He Longs to Kill

Raptor Lewis was asking about my gecko(s) in a previous post, so I thought it was high time to take some pictures. Here's Solid, my only remaining leopard gecko (Mr. Fat died a few months after Liquid--old age). He's also the biggest and most aggressive leopard I've ever had. I imagine he's male.





Be on the lookout for pictures of my wonder gecko, Big Boss!

Job Hunt Update

I've sent out lots of resumes only to find that nobody is calling me back. I blame the holidays. Those in charge of hiring are either on vacation or just taking time off. I've applied for unemployment in the very real possibility I won't have a job in January, though I do have one veeery promising interview lined up for December 30th (I know, right?). The other, much scarier possibility is that my job skills are not in demand, and the jobs I want are not the jobs I'm going to get. Sinking to a lower income level is NOT something I want to do. It's also possible that every company that would hire me is going through a hiring freeze, as my company is doing right now. I suppose the scariest thing is that no job interview is a guarantee of employment, and that this interview is taking place literally two days before they punt my carcass out the door at my current job.

NOT a lot of wiggle room there. More as it develops...

Dangerous Ltd. is Either Very Stupid or Dishonest, or Both

Our friend Matt Wedel over at SV-POW wasn't treated very well by Dangerous, Ltd. These are the people who brought you Clash of the Dinosaurs on the Discovery Channel. The show itself is pretty bad, as I've said before, and you've probably read on other blogs. However, they quote mined Matt when it came to that old, dead myth about pelvic brains. That shit's not cool, and here's why: It's not just misinforming the public (which is bad enough), but it also puts Matt's reputation and credibility on the line. That's called slander, and it's a crime.

So, what to do, what to do? Well, the first step is to read Matt's account of the situationHERE. The next step is to email some of THESE PEOPLE and politely, succinctly, discuss your concerns. If you're thisting for further justice, you should know that Dangerous Ltd. is owned by Zodiak Entertainment. You can tell Zodiak that you're displeased with how their subsidiary is treating its interviewees HERE. Finally, you can tell the Discovery Channel that they should probably know better by emailing THESE people. I urge you all to, at the very least, email Dangerous Ltd.

Matt is considering legal action, and I don't blame him. Matt, best of luck to you, sir. If there's anything else I can do to help, just ask.

A Call for Ideas!

Folks, there are plenty of animals that are not dinosaurs but are mistaken for them by children's books, adult books, the popular press, etc. In the comments section, post your favorite (or most obscure) examples of prehistoric animals that are NOT dinosaurs, but are mistaken for them. Dimetrodon, Pteranodon, etc...Ready....set...GO!

Hey look, a new dinosaur!

Sometimes I discuss paleontology on this blog. It's rare, I know. However, today, I've been reading about an awesome new saurischian from New Mexico, from the same area that Vancleavea, Coelophysis and Effigia (among others) are found. This here is Tawa hallae, and it is described as occupying a position between herrerasaurids and neotheropods. Andrea Cau has an alternate, interesting opinion over at Theropoda. I haven't read the paper yet, but Bill Parker has, and he discusses its importance over at Chinleana. I urge you to read both, as the alternate hypotheses regarding the phylogenetic position of Tawa are fascinating. I'll have more to say once I've read the paper myself (hint hint, readers) and maybe drawn my own reconstruction.

Clash of the Dinosaurs: Highs & Lows

The Discovery Channel started a new dinosaur series on Sunday called, um, Clash of the Dinosaurs. I think it discusses new ideas about dinosaur biology and evolution, I'm not really sure. I watch it for the talking heads, honestly, who are people I know and have met, which is awesome. I urge you to watch the first episode and make your own determination, but here's my rundown of the pros and cons.

In the Green Corner...

1. The dinosaurs look really nice. Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Sauroposeidon, Deinonychus, and Quetzelcoatlus are the stars and the artists put some time and effort into these critters. For the first time since I can remember, these TV-special-calibur CG dinosaurs look better than the beasties in Walking With Dinosaurs, a benchmark I've been hoping somebody will overcome for the better part of a decade. They even put (some) feathers on the raptors, so there you go.

