Yearly Archives: 2014

Piscivory – Building the Groundwork

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

I tend to be very generous when it comes to labeling diets. Animals are not perfect boxes to never spill out of their strict defintions, nor are their diets, produced as they are from a variety of different sources. You’ll … Continue reading →

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A Short Piece on Piscivores – Not All The Same

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

So you think you know a piscivore if you saw one? Not so fast. Take a look: Piscivores come in a large array of sizes and morphologies. Not all have teeth. Some are slender-snouted, others broad. What mostly defines a … Continue reading →

Posted in Biological Comparison, Biology, Paleoecology, Paleontology, Terminology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

An Edentulous Dsungaripterid? 10 Facts About Banguela

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

So I’ve gone on and on about all this boring stuff about writing papers and my personal experience and analysis and what not. But you probably want to know about Banguela oberlii, the pterosaur. Let’s talk about what the paper … Continue reading →

Posted in Paleobiology, Paleoecology, Paleontology, Science Reporting | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The Journey of Banguela

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

The life of a pterosaur cannot be easy. Most occur in places where there is always a larger predator; even the giants Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopterus may have co-occurred with other predators that would have seen them as food. From hatching … Continue reading →

Posted in Biological Comparison, Paleontology, Science Reporting, Systematics, Taxonomy | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The Broken Jaw of Banguela

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

In my last post, I introduced Banguela oberlii, a new, toothless dsungaripterid pterosaur.

Posted in Paleontology, Science Reporting, Taphonomy, Taxonomy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Meet Banguela

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

A foggy morning. Water laps gently on a rocky shore, a rhythmic sound accompanying the gentle hum of insects. Mist hugs the forest margin, creeping along the ground; it shrinks back as the heat of the rising sun burns away … Continue reading →

Posted in Paleontology, Science Reporting, Taphonomy, Taxonomy | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

Whether Shrink-wrapping

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

Shrink-wrapping is a process by which a thin film is stretched taut over an object. The closer the film to the object, the tighter the two conform. The term applies the same way when it comes to paleontological reconstruction of … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biological Comparison, Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Muscles and Style

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

Look at the surface of an animal, you will see what the animal looks like. Look beneath the surface, you will see why it looks that way. I’ve done a few musculature studies of fossil animals over the years, and … Continue reading →

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What To Do With Crests – Updated

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

Yesterday — on April 1st, which is about as warning bells as they come — I uploaded a post with a host of new art. This post is as much an admission that that post, somewhat subtly, is a joke. … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Philosophy, Reconstruction | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

What To Do With Crests

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Jaime A. Headden

Over the course of looking at the new specimen of Edmontosaurus (Bell et al., 2014) sporting an odd accretion, I had an epiphany: The “cock’s comb” was, in fact, merely a segment of the neck, falsely and purposely isolated by … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction | Tagged , , | 5 Comments