Plastic dinosaur toys. Image © Copyright Sharon Lynn Wegner-Larsen 2010

Long Live Rock! At Archosaur Musings, David Hone lists some musicians who have been honored by paleontologists. “In addition to Qiliania graffini [named for the lead singer of the punk band BAD RELIGION], the most obvious example would be the dinosaur Masiakasaurus knopfleri, named for Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. Trilobites, I know, cover the Beatles in some detail (even Pete Best gets one!) and there are ones for the Grateful Dead and Mick Jagger too.”

T-Rex Isn’t Going to Take It Anymore: Everything Dinosaur fact-checks a popular insult: “Using the term ‘dinosaur’ to represent an inefficient, outmoded person or organization seems a little bit unfair. On balance the Dinosauria were rather successful, arguably more successful than many orders of Mammalia, including our own part of the Mammalian family tree.”

Please Don’t Feed the Therapods: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs points us to “Dinosaur Zookeeper,” a free online game at Adult Swim. “Take your fledgling dinosaur park from empty and safe to full and incredibly dangerous…. Remember, if too many visitors die it will be your job that’s going extinct.”

An Intersection of Time and Space: You can find Dinochick hanging out at the corner of Jurassic Avenue and Cretaceous Street.

All the Dinosaurs of the Rainbow: Sharon at Omegafauna shows off her impressive childhood collection of vintage “Dino Brights” toy figures.

The Pencil is Not Yet Extinct: At Paleo Illustrata, Stu Pond explains why, even in the age of sophisticated computer graphics, “the sketchbook is still arguably more important than any other tool an artist has at their disposal.”

Paleo Justice: At RMDC Paleo Lab, Anthony Maltese recounts how he and his team foiled a fossil poacher at a Kansas excavation site.

Best/Worst dressed dinosaurs, courtesy of io9

But I Play One on TV: At Archosaur Musings, David Hone notices a trend regarding how real-life scientists are portrayed during TV interviews: “If you are not sitting next to a series of flasks full of colored liquids then you are obviously not a scientist. Most of them also have a human skeleton in the background too. This is madness….I’m surprised they didn’t have a Van Der Graff generator in there or a shambling hunchbacked servant called Igor in the corner.” Be sure to check out his photo gallery of egregious examples.

Fashion Tips: Paleontology meets Cathy Horyn as I09 presents its list of best- and worst-dressed dinosaurs that have appeared in comic books and on screen. Take note, fashionistas: T-Rex + Green Smoking Jacket = Fabulous!

Before Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth: ArtEvolved has announced that it is accepting submissions for its July gallery devoted to the Carboniferous Period (359 million to 299 million years ago). So, if you’ve harbored a secret desire to paint an intimate portrait of a gastropod, now is your big chance.

Sticking Their Necks Out: Conventional wisdom states that giraffes have long necks so that they can reach higher leaves. But, at Tetrapod Zoology, Darren Naish points to an alternate theory that giraffe necks serve as a sexual signal: “The necks of males are bigger and thicker than those of females…the necks of males continue growing throughout life…[and] females prefer males with bigger necks.” Perhaps inevitably, an article that appeared in the Journal of Zoology applied the “necks for sex” hypothesis to sauropods. Naish and the guys at SV-POW! have posted a preview of their paper [pdf] refuting the theory.

Out and About: At Whirlpool of Life, Scott Sampson suggests some clever ways to get kids to explore the natural world. First, instead of using the term “hike,” tell them they’re embarking on an “adventure.” Also, introduce them to bird watching, and explain that they are observing “backyard dinosaurs.”

Just the Facts: Bob’s Dinosaur Blog presents “10 Dinosaur Facts Every Person Should Know.” He reminds folks, for instance, that most dinosaurs were vegetarians. (But the jury is still out on whether any were vegans.)

Jurassic Fandom: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs interviews Terry Alan Davis, creator of the popular online Jurassic Park Encyclopedia, which includes a detailed “bestiary.”

A screenshot of the Witmer Lab's 3D Alligator

Thirty Earths: ArtEvolved points us to this remarkable set of images depicting the changing physical appearance of the Earth over the last 750 million years. The thirty visual reconstructions were recently released by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. The research team was granted access to NASA’s Next Generation Blue Marble project, a computer program that generates realistic color renditions of an area based upon geographic information such as topography, elevation, climate and vegetation.

