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: Paleobiology
Crowned Kings
A recently completed art project (ostensibly to hone skills and objectively to explore reconstruction ideas) led me through the Ceratopsidae from its beginnings to its end. This was observed on Twitter, where I posted each full piece (at reduced size), … Continue reading
Recapping the Nightmare Beast
Quite some time ago, I fell in line with the authors in reconstructing the weird Atopodentatus unicus with a particularly Lovecraftian face. I won’t apologize for this reconstruction, I followed the implied anatomy the authors presented and couldn’t distinguish what, … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction
Tagged Atopodentatus, Atopodentatus unicus, Restoration and Reconstruction
4 Comments
Hellfrog Maximum
Beelzebufo ampinga (Evans, Jones & Krause, 2008) may not be the largest extinct frog, but it was particularly large. Amongst the frogs, it’s amongst the hyperossified members of Ceratophryidae (Hyloidea, Anura) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. There’s not much … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction
Tagged Anura, Beelzebufo, Beelzebufo ampinga, Ceratophryidae, Frogs, Hyloidea, Jokes, Pterosaur Quad Launch, Pterosaurs, Sharovipteryx
8 Comments
What Has a Bird’s Head, a Chameleon’s Hands, a Monkey’s Feet, and a Scorpion’s Tail?
If you wondered why I love some peculiar Triassic tetrapods like Longisquama or Sharovipteryx, it’s probably due to the high diversity and degree of questions you can ask about them, and some even provide curious answers. So here’s the answer … Continue reading
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
A Brief Moment in Kulinda
Not that long ago, a new fossil locality was discovered in Kulinda, Chita (Chininskaya Oblast), Russia, and it has the potential to confirm a recent hypothesis: that the filamentous integument of many theropods, found apparently in some ceratopsian dinosaurs, may … Continue reading
Posted in Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Science Reporting, Taphonomy, Taxonomy
Tagged Daurosaurus, Feathers, Filaments, Integument, Kulindadromeus, Kulindapteryx, Lepidocheirosaurus, Ornithischians, Russia, TLS
13 Comments
The Best Little Oviraptorid in Mongolia
The sweaty summers of the mid 1970s give way to cooler climes indoors, as a block of sandstone pulled from the red-and-orange rocks of the Djadokhta Formation in Mongolia’s southern Gobi Desert finds itself in Ulaanbator, the nation’s capital. Initially … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Biology, Biomechanics, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction, Science Reporting, Taphonomy
Tagged Citipati, Oviraptoridae, Oviraptorosauria, Theropods, Tongues
5 Comments
The Stocky Dragon
There is much we still do not know about the ancient origins of birds and near-bird animals, dromaeosaurs and troodontids. As we find more specimens of archaeopterygid or scansoriopterygid-like animals, of Anchiornises and what not, the tree becomes more of … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Reconstruction, Systematics
Tagged Avialae, Balaur, Balaur bondoc, Origin of Birds
11 Comments
Strange Tid[w]ings
The new small theropod Yi qi was described 29 April, 2015, far too late to be a practical joke for All Fools’ Day (by 4 weeks, precisely). Why would it be? The animal, described by Xu Xing and a number … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Biology, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Science Reporting
Tagged Evolution of Flight, Gliding, Scansoriopterygidae, Scansoriopterygids, Yi qi
13 Comments
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
Jaime A. Headden
The Bite Stuff 