Excellent Start to the Week

Just an hour ago, I was called in to a meeting at work. That meeting consisted of three people: Myself, my supervisor, and a woman from HR. You can only guess where things went from there. I was laid off, not for any particular reason as to my own performance, but because the company is simply eliminating overhead positions--including mine. Thankfully (?), they are giving me until Jan. 1st to find a new job before I have to leave, so four weeks instead of two, which is nice. So if things are quiet on the blog for the next months, it's became I'm looking for work. I wonder about my chances in this economy, but I think I know what kinds of jobs to avoid, and what to veer towards. I'll probably apply for unemployment as a safeguard, and I might have to get COBRA if I haven't found something by the new year.

They did give me today off, with pay, so I can update my resume.

Wish me luck!

Sorry for the Absence

Sorry, kids. Not much to report. I have a crapload of papers to print out, including an awesome description of Vanclevea by Sterling Nesbitt. This will be done tomorrow, at work, a place I don't want to go after a five-day weekend. How did I spent my time over the last five days? Playing games, mostly: I beat Batman: Arkham Asylum tonight (great game) and got very far into Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. I also started Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, which is wonderful so far and delivers mind-numbing time-based puzzles.

Surely that's not all I've been doing, right? How about some productivity, there? I am happy to report that the bulk of my remaining time was spent re-reading "The Lost World" (I'm halfway through), and I'm enjoying it for what it is. Seems that every dinosaur on Isla Sorna is green, though, which is absurd. I've also been working concepts for an upcoming commission, and more concepts for "Life on Leather Wings," including this little gem:



The wings are of secondary importance. The key here is that I did this whole figure blind--no references--and it came out okay. The more I do this, the better I get at it (GO FIGURE!). Stay tuned for a wealth of paleo-related posts as I sort through the massive backlog of papers on my Gmail.

27th Annual Birthday Post

The title says it all. I've survived for 27 years thank to my long-suffering family. I'm taking tomorrow off, because Thursday and Friday are holidays here at the office. Thus, over the next five days, I will become one with the couch. I'll have my wife post pictures when the melding is complete. Tonight, I am spending my birthday money on three games. My backlog is already quite vast, and now, it will expand in size.

And, as per tradition, I present a gratuitous picture of Salma Hayek.

Lily Profile

Messing around a few nights ago, doing concept art for "Life on Leather Wings." The only thing I really liked that came out of that session was this potential profile of Lily. I think she looks a little too old here, but the shape ain't bad. I drew this "blind," that is, without any reference material in front of me. Not bad!

I Didn't Get an I.V. Yesterday

And I'm very happy about it.

The last few months saw a flare-up from the normal bugs in my lungs, and at my last doctor's appointment, my PFT's were down 7% since...well, October of 2008. My doctor prescribed Ciprofloxin, which doesn't always work on my bugs, with the understanding that if I didn't recover within 10 days, it was time for an I.V. I wasn't super-excited about that possibility, but I wouldn't be surprised either, since I haven't had a "tune-up" in seven years. Anyway, the Cipro seems to have knocked out whatever was causing a ruckus. He gave me another week of Cipro and there will be a recheck on my birthday, because my doctor is very paranoid. Better safe than sorry, I suppose. He also wants me to gain some weight, which is understandable. I'm below 170 right now, so I'll be eating like a pig for the next week.

I never talk about CF on the blog, but this was exciting. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled paleo/art/gaming blog...

If a Crocodile and an Entelodont Had a Baby...

It might look something like Kaprosuchus saharicus, one of five new crocodilians described in a new paper by Sereno & Larsson. I heard about a few of these beasties at SVP, but they had very informal names: "DuckCroc," "BoarCroc," "DogCroc," etc. We've all heard about Anatosuchus before, but it gets a full description in this paper. Cretaceous Africa really saw some bizarre creatures: dinosaurs that were converging on gharials, giant big-nosed crocodiles that ate dinosaurs, and now these buggers, at least one of whom I can see chewing on smaller dinosaurs. National Geographic also has some life restorations, though I can't speak to their quality.

I'm Excited, Personally.

BioShock was the most beautiful game, from an art direction perspective, that I've played in years. It didn't hurt that the gameplay was kickass and the storyline was freakin' creepy and got in your head. The sequel launches on February 9, 2010. This will be a day-one purchase, no doubt.