On the Virtues of Flossing: Everything Dinosaur reports on the world’s oldest toothache.

Dino Chow: SV-Pow! gives a glowing review to the now-open World’s Largest Dinosaur exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. Among the many nice details: a Plexiglas box filled with a one-day serving of sauropod food.

Battle of the Bulge: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs presents a brief history of the Pot-Bellied Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Gator-Aid: At Jurassic Journeys, paleobiologist Matt Donnan raves about WitmerLab’s 3D Alligator project—a highly interactive, easily downloadable set of tools for understanding (or just playing with) alligator anatomy. As Donnan notes, “Alligators and the crocodylian kin form an important outgroup branch that we dinosaur paleontologists use to constrain and ‘root’ our anatomical reconstructions and inferences of dinosaurs as living animals.”

A Becklespinax By Any Other Name: Bob’s Dinosaur Blog lists ten dinosaur names that are so bad the creatures would “throttle some of the paleontologists that discovered them.”

A River Runs Through It: Grande Prairie, Alberta is home to Pipestone Creek, where hundreds of the horned dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus perished millions of years ago. The blog Pseudoplocephalus informs us that members of the Grande Prairie community have spent the better part of a decade trying to find sponsors for their very own paleontology museum. Fundraisers have been a bit turned off by the proposed name of the institution: “The River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Museum.” Fortunately, the museum organizers decided to opt for a less goth-sounding name: “The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum,” in honor of the world-renowned paleontologist.

A Nazi tank on top of a dinosaur? Sure, why not? Image courtesy of Steam Apps.

How is a Saurpod Like a Vacuum Cleaner? Find out at Everything Dinosaur.

Renaissance Reptiles: Art Evolved alerts us to the opening of Dinosauri in Carne e Ossa, the first large-scale paleoart exhibition in Italy. The event will be running through May 31 in Piacenza—a city renowned for its historical palaces and renaissance churches. And now, it also has dinosaurs. (Your move, Venice.)

The War of Art: A blogosphere battle royale has erupted in response to comments posted on the Dinosaur Mailing List by pioneering paleoartist Gregory S. Paul. As Asher Elbein writes over at The Faster Times, Paul “made a sweeping statement to the paleoart world: stop using my skeletal reconstructions. This sparked a massive discussion…Did he have the right to prevent artists from making use of his technical and scientific skeletal illustrations for the purposes of their own reconstructions? How far did his copyright claims extend? And most importantly, can you copyright the exact proportions of an animal skeleton?”

Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs has dubbed the debate, the “paleoart-pocalypse,” and is posting regular updates on his blog.

New Blog on the Block: Let’s extend a warm, paleosphere welcome to Skeletal Drawing, a blog that “will deal with the functional anatomy of dinosaurs and other extinct critters…as well as the limits on what can be confidently restored in extinct animals.” Be sure to check out the blog’s three-part series on “A History of Skeletal Drawings.”

Rex Riders: Looking for t-shirts featuring homo sapiens riding on dinosaurs? Dinochick has you covered.

Nazi Dinosaurs: Finally, someone has recognized the one crucial element that’s been missing from World War II strategy games: dinosaurs. Kotaku offers a preview of “Dino D-Day,” which will be released in early April. The premise, according to the game’s manufacturer: “The year is 1942. Adolf Hitler has succeeded in resurrecting dinosaurs. The reptilian horde has trampled Europe and the Mediterranean. Can nothing stop the Nazi’s dinosaur army?”

The Write Stuff: Greg Leitich Smith, author of novels for young adults—including the forthcoming dino-themed time-travel mystery, The Chronal Engine—is starting a blog series called Writers and Dinosaurs. “The idea is to feature children’s authors and illustrators in photos with dinosaurs of some kind. These can be realistic dinosaurs or skeletons from natural history museums or theme parks or can be dinosaurs of the more cartoon-y variety. So if you’re an author or illustrator and have a picture and want to be included, leave a comment with your email and I’ll be in touch!”

Pentaceratops, courtesy of Phylopic (created by Sampson SD, Loewen MA, Farke AA, Roberts EM, Forster CA, et al.)

Paleo-Profiles: A new site called PhyloPic is a free online archive of silhouhettes featuring organisms both living and extinct. Art Evolved presents this primer on how you can create and contribute silhouettes.

