Let’s start with the information you need most: Dougal Dixon’s speculative evolution classic The New Dinosaurs, which imagines the biota of today if the K-Pg extinction event had never happened, is being reprinted in a handsomely-produced new edition from Breakdown Press.
In the past decade or two, I’ve seen a LOT of popular science books of this form: [NOUN] Learn how this amazing [whatsit] allowed the rise of civilization, informs every aspect of our daily lives, and may hold the key to our future.
Ten years ago, almost to the day, Matt and I were having a conversation vie Google chat. We got onto the evergreen topic of scholarly publishing.
This Saturday, July 19, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is hosting Aquilops Day. Before Jurassic World Rebirth was released, I was interviewed by the folks at the SNOMNH about Aquilops.
Today sees the publication of what is, OK, an interesting paper on how the serrated trailing edge of the flippers of the ichthyosaur Temnodontosaurus may have enabled it to generate less turbulence, enhancing its abilities as a stealth predator: Lindgren, Johan, Dean R. Lomax, Robert-Zoltán Szász, Miguel Marx, Johan Revstedt, Georg Göltz, Sven Sachs, Randolph […]
Lateral ( a, b ) and postero-dorsal ( c ) views of the head and neck region in alcohol-preserved, intact specimens of Congosorex verheyeni ( a , SMNS 50411), Surdisorex norae ( b , FMNH 190260) and Congosorex phillipsorum ( c , FMNH 177721). Posterodorsal view ( c ) is of the same semi-transverse section, osteology in red, with
(This was buried in Part 5 of my 2011 review of the Sideshow Apatosaurus maquette, but it’s long deserved to be a post of its own, and now it is. I’m not adding anything new here, just extracting and reposting the relevant bits, for reasons that will become clear in a future post.
This thing arrived in the mail yesterday. Just in time… I say “semi-spoileriffic” because I’m not going to go out of my way to give away any plot points or creature details you couldn’t get from watching the trailers and TV spots, but if you want to keep yourself pure as the driven snow, you might want to save this post for later. I don’t know that I’ve ever done a movie review on this blog. It’s not really our thing here.
It crept out quietly under cover of darkness, but I’m pleased to say that today saw the publication of a new paper: Van der Linden, Tom T. P., Michael P. Taylor, Amy Campbell, Brian D. Curtice, René Dederichs, Lucas N. Lerzo, John A. Whitlock, D. Cary Woodruff and Emanuel Tschopp. 2025. Introduction to Diplodocoidea.
Click to embiggen White rami are usually thicker than gray rami, and sometimes they are visibly different in color, but they are always the more lateral connections between the sympathetic chain and the intercostal nerves, and the ones you’ll see first when you peel off the parietal pleura. You may even see the white rami through the parietal pleura if it’s thin enough.
Gotta say, watching Scarlett Johansson making eyes at Aquilops is not getting old. Screengrab from this clip, the good stuff starts about 6:19. This short clip from the Tonight Show is also pretty great. Aaaand Halloween costume: sorted. I already have everything I need! (…except the lifelike Aquilops puppet.