HOLY SHIT THAT'S AWESOME Edit: This is the greatest special edition I've ever seen. For anything. Ever.

Aarondynx celestae

Having not seen a single life restoration of Adam Yates' new transitional sauropodomorph, I humbly submit my own:


Why did I add neosauropod-esque dorsal spines? Because I can. Such is the dark power of the unsupervised paleoartist. I must admit, I am particularly impressed by the animal's relatively short, but sizable forelimbs and very deep tail.

Animals With Clubs & Maces

Plenty of animals have evolved natural defenses toward predation and intraspecific combat. You don't need to jump into the Wayback Machine, either, because so many armored creatures are right in front of us: armadillos, pangolins, horney toads, thorny devils, sea urchins, and of course turtles to name a few. However, some animals in Earth's history found it wise to develop a more proactive form of protection: tail clubs. These are most recognizably found on ankylosaurs, like Euoplocephalus (above). Only one group of ankylosaurs (the ankylosaurines) seem to have evolved tail clubs. They are formed from hypertrophied bone scutes that get progressively larger as the animal grows.

Earlier this year, Victoria Arbour found that a full-grown ankylosaur's tail club could easily break the limb bone of an attacking tyrannosaur. This was achieved by virtue of the structure of the ankylosaur tail. Imagine a rod attached to a flexible base with a heavy club at the end. This is easy to model: try swinging a baseball bat with your arms to hit something. Now, try swinging a chain. The bat, being a solid rod, does more damage. The problem, though, is that after enough hits, the structure of the bat breaks down. Ankylosaurs try to solve that problem by reinforcing the caudal rod with interlaced ossified tendons that wrap around the vertebrae. They originate at the sacrum and actually continue underneath the osteoderms of the club. This protects the rod from damage by cushioning the blow and absorbing the impact force. It also strengthens the rod, making it more dangerous!


Millions of years after all the ankylosaurs had gone extinct, xenarthran mammals became the new heavily-armored kids on the block. Glyptodonts are related to sloths and armadillos, and their armor is very distinct. Rather than being formed from a wide range of scutes, spikes, and plates embedded in the skin, glyptodonts enveloped their bodies in tiny, interlocking, hexagonal scutes. While protective, this "coat of mail" allowed limited flexibility for the movement of the limbs beneath it. The head was topped by these same scutes. In many glyptodonts, the tail was protected by a series of ever-smaller scute "rings." The tail itself often ended in a pot-marked club. Experts suggest that conical spines sat in these pot-marks, giving the tail club a mace-like appearance.

What would be more dangerous than getting whacked by the relatively blunt side of an ankylosaur club? Being jabbed by the point of a glyptodont mace, that's what! Blanco, Jones & Rinderknecht found that the largest conical spines originated at the tail club's "center of percussion." That is, the point at which the most damage could be done while avoiding repercussive injury. All the force of a swinging club concentrated at the point of a mace? That could really do some damage! However, rather than attacking predators, the maces may have been used in intraspecific combat, as evidenced by healed carpace fractures in some individuals. Despite gross morphological differences, the tail clubs of ankylosaurs and glyptodonts are built the same: a flexible base wields a strong, infexible rod with a club or mace at its end.

But ankylosaurs and glyptodonts aren't the only animals with tail clubs...


How could we forget about Meiolania, a large Pleistocene turtle from Australia? Meiolania was about as well-protected as turtles come, with large cranial horns, pointed carpace edges, and half-rings of spines on the proximal half of its long tail. The distal third was covered in an extensive bony shell of its own--an inflexible club that was covered with spikes. Unlike ankylosaurs and glyptodonts, Meiolania's caudal vertebrae were not stiffened into a rod, but the half-rings would have limited the tail's lateral mobility. Rather than remark on this turtle's club, I will simply leave you with a question: what on Earth was this turtle defending against?

Age of Reptiles

As most of you know, I rarely read actual books. It's mostly scientific tomes and comics for me, thank you. A very long time ago, I discovered Ricardo Delgado's excellent Age of Reptiles series. The first "volume" is entitled "Tribal Warfare" and details an ongoing feud between a family of tyrannosaurs and a group of dromaeosaurs. It is lavishly illustrated and wonderfully layed out. It is among my favorite comics.