Welcome to the Neighborhood: The Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm in Saint George, Utah recently unveiled its newest exhibit— the first Scelidosaurus ever displayed in the Western Hemisphere. Dinochik interviews paleontologist Jerry Harris about how he designed the installation.

It Walks! Sure, this past month we commemorated the 150th anniversary of Archaeopteryx, but Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs reminds us that it is also the 10th anniversary of Troody, a bipedal robot based on Troodon formosus and developed by Peter Dilworth at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. “Dilworth was concerned with solving the problems of bipedal locomotion in robots, and in a canny move to draw attention to his work and get youth interested in robotics, he chose to work on the theropod body plan.”

Growth Spurt: Dracovenator has begun his countdown of the ten largest prosauropods—herbivorous dinosaurs that lived during the Triassic and early Jurassic—and were among the biggest of the early dinosaurs.

Bringing a Shrimp Down to Size: Recent research suggests that one of Earth’s earliest predators—the carnivorous shrimp Anomalocaris, which lived in oceans three billion years ago—wasn’t all that fearsome. New 3D modeling of the critter’s mouth reveals that it likely couldn’t have even penetrated the exoskeleton of trilobites. Needless to say, this was welcome news for the denizens of Walcott’s Quarry.

Jurassic Food Pyramid: Illustrator Eduardo San Gil, a self-described “28.78-year-old boy,” presents this handy infographic of the “T-Rex Diet.”

Are You Smarter Than a First-Grader? At Superoceras, David Tana introduces us to Riley, “the first grade paleontologist,” who stars in his very own YouTube series (Episode 1: Carnivores). “In all seriousness, if this kid keeps it up, he’s going to go places,” Tana writes, “he’s already starting to throw his weight around and question the established view of things.”

Interpretive Dance: Everything Dinosaur recounts an unusual class project that is curiously reminiscent of many off-off-Broadway productions: “The children…(aged 5-6) put on a dancing display as they interpreted how they thought the dinosaurs met their demise…. at first they pretended to be different types of dinosaurs….As the music grew louder….the ‘dinosaurs’ became scared and started running around in a panic.  At the crescendo of the music, the asteroid hit the Earth and all the children fell down and stayed very still, indicating the demise of the Dinosauria.”

And, Speaking of Mass Extinction: The Dinosaur Fossil Blog presents this video (in Danish, above) showcasing a cake that recreates the asteroid impact that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. The paleo-baker also “found room to add an erupting volcano that represents the alternative theory – that the ashes and gasses from a giant eruption was the actual cause of the extinction.”

The Top Ten Dinosaurs That Could Eat Han Solo: I’m glad that’s finally settled.

Yes, But Can They Eat Han Solo? At Bob’s Dinosaur Blog, the Top Ten Dinosaurs By Continent.

Size Matters: At SV-POW!, Matt Wedel presents this excellent tutorial on how to determine the mass of a dinosaur.

Artistic Statement: At Flying Trilobite, Glendon Mellow contemplates why science often inspires visual art, but visual art rarely inspires science: “I criticized the idea underlying a symposium discussing ‘Art as a Way of Knowing.’  I said that art is more a Way of Exploring. It doesn’t provide new knowledge, only creates new, imaginative, metaphorical links between areas of knowledge.”

Anatomical drawing of Godzilla, courtesy of Flickr user modern_fred

Publish or Perish: At SV-POW!, Mike Taylor presents a tutorial on “How to become a palaeontologist.” His central message: write papers. “I know a whole bunch of people who should be published palaeontologists, but aren’t. Some of them know far, far more about extinct animals than I do, and I am frankly bewildered that they have somehow never made it into print: I assume they are letting themselves be defeated by some kind of psychological barrier.”

Say “Micropachycephalosaurus” Five Times, Fast: Everything Dinosaur makes the case for species pronunciation guides.

Pink Floyd and Paleontology: Yes, there is a connection.

Team Spirit: Dinochick provides us with this video of a drunken Bears fan climbing on top of the Brachiosaurus outside Chicago’s Field Museum: “You know you would like to do this. Maybe not in public, but how many of you have seen a sculpture or even a cast you think would be fun to scale?” (Not that the Field Museum lacks team spirit: back in April, the staff dressed the giant sauropod in a specially-made Blackhawks hockey jersey.)

