The Author
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. It, and all of its files and contents -- unless otherwise noted -- are protected by this license.License established 9/9/2012, while previously I was using a CC-BY-ND license instead.
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Category Archives: Biological Comparison
Necessary Sacrifices
Today I step away from something that has occupied my life for … over two decades now. I have no idea if I will ever return. It saved my life when I needed it to, and stepping away is almost … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Biological Comparison, Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Personal, Reconstruction
23 Comments
Herbivores All the Way Down
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, a revolution in the way dinosaurs were conceived to have evolved occurred, in which a basal stock of croc-ish animals (this was during the “thecodont origin of … everything (?)” phase of archosaur relationship … Continue reading
Facial Expressions
The various and many ways to make a “cheek,” and the various facial tissues for which we have primary (preserved remains) and secondary (inferred) evidence for, in fossil sauropsidans. (These images are CC-BY-ND-NC. Please don’t take them without permission.)
Posted in Art, Biological Comparison, Biology, Biomechanics, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction
Tagged Birds, Cheeks in Dinosaurs, Diet, Integument, Lips, Lizards and Snakes, Ornithischians, Uromastyx
7 Comments
A Mystery of Caenagnathidae
Some time ago, Michael Mortimer posted on his site the idea that the Dzharakuduk avian Kuszholia mengi might actually be an oviraptorosaur! The similarities in the vertebrae (based mostly on sacrals) were starling. But also convergent. Was it? The Dzharakuduk … Continue reading
Shell Crushing Pterosaurs and Bad Posture
Small post here. This one is going to seem incomplete, the title a tease. It’s a premise for more things. But you’ll see where I’m going with this. This concerns the issues of how we look at pterosaurs when they’re … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Biological Comparison, Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction
Tagged Dsungaripterids, Posture, Pterosaurs
5 Comments
Toothed Birds
It soars over the tossing waves on enormous, outspread wings. With nary a flap, the bird is soaring dynamically high above the ocean, its eyes scanning the sky around it and sea below. It may seem unremarkable to us today: … Continue reading
A Short Piece on Piscivores – Not All The Same
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 Amphibians, Bats, Better Know a Diet, Billfish, Birds, Cetaceans, Crocodilians, Diet, Elasmosaurs, Fish, Mammals, Piscivory, Plesiosaurs, Pterosaurs, Sharks, Snakes, Turtles
14 Comments
The Journey of Banguela
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 Banguela, Banguela oberlii, Nomenclature, Pterosaurs
3 Comments
Whether Shrink-wrapping
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 Anatomy, Restoration and Reconstruction
3 Comments
Jaime A. Headden