Several years later, another volume of the comic came out: "The Hunt" tells the story of a little allosaur whose parents were killed by a group of Ceratosaurus. After growing up, the allosaur takes it upon himself to hunt down the ceratosaurs and exact his revenge. It all sounds very pulpy, but the stories work well. The end of "The Hunt" is especially interesting. Actually, the end of "Tribal Warfare" is pretty freaking epic, though nowhere near as subtle.











Well, this month, the first issue of a new volume came out, entitled "The Journey." I picked it up the other day and I'm kind of on the fence about it. The quality of illustrations from "Tribal Warfare" to "The Hunt" took a pretty big hit, and "The Journey" looks considerably worse. It's much looser and abstract. There are tiny moments of inspiration, such as a baby Triceratops riding on its mother's nose, but the sense of motion that was so prevelant in the first two volumes is all but gone here. "The Journey" looks more like a series of photographs, or a collection of establishing shots. It's being released on a bimonthly schedule, so I'm eager to see where the story goes (if anywhere at all) in January.

When Pigs Fly Returns 500th Post Spectacular!

As the title implies, this is my 500th (published, existing, non-deleted) post on When Pigs Fly Returns. I consider that quite the landmark—it’s not a number I ever considered reaching. WPFR is a blog I write for when I find the time to do so. You’ll note that the first post was back in March of 2007, but even that number is dubious. Longtime readers may remember the original “When Pigs Fly” blog that was abandoned because my then-current Gmail account became corrupted and I couldn’t sign into Blogger anymore. So I started another site called “When Pigs Fly: Part Deux,” but then I forgot…the new password. Brilliant, right? Well, it’s a miracle that hasn’t happened during the almost three-year history of WPFR, but here we are, right at 500 (published, existing, non-deleted, current blog) posts.

So even though this concept is a very long time from completion, I thought I’d share with you readers a Very Big Step I’m taking. This is an idea I’ve been developing since I started doing sketches for the Silk Succubus, and probably even before that, subconsciously, seeing as I’ve struggled to develop a female character for a very long time. Meet Lilem Beatrice Mephistopholese, who will (someday) star in a page-length weekly comic called “Life on Leather Wings.” I have more of a vision for Lily than I’ve had for any iteration of Selena. I can see what she does from morning until night, and the adventures she has. Her social interactions, family life, and unique role are all crystal clear in my mind. Like Mr. Craven said before, we dream in fire but work in clay. I can see it in my mind, but hopefully that art class next semester will help me mold the clay myself. Having said that, I certainly wouldn’t mind collaborating with another artist out there.

Lily is a Lilem, a daughter of Lilith and fathered by Mephisto. Lilith, of course, is the mother of all Succubi, and all of her children are known as Lilem. The children take their father’s name as a last name to differentiate themselves from each-other. Lilith gives all her daughters differentiating middle names and addresses them by that name. So Lily would be “Beatrice” to her family members. However, she prefers “Lily.” She has seven paternal sisters.

Their job is to tempt human men on Earth and then steal their souls through physical (not necessarily sexual) contact. Fresh souls sustain the Lilem and end up in Hell where they become part of Satan’s ever-expanding army. Lily’s sisters take their jobs seriously, but Lily herself has a stronger sense of justice than most Lilem and tries to only steal souls that she believes are corrupt or deserving of eternal damnation. Mortal food provides no sustenance for Succubi—only a diet of souls. Luckily, a single soul can sustain a Succubus for several weeks (like an anaconda). Lilem inherit demonic features from their father. In Lily’s case, that means enlarged canines (some of her sisters can protract/retract them) and large bat wings. Other Lilem are decorated by bony spines or cranial horns. All Lilem can “turn off” their demonic features on the mortal plane.

…Except Lily.


Her father (Mephisto) disapproves of her “freewheeling” lifestyle, and has cursed her to not be able to hide her wings or canines. Lily lives on Earth despite this handicap, though she is mostly active at night in the public sphere. Unlike her sisters, Lily’s wardrobe is hampered by her omnipresent wings. In fact, I’m still working on her costume(s). When out and about, her wings present some degree of inconvenience. Obviously, Lily flies whenever possible, but when she has to walk among the people, she wears a large overcoat or a cape. She lets her wings out on Halloween, though, and usually gets a lot of compliments on them.