Forewarned is Forearmed: Tetrapod Zoology publishes this extensive guide to the anatomy of Godzilla

A Mammoth Discovery: Bob’s Dinosaur Blog reports on a treasure trove of fossils discovered in Snowmass Village, Colorado: “a mere two weeks after a bulldozer operator accidentally unearthed a Woolly Mammoth skeleton while digging a reservoir, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science embarked on a full-throttle, week-long dig to recover as many bones from the site as possible before the onset of winter. So far, the results have been spectacular: workers have recovered the bones of five, count ‘em, five Mastodons, two Woolly Mammoths, three prehistoric bison, one Megalonyx (the Giant Ground Sloth that was first discovered by Thomas Jefferson), and even an Ice Age deer.”

Survivalists: A mass extinction event threatens the denizens of Walcott’s Quarry! Can two plucky trilobites survive?

A Dinosaur Symphony: Palaeoblog commemorates the 70th anniversary of Walt Disney’s epic film, Fantasia: “Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ provided the score for the evolution of the Earth including a wonderful sequence on the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. Many school teachers actually showed this sequence in science class—that’s where I first saw it!”

Nazi Dinosaurs: The blog Lady, That’s My Skull calls our attention to a 1943 edition of “Clue Comics,” which recounts the adventures of the Boy King, “an exile from the Nazi-threatened land of Swisslakia who….fought spies and saboteurs that threatened America’s security, using his wits, royal fortune and a skyscraper-sized Golem that only he could command.” But Hitler has a trick up his sleeve and orders his minions to build a robot T-Rex. Does this mean the end for Boy King?!?

The entire gripping tale has been posted over at Flickr.[Disclaimer: Events presented in this comic book have not been vetted for historical accuracy.]

David Hone uses these dog tracks for a lesson on dinosaur fossils

Walking the Walk: Two paw prints on a beach; both are from the same dog, yet completely different from one another. At Archosaur Musings, David Hone explains how these prints reveal the pitfalls of reading too much into fossilized dinosaur tracks: “Quite simply, tracks will vary and you want a decent set of them to make sure that any variations are accounted for, and therefore one must be especially careful with unusual, isolated tracks.”

Dinosaurs of a Feather: “Even when the colors of a prehistoric feathered dinosaur haven’t been revealed by studies of feather microstructure, there are ways to infer which colors were and were not likely,” notes DinoGoss, who offers a detailed guide to several processes that add pigmentation to the feathers of birds and, presumably, their oversized ancestors.

Eureka? The latest cartoon at Walcott’s Quarry mocks the flashy unveilings of “game-changing” fossil discoveries. “They’re usually pretty heavy on media coverage, and pretty light on science.”

The Paleo-Justice League: At ArtEvolved, read the thrilling tale of how dinosaur bloggers banded together to catch an online art thief.

“There Are No Known Aetosaur Fossils From Madagascar!”: A glaring paleo-error prompts Chinleana to offer a timely reminder that Wikipedia remains a work in progress.

Taking a Stand: “Dinosaurs walked on their toes, unlike us humans who walk on the whole of the foot,” notes Everything Dinosaur. “Most reptiles sprawl with their legs at the side of the bodies, but dinosaurs carried their limbs directly underneath their bodies, just like mammals.  This is a much more efficient method of walking about when compared to the sprawling stance of lizards and crocodiles for instance.”

That’s good news if you’re a dinosaur, but not such good news if you’re trying to get your authentic plastic model of a dinosaur to stand upright. Fear not: Everything Dinosaur has produced a short video on how to fix a wobbly dinosaur.

Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs reveals that famed paleontologist Barnum Brown (Feb. 12, 1873 – Feb. 5, 1963) had a “dinosaur foot fetish.”

Submit your own pink dinosaur to ArtEvolved to raise money for cancer research.

In the Pink: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and ArtEvolved is doing its part by organizing a Pink Dinosaur fundraiser to benefit medical research. Be sure to check out the gallery of brightly colored dinosaurs, and, if you wish to make a donation, visit the Pink Dinosaur Event Page.