2. They had an animation of Quetzelcoatlus landing...and then taking off! You better believe I rewound and replayed those sequences about five times each. Easily the highlight of the episode for me. The rest was pretty standard dinosaur vs. dinosaur fare. And hey, then the big pterosaur chowed down on a baby T.rex, so bonus points all around!

3. Thomas Holtz bringing the smackdown to T.rex as a scavenger (briefly). Always appreciated. I can't help but notice and be amused by the fact that he and Bakker are now the go-to guys for T.rex, but Horner was nowhere to be found. A welcome change!

4. Matt Wedel really likes Sauroposeidon, and explains the hazardous life history of giant sauropods really, really well.

5. The T.rex bit off the Trike's postorbital horn! AWESOME! And then it got stabbed in the eye (and, from the looks of it, brain)! YET MORE AWESOME! I winced, internally. Look, folks! They're basing their behavior animations on fossil evidence now! Another bridge has been crossed.

In the Red Corner...

1. Limited animation sequences repeated endlessly. How many times do I have to see the same X-ray view of T.rex sniffing the air? How many dinosaurs is that baby T.rex going to fall out of its egg? How many times do I get to see that angry Triceratops bellow? About a million each, apparantly.

2. Everybody is ga-ga for raptors hunting in packs. It's a hypothesis, sure, but I was hoping that somebody would bring up that one study that convincingly suggested that they were more like varanids than canines. That analogy WAS applied to T.rex, but in a throw-away manner.

3. They show kept pounding away at the idea that T.rex was some sort of Einstein among dinosaurs, but then concluded by saying they were all morons who got along thanks to their physical adaptations (they didn't need to be smart). Make up your mind, Discovery Channel. For whatever reason, they pulled "four miles away" out of their ass for "how far away T.rex could see things." The implication being that "things" means "prey items." I'm doubting that. A mountain? Sure. A Trike? Maybe not.

4. Are those hatchling sauropods rising from a sandy nest, or adults moving through a sand dune? It's hilariously unclear.

5. Sauropods had no way of defending themselves from attack? How about kicking, tail-whipping, or stomping? The juvenile Sauroposeidon, which looked about as big as an Astrodon given the trees around it, just kinda stood there while the raptors tore it apart.

6. Dinosaurs are no daikaiju. You don't need to slow their motion down to impart a sense of size. In reality, big animals are very capable of making incredibly fast movements. Have you ever seen a spooked (or pissed-off) elephant? That sucker makes unbelievably quick movement. Jerky, reflexive motions. The same principle can be applied to dinosaurs, but you never see it. Not here, not anywhere.

So that's the rundown. Again, I encourage you to watch it because overall it's quite good. Since it's a cable network, it's probably on at least once a day, so it shouldn't be too hard to catch a repeat.

Shit Be Funny, Yo.

This is the funniest things I've seen all week.

There Be Dragons (in the Triassic)

Here's a freaky one for ya: Vancleavea campi, a non-archosaur archosauriform from the Chinlea Formation. Although known since 1995, the heavily armored, semi-aquatic beastie was only just now fully described, by Sterling Nesbitt, who also described my favorite Triassic critter, Effigia. Vancleavea may be a close second, however. I mean, look at this thing. It's got a long, sinuous body, short skull with nasty-looking fangs, and a long, laterally flattened tail with a dorsal fin formed NOT by elongate neural spines but instead separate ossifications that would have been attached to the caudal vertebrae by soft tissue.

Well, this is nice. Blogger isn't loading the picture upload, so just head over here to see a skeletal restoration and the bugger's skull. Also note the extremely small limbs, which make me wonder how much time Vancleavea spent out of the water. What's most interesting to me, though, is that the entire body, from the back of the head to the tip of the tail, was covered in overlapping scutes of varying morphologies. I have the paper if anyone wants a copy. Seriously, you need to read about this animal!

Nesbitt, S. J., Stocker, M. R., Small, B. J. & Downs, A. 2009. The osteology and relationships of Vancleavea campi (Reptilia: Archosauriformes). Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society 157, 814-864.