

A few posts back, I covered Jack Thomopson's overdue disbarrment. In those two rants, I briefly touched on whether gaming was inherently damaging to, specifically, our youth. I would argue that no, it's not. At least, it's no more damaging than any other form of media. Jack Thompson's problem (and Hilary Clinton's, and Joseph Lieberman's) is that gaming is unregulated. This is totally untrue--the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, an organization founded in 1994 after Mortal Kombat began showing up in newspapers around the country, does a wonderful job of rating games. Frankly, the ESRB is analogous to the MPAA, although if you've ever seen This Film is Not Yet Rated, you know that the MPAA is corrupt and unfair. But we won't go there today. The ESRB has yet to sink into the deeply entrenched moral authority that runs our little country, so I support it. Just like the movies, games are given a ratings based on the content of the game. Developers submit footage of the most brutal or extreme gameplay to the Board, who gives it a rating based on that footage and a questionnaire.

When the retail release is ready to be shipped, publishers send a copy of the game to the ESRB, who checks it over to see how well the developer responded to criticisms and to see whether their initial submission was accurate.

The ratings are very much mirrored by the MPAA: E for Everyone (G), Teen (PG-13), Mature (R), and Adults Only (X). Also like the movie ratings, games that recieve an AO rating are generally not sold in stores like GameStop, Best Buy, Fred Meyer, etc. Also like the MPAA system, games are rated far more harshly if they include nudity or sexual content. Violence will usually result in merely a T or M rating, but if you throw a sex scene in there, it's AO. There are some exceptions, like God of War (the sex scene is off-screen) and Mass Effect (you'd really have to see it), which each recieved M ratings. Other games, though, with nudity but not violence (Singles: Spice Up Your Life) basically start off the process with AO's. Movie theaters won't screen X-rated films, and stores won't carry AO-rated games. Thus, financial disaster awaits those games that do go to market with AO ratings.

This whole problem would go away if parents actively participated in what their kids were playing. The ratings are there for a reason. If a game is rated M, Little Billy probably shouldn't be playing it anyway. Look, not every game out there is like Grand Theft Auto 4 or Gears of War. Those are the games the news media covers, because in a very specific context, they are controversial. And that context is this: Should your 8-year-old be playing Mortal Kombat vs. the DC Universe? Probably not! But can your 16-year-old? Sure. Can your 21-year-old play Mass Effect? I really have no problem with that, but you might.

There are safeguards in place anyway. Stores can't sell M-rated games to kids younger than 18. It's like buying alcohol--you have to show your ID when buying something like God of War. Stores that don't operate this way probably should. Gaming has achieved the kind of mass-market saturation that DVD players have nowadays, so it should be no surprise that more people are playing them. And here's another shocker: Many developers make games for that older audience. This is another thing the media doesn't seem to understand: It's not just preteens playing video games. The biggest shift in recent years in gaming has been the change in demographic. As my generation, who was raised on the NES, grows up, we continue to play video games, and thus the number of 21-35-year-olds has steadily increased. The Wii and the DS have successfully courted the female market, too. In Japan and Europe, women make up a significant portion of Nintendo's market.

At any rate, my other point is that there are plenty of very fun games out there for everybody, regardless of age or gender. Again, if you only listen to the news, you'll only hear about the next GTA or Halo. You'll never hear about the just-plain-fun games like Super Mario Galaxy, Patapon, or Beyond Good & Evil, which manages to be both political and empowering. God forbid we make mention of games that offer social commentary, incredible art direction, or any other positive light. For every Soul Calibur IV, there's a Tiger Woods Pro Tour. For every Resistance: Fall of Man, there's a Wario Land: Shake It. In fact, there are more.

So what about damaging people? Do violent games make kids more violent? Does seeing the GTA "Hot Coffee" mod make young boys want to have sex with their girlfriends? But more importantly, do video games make people want to do this more than films or television shows? I don't know if any actual hard data has been done on this topic. The news media is always crying foul, saying that the Columbine shooters played a lot of Doom and got it into their heads that they could do the same thing. That is complete and utter bullshit. First off, I don't think you can put people down any more than that. Kids play with toys all the time. Little boys with LEGOs create huge fortifications where the little LEGO men shoot each other and dragons eat them. Dinosaurs eat people, Little Bobby has a toy laser gun that he runs around with, shooting everyone in sight. Are you telling me that kids can't distinguish play from reality?

Second, what if those Columbine idiots really couldn't distinguish reality from fantasy? Are we going to generalize the clearly insane minds of two malcontent kids across the entire spectrum of youth in this country? That's insulting and fear-mongering. If you do a study, and find that one kid in a million thinks that he can jump off a cliff and "respawn" at the top after a few seconds, that kid is clearly nuts. You don't claim that all of the kids are nuts!