A Discovery That Might Not Hold Water: At Ediacaran, Chris Nedin expresses his well-documented doubts about a recent discovery of fossilized 640-million-year-old, sponge-like organisms in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia: “Frankly, the Proterozoic [era] is weird. Most of what you think is organic, isn’t. The vast majority of the rest is microbial mats. And the stuff you really, really think could be metazoan, is usually microbial mats playing silly buggers.”

Bidding Farewell: At DinoGoss, Matt Martyniuk argues that—while it might be legal to auction off dinosaur fossils on sites such as eBay—“that doesn’t mean it isn’t ethically questionable and actively detrimental to science.”

Gothic Paleontology: Bob’s Dinosaur blog provides a round-up of the weird species of dinosaurs that have been discovered in Transylvania (such as the raptor Balaur bondoc, which Brian Switek wrote about here in August). “What’s the explanation?” Bob asks. “Well, these dinosaurs lived on islands dotting the shallow seas that covered much of Central and Eastern Europe at this time, and we all know from Charles Darwin that organisms trapped on island habitats can evolve in some very strange directions.”

Taking Flight: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs points us to these cool videos of engineering hobbyist Kazuhiko Kahuta test-flying his radio-controlled pterosaur ornithopters. (Disappointingly, unlike other Japanese gadgets, this one does not appear to transform into a giant, samurai robot.)

A Star is Born: Palaeoblog commemorates the 1914 premiere of Gertie the Dinosaur, considered by many to be the first true animated character to be featured in a film.

Zip It: Matthew Brown at Prep Lounge discovered a rather innovative design for a casting mold in his basement: “From most angles, it looks like a leathery old, uh, leather purse. And why? Because it has…a ZIPPER! Casting material was poured in from the pour spout on the top, and when the plaster set, the mold was unzipped, allowing the cast to be pulled free of the mold. Wowee.” The design is credited to Jim Quinn, a University of Chicago grad student who finished his Ph.D. in 1954.

"H" is for Hypsiloura helioscopus, according to the Disillusioned Taxonomist's Prehistoric Alphabet. Click the image for the rest of the alphabet

An Evolving Blog: Please welcome the latest blog to emerge from the primordial ooze of the Internet. Pick & Scalpel is the official blog of the WitmerLab. Their mission statement: “We’re a collection of scientists at Ohio University using 21st century approaches to ‘flesh out’ the past. Our mission is to use the structure of extinct and modern-day animals to interpret evolutionary history … we also recognize the power of the past…of paleontology…of dinosaurs!…to ignite interest in science among people of all walks of life and of all ages.”

Seasons Greetings: Blogger “Barbaraella Psychadella” has unilaterally declared that, henceforth, July 16 will be “Dinosaur Day”—a holiday when “we honor our long lost reptilian overlords, the dinosaurs, by going on Dinosaur Pilgrimage.” This year’s pilgrimage included a visit to a now-decaying dinosaur-themed miniature golf course and lunch at Peggy Sue’s Diner and Diner-saur park.

“G” is for Gammasaurus geophagus: The Disillusioned Taxonomist has some fun with taxonomic terms with the creation of his Prehistoric Animal Alphabet, where the letters are “styled to look like various prehistoric creatures, some are based loosely on existing types, others completely made up.” For instance, meet Jovigyrinus jocosus (“joking Bon Jovi’s salamander”), an early tetrapod from Devonian New Jersey.

Down to the Bone: “Very often the fossils that are seen on display in museums or in papers are beautifully clear of surrounding rock….When TV shows want to cover fossil preparation we see something rapidly fall out of sandstone, or delicate cleaning of the last bits of rock from a specimen,” observes David Hone at Archosaur Musings. What they don’t tend to show is that fossils are typically an “ungodly conglomerate” embedded in stone. Hone presents photos that vividly display why it requires hours of work just to expose one end of bone.

Honoring Trilobites: ArtEvolved has posted its gallery of trilobite-inspired artwork, including “Trilobite Deco” and “Trilobite Dragon.” On the other hand, if building blocks are your medium of choice, I’d recommend this LEGO Trilobite.

Signs of an Economic Recovery? “After a couple of years in which many notable, well-preserved skeletons failed to meet their reserve price,” Bob’s Dinosaur Blog reports, “Sotheby’s of France is planning a huge dinosaur auction of, well, huge dinosaurs.” A 33-foot-long Allosaurus skeleton (originally unearthed in Wyoming) is expected to fetch a minimum of $500,000.

