Qilong is the name Chinese researchers gave to the first specimen of the theropod dinosaur Gasosaurus constructus when it was first uncovered, a name that was meant to evoke the properties of its scientific name: qi (gas, air, but also energy) and long (dragon) were given direct parallels to gaso (gas) and saurus (lizard). Thus, they mean the same thing. But way back then, I confusingly associated the name with a much more interesting animal, now called Hexinlusaurus multidens, an ornithischian dinosaur with one of the more interesting dentitions among dinosaurs. I’ll talk about it one of these days.
Having been horribly interested in paleobiology as a young’un, I’ve developed a strong interest in biomechanics and the methodology of science itself, and its application to paleobiology. This has eventually led to this blog, where it merged with my highly inflated sense of my own importance and an interest in the properties of the evolution of dietary morphology, ecology, and nomenclature. I have a ridiculously strong interest in teeth, one of those odd interests that arose when I first started looking at animals that had none, especially Oviraptorosauria, a clade of theropod dinosaurs nested among toothed kin. These beaky blokes, with faces shortened and crests adorn’d, are the primary reason I had started looking into the mechanisms and products of the evolution of the loss of teeth, and this meant I had to look at dietary mechanisms, ecology, processes of carnivory and herbivory and other types of -vory.
Having not obtained an academic degree, I’m currently working on producing several academic articles with a major focus on biomechanics and an interest in becoming a technical illustrator, with some of my chops to be found here. I’m a published illustrator, though the range is (so far!) limited skeletal reconstructions of some dinosaurs.
I may have developed a goatee since this picture was taken.
This blog is thus about anything that captures my fancy, but certainly mostly about animals biting stuff.
Jaime A. Headden
The Bite Stuff 