Lily is 5’6” tall, about 120 pounds, and her measurements hover around 36-24-38. She has black hair and sea-blue eyes. I haven’t nailed down her wingspan, but it’s a bit more than 10 feet. The wings originate over her shoulderblades. Like a bat, she can fold them up pretty tight. Unlike bat wings, Lily’s are tetradactyl. Her first wing-finger is short, semi-opposable, does not contribute to the wing surface, and is tipped by a large recurved claw. The other three wing-fingers are connected by a strong cheiropatagium and end in long pointed claws. A narrow propataium extends between the wing-shoulder and wing-wrist.

Lilem are immortal, and most wounds heal on their own—even torn-off limbs. However, Lilem will “die” if they are starved of souls or the head is removed from the body. They can also be killed if injured by certain holy weapons. Killing a Succubus by starvation merely sends the demon back to Hell, where it recovers. Beheading or killing by holy weapon actually does “kill” the Succubus: they disappear from the mortal plane and end up on the shores of Purgatory, where escape on one’s own is impossible. Curiously, Succubi are not a major concern of Heaven. Exactly why is currently unknown (but will be explored). However, high-ranking demons—individuals who originally participated in Satan’s rebellion especially—are the target of immediate retaliation from Heaven’s Vanguard if they should ever cross into the Earth Realm. Hell’s generals live in the dread City of Dis, and train Hell’s army for the inevitable second war with Heaven. Satan does not reside in the 9th Circle but moves between them at will, overseeing military operations and obsessively planning his vengeance.

So that's the basis of the story. The comic will open with Lily showing her younger half-sister, Gwendolyn, "the ropes," as it were, to introduce the reader to Lily, her world, and her role in it. After that, I'll examine how Lily hunts her prey, explore her relationships with her sisters, and introduce more fiendish characters like Incubi and my vision of Hell's geography. Like I said, I'll be taking art classes in the near future to hone my craft, and I'm very excited about this project, having gone so far as to script out the first few pages. I'm also not against collaboration, so if you're a talented artist out there who's interested in helping out, drop me an email. Either way, I think this will be an awesome project.

Ontogeny in Pachycephalosaurs

So here’s something interesting. Remember awhile back where I yammered about how Dracorex and Stygimoloch might represent young growth stages of Pachycephalosaurus. I determined that Dracorex might be a juvenile of Stygimoloch, but that Stygimoloch is a distinct genus from Pachyrhinosaurus. This yapping was in response to a suggestion by Horner & Goodwin that the three genera might be synonymous. Well, just last week, they got around to publishing a paper in PLoS One detailing their interesting theory. They make a darn good case, noting that the spikes of the skull seem to be homologous across all three species. Also, interestingly, bone histeology reveals that Dracorex is a juvenile, Stygimoloch is a subadult, and Pachycephalosaurus is an old geezer. These are basically the two lines of reasoning that Horner & Goodwin use to synonymies the three genera under Pachycephalosaurus (well, along with the fact that all three are from the same place and time).



I think there’s a great circumstantial evidence to suggest synonymy. However, let’s be honest here: the only thing we know for sure now is that Dracorex is a juvenile (of something), Stygimoloch is a subadult (of something), and Pachycephalosaurus is an adult. Really, the three species could still be entirely valid, or maybe just two. It’s not a great sample size, and time will tell whether this hypothesis persists or not. I think what would be very telling is to find, in association, Dracorex and Stygimoloch, or Dracorex and Pachycephalosaurus. Given that psittacosaurs and duckbills are big on family togetherness, you’d think such instincts would be present in pachycephalosaurs, too. Maybe someday we’ll find a family association of Pachycephalosaurus that will be a better test of Horner & Goodwin’s theory.

But the idea that Dracorex = Pachycephalosaurus has an interesting implication for Mongolia’s pachycephalosaur taxa. Andrea Cau mentions this on his blog, and I think it’s worth repeating here. Note the potentially-telling similarities of Homocephale and Prenocephale. I’m especially drawn to the scute patterns behind the eyes of both animals, and the shape of the postorbital fenestrae. This is hardly a rigorous observation, but it may warrant further investigation.