Lost Colony: The latest edition of Nature has a paper reporting that a 2.1 billion-year-old fossil of multicellular colonial organisms has been found in Gabon. (To date, the earliest evidence in the fossil record of such organisms is less than 600 million years old.) Ediacaran offers a detailed account of why he is skeptical of the new find.

In the Field: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs takes us on a photo tour of Chicago’s Field Museum. One of the most popular dinosaur exhibits is the “musical” Parasaurolophus head, “which lets visitors hear what one of the big honkers may have sounded like.”

Microscopes on the Move: Having trouble transporting and using high-quality stereomicroscopes at excavation sites? At the Prep Room, Matthew Brown unveils his homemade solution.

The cover of Rex Riders, a book previewed by io9

Spun Around: Ediacaran displays a fossil of Redlichia takooensis (a large trilobite, around 12 to 14 centimeters in length) suffering from a curious malady: its head is on backwards. The reason? Not demonic possession, but a tragic molting accident.

Top Paleo-Chef: Mike Taylor at SV-POW! demonstrates the art of boiling ostrich heads (all in the name of science, we promise). (Ed. note — not for the faint-hearted)

I Don’t Know Paleo-art, But I Know What I Like: Over at ART Evolved, illustrator Matt van Rooijen explains why Paleo-art isn’t actually art…and why that’s okay: “A modern Artists’ function is to personally comment upon their subject ….for the most part the goal of Paleo-art is to create accurate images which are the depiction of a somewhat removed reality. People talk about accuracy and current understanding of the science as significant criteria, not whether the work will convey the deeper meaning of that science on culture and subjective human existence. (yawn)”

Making Tracks: In the realm of dinosaur-themed fashion, Bob’s Dinosaur Blog gives high marks to 3-D shoes manufactured by Dinosoles: “The tops of these shoes are nicely decorated, but what really sold me are the bottoms, which bear raised imprints of dinosaur feet. In other words, when your toddler runs down the beach wearing Dinosoles, he’ll leave convincing-looking dinosaur tracks—which is all the average preschooler can ask.” (Why do they only make the coolest stuff for kids?)

Sing-a-Long: Professor Dave Dolak—who teaches at Chicago’s Columbia College, the alma mater of Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs—has a long list of professional interests, including dinosaur evolution, the physics of string instruments and communicating science to the public. Put them all together, and what do you get? This video of Professor Dave serenading his students about dinosaurs.

Jurassic Rodeo: I09 previews a new kids’ book that “is so blindingly awesome that it almost needs no explanation.” It’s titled Rex Riders, an adventure set in the Old West, where cowboys co-exist with dinosaurs.  Get a first look at the remarkable illustrations, including a triceratops stampede.

An Alternate Theory: Over at the World We Don’t Live In, we find out how the dinosaurs really died. (Hint: It involves shovels.)

The Film Before Time: Palaeoblog commemorates the May 19, 1915 premiere of the movie The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy, which you can watch in two parts on YouTube, thanks to the Library of Congress. [Part 1 is embedded above] (One of the characters is named—I kid you not—Miss Araminta Rockface.) It features the earliest work of artist Willis O’Brien, who later brought King Kong to life.

Don’t Look, Goofy!!! Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs shows us excerpts from the 1983 Disney education book, Real Life Monsters. Mickey takes Goofy back in time—and, apparently, emotionally scars him for life after witnessing an Allosaurus chomp down on a Brontosaurus.

You Got a Question? Archosaur Musings checks out popular Q&A websites, and doesn’t like the answers: “[They] are profoundly inaccurate and misleading and give no indication at all of what they are based on, plus they completely contradict each other and one makes no attempt to correct the obvious problem that pterosaurs are not dinosaurs…. I assume that the people providing these answers assumed that they were right, but their profound ignorance of what they are saying is quite worrying.”

Move over, MacGyver: Paleochick demonstrates how you can take decent quality macro images of fossils using a cell phone and a hand lens.

A-to-Z: A young student asked Everything Dinosaur, “If you were to list all the names of dinosaurs in alphabetical order what would be the name at the bottom of your list?”