Let's talk about the positive aspects of gaming. Let's say you've got a kid with aggression issues. Is playing Grand Theft Auto 4 going to increase those tendancies? I doubt it. I'll bet that the reverse is true--in blowing off steam in a fantasy setting, the aggression probably goes down. Again, I'd love to see somebody do a study about this. Every gamer I've ever met says that gaming does several things:

1) It lets the user escape everyday worries for a little while and explore a different world on the user's own terms;

2) It relieves stress;

3) It provides a wonderful art medium;

4) It improves fine motor skills (there actually is a study that backs this up);

5) It's fun.

I have not met one person yet--and I went to PAX--who said they play games so they can practice killing somebody or blowing something up real good. Gamers are an odd bunch, but they're not fucking murderers. If you don't want your kids playing Fallout 3 (and if they're under 18, they probably shouldn't be), go to the store with them and pick out a different game. Better yet, see what games they play. Talk to your kids about video games. You already talk to them about drugs, cigarettes, sex, violence, whatever else. Gaming isn't something you can just ignore anymore. Parents have to get involved, and the media has to stop blaming the medium. Harsher restrictions on game content is not the answer, and besides that, it's a violation of the First Amendment (as has been shown many times in court).

Video games are here to stay. That's a good thing. Gaming is a perfectly legitimate art form, and like any piece of art, it's not going to please everybody. If you don't like what you're playing, play something else.

The Virtual Art Show: Part 2

Pterosauria

Pterosauria was the first vertebrate group to develop true flapping flight. Their origins are murky, because the oldest pterosaur fossils are already capable fliers! However, the fact that basal pterosaurs have both antorbital and mandibular fenestrae in their skulls indicate their archosaurian roots. Earlier pterosaurs, like Dimorphodon macronyx, had long, stiffened tails with bony rudders. Their wings were short, and the main wing surface ran from the end of the elongated fourth finger to the ankles. Furthermore, a hindlimb patagium ran between the elongated pinkie toes. This meant that early pterosaurs were clumsy on land, and may have spent all their time in the trees or on the wing.

Another group of pterosaurs, the Pterodactyloidea, arose during the Late Jurassic. They lost the long tails of their ancestors, elongated their wings, increased their walking abilities, and developed a menagerie of strange and wonderful headcrests. Two of the spectacular must have been Tupandactylus and Nyctosaurus. Pterodactyloids also diversified to tackle a wide range of foods and environments. Some, like Nyctosaurus, soared over the ocean, diving for fish like an albatross. Tupandactylus probably walked along the plains looking to scavenge or capture small vertebrates like an African hornbill. There was even a filter-feeding pterosaur from Argentina called Pterodaustro!

Artist Notes

Regular readers might remember that Nyctosaurus took an especially long time. Once again I must thank all my readers who commented and offered me tips and critiques on my drafts. Anyway, the final painting took its coloration from the Black Oystercatcher, a really beautiful Arctic seabird. Since Nyctosaurus is thought to have roosted around the Western Interior Seaway, I thought seabird colors would be fitting. However, gulls generally have pretty boring colors (although at one point I was considering the Black-Headed Gull) so I went with something more eye-catching. The toughest part was getting the crest to fit on the canvas--I was forced to shop off a few inches of the back-pointing portion to make it fit. The picture is almost life-size!

The Dimorphodon didn't require nearly as much work. Remember this awful attempt? It quickly evolved into a final draft which I turned into a transparancy and colored like a puffin. Why a puffin? Because ever since I was little, I'd thought that Dimorphodon's big ol' noggin looked puffin-esque. Ironically, it probably didn't live like a puffin. Puffins eat fish, Dimorphodon ate bugs and small terrestrial (and arboreal) vertebrates. Puffins roost on searocks and spend most of their time in the water, while Dimorphodon probably lived inland and, according to Mark Witton, may not have been the best flier. But I really like the color scheme, especially on the snout.

Another note: I wanted to try a range of media for the show. Dimorphodon was going to be on a piece of illustrator board and done up with illustrator markers. Unfortunately, illustrator board sucks, and flattened the look of my markers. I also bought cheap-ass markers because the good stuff (Prismacolor) was like $85. Anyway, the piece looked flat and faded, and I didn't like it at all, so I threw it out and started on canvas. I'm far happier with the canvas version!

Fun Facts

I didn't want to include Pterosauria in the show originally, because I wasn't convinced that the group should be included in the Archosauria! In fact, my position on their phylogenetic affinities is still tenuous, and rests solely on the skull features of Dimorphodon, who has both antorbiteal and mandibular fenestrae. Still, Euparkeria has both, too, and is not considered an archosaur proper. Nobody's done a good job of explaining to me why the group is currently placed close to, or within, the Ornithodira. I think Benton (I forget the year) did a good job of explaining why hindlimb features "shared" between ornithodirans and pterosaurs are convergences, and not the result of common ancestry.

Note: Once again, this format is FAIL.

Other posts in the Virtual Art Show:

Simosuchus

Stomatosuchus

When Good Technical Papers...GO BAD!

Wow. I was going to write about Sereno's new hollow-boned allosaur, but I just can't do it justice like Matt Wedel can. I haven't seen a good old fashioned verbal smackdown like this since the Blue Collar Scientist mowed people down on his blog. If you want some entertainment and scientific enlightenment, I urge you all to read Part the First and Part the Second of the Aerosteon saga.

The Virtual Art Show, Part One

Simosuchus clarki

"Clark's pug-nosed crocodile" is known from a single well-preserved skull from Madagascar. As a notosuchid, Simosuchus belongs to a group of small-to-medium sized crocodilians that reached the zenith of their diversity during the Late Cretaceous. The group ran the gamut of feeding ecologies. Simosuchus itself was probably an herbivore, given its leaf-shaped teeth and squared-off snout. It also would have been barely a meter long. Simosuchus would have been on the lookout for the dinosaurs it shared its habitat with. While one may think that such a small animal would be easy pickings for a carnivore, Simosuchus was probably adorned with the armor plating of its more modern relatives to protect it from harm.

Artist Notes

Simosuchus was one of the easier animals to restore for the show. Early on, I decided not to try and guess what kind of body it had, because the creature is only known from a single skull. So I did a headshot, and used a combination of crocodilian armor scutes and wonder gecko coloration for the general look. The actual painting took a long time, though, longer than any of the other pieces (except Effigia), because it was my second piece and I'd never painted before. Scott taught me how to do a "wash" by incorporating water into the acrylic paint. I used a wash for the lower jaw, although it seems pretty unsuccessful now. My pet wonder gecko, Big Boss, provided the splotch pattern. After coloring in the neck scutes, I decided they looked too flat, so I used my smallest brush and painted a white "apex" across each one. I think it looks nice. I don't especially care for the ventral scales, but by that point I was ready to move onto the next animal.

Fun Facts

Scott and I couldn't decide whether to do Simosuchus, Anatosuchus, or both. At one point, we were going to adorn each text board with sketches of related animals. I really wanted to get Chimaerasuchus in there, too, but I couldn't find its description. We did end up using a Simosuchus skull drawing I threw together one night. In the skull drawing, I emphasized Simosuchus' large palpebral bone, something that is not very apparant in the painting because of the spot pattern.

Note: The addition of more than one picture, plus both centered AND left-aligned text means that this post's format will be FAIL. It's not ugly on purpose--it's ugly because of eBlogger and my inability to read HTML fluently.

Woke Up This Mornin'...

Got five inches of snow on the ground!

No joke. Winter has begun two weeks early. I hadn't even gotten around to raking yet, and it's a goddamn white wonderland outside. Luckily, it's soft snow, so the roads are clear. Even so, I've taken my car to the shop to get my tires changed over--two of my summer tires are totally bare, so I'll slip and slide on the smallest patch of black ice.

Damn you, Old Man Winter! You already ruined our summer!

Must Purchase...and Yet...!

I'm ridiculously excited about this Pachyrhinosaurus monograph. October 1st is when it's available for purchase! It's October 1st today! But it's still marked as "Coming Soon!" ARGH! Why do you mock me, NRCC? I have money that I'm willing to give you right now and yet you make me wait! Make yon tome available, I beg of you!

UPDATE: It's been made available today! Yahoo! Bought it the first chance I got, although I chose the standard shipping method (insert Sideshow Bob-esque mutter here) because the air mail would have brought the total cost to about $75, which seems high.

You can see pictures of the new critter, Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, at the HMNH and Dinochick Blogs. Oddly enough, the life restoration has the old-school "giant horn" affixed to the snout.

The Man with Two Blogger Identities!

A note to all the people who get comments from me on a regular basis:

I have two email addresses, both apparently supported by eBlogger. Each address is correlated with an eBlogger identity. If you see "Zach," which you usually do, it's because I've signed in with my blog address: zman1902 at hotmail dot com. However, if you see "zachary," it's because I was too lazy to sign out of my Gmail account and sign INTO my blog account (hotmail), so that name is linked to my Gmail address: sillysaur at geemail dot com.

Just wanted to let you all know, just so there's no confusion. "Zach" is probably the same as "zachary" on most comments.