Not an easy question to answer: “With the relative explosion of dinosaur names from discoveries made by Chinese scientists there are a number of genera that we are aware of that begin with the letter ‘Z’.  However… we think that it would not be a Chinese dinosaur on the bottom.  That honor (we think), would go to Zupaysaurus, a genus of Theropod dinosaur.”

The “E” Word: Whirlpool of Life ponders the term “evolution”: “I have thought long and hard about whether or not to expand the word to refer to the history of the universe. After all, I reasoned, people might reject the Great Story out of hand, effectively tossing out the baby with the bathwater because of a bias against anything evolutionary….[However the existing term] underlines the fact that the evolution of life (and humans in particular) is not separate from the rest of nature…. By treating biological evolution as an entirely distinct process, we tend to construct a false dichotomy and ignore the many similarities between organic and inorganic transformations.”

When Fiberglass Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth: What’s creepier than an abandoned amusement park? An abandoned dinosaur amusement park. See a gallery of photos over at I09. (“It’s like Jurassic Park, but the T-Rex eats your soul.”)

One of the many ichythosaur drawings collected byArtEvolved. The one above is by 19th century illustrator Henry de la Beche.

New Blog on the Block: A hearty paleosphere welcome to Crurotarsi: The Forgotten Archosaurs, a blog devoted to the critters that ruled the Triassic alongside the dinosaurs: “Crurotarsans are some pretty amazing animals, having occupied almost every major ecological niche during the Triassic Period, a time that lasted almost 50 million years….They still survive today as crocodiles, alligators, and their relatives but are nowhere near as diverse and impressive as their ancestors.”

Seasonal Hues: Scientists have successfully recreated the colors of Anchiornis huxleyi, but Archosaur Musings warns against reaching broad conclusions about feathered dinosaurs based on just one specimen: “At the bare minimum we might expect differences within the species as there will always be some differences in color and patterning….it would be a surprise if males and females were truly identical in plumage, if juveniles had the same patterns as adults or if there were no changes over the seasons with molts.”

Ichy Artwork: “Reconstructions of Ichthyosaurs are some of the earliest examples of palaeo-art in history,” notes ArtEvolved. “Discovered in 1811 by Mary Anning and mulled over by scientists for the next 10 years, these fascinating fossils were named Ichthyosaurus in 1821, before ‘palaeontology’ as a science even existed.” Visit the blog to see a gallery of Ichthyosaurus drawings, both past and present.

You Are Not Alone: As always, Whirlpool of Life has a knack for finding profound thoughts in the most trivial of places—in this case, the bacteria in our bodies: “Current estimates indicate that, of the 10 trillion cells that compose your physical self, 9 out of 10 are not human cells. This means that your body is home to more lifeforms than there are people on Earth, or stars in the Milky Way galaxy.”

Keep Looking: Bob’s Dinosaur Blog wonders how many dinosaurs remain to be discovered. “I posed this question to one paleontologist I know, who quoted another paleontologist’s opinion (based on statistical research) that there might be 2,000 or so genera of dinosaurs that have yet to be identified, a project that should take decades, if not centuries.”

Out and About: Walcott’s Quarry celebrates its 100th comic strip by allowing its mischievous trilobites to explore life beyond the computer screen.

Space Alien Remains Found in Dinosaur’s Belly! “Subjecting a tabloid story to technical scrutiny really is like dancing about architecture,” observes SV-POW! Nonetheless, Matt Wedel can’t resist the temptation to point out the inaccuracies in this classic Weekly World News story.

To Boldly Go: Palaeoblog exults that Diamond Select Toys will soon be selling their latest Star Trek toy, the Geological Tricorder. “Following the release of the Medical and Science Tricoders, the Geological Tricoder will feature two opening compartments and removable vials of mineral samples. Take that iPhone!”

Dinosaur snow sculptures. H/T to SV-Pow!

Going for Broke: What do you do if you break a bone? (A dinosaur bone, that is.) Well, once you get over the humiliation of breaking something that has remained intact for several million years, David Hone at Archosaur Musings has a practical guide on how to deal with the problem.

The Young and Restless: Young Earth Creationists contend that all life on the planet was created sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago. The blog Stupid Dinosaur Lies presents a detailed taxonomy and debunking of these arguments, otherwise known as “The Seven F’s of Young Earth Creationism: Fictional, Framed, Foredoom, Fascism, Fanaticism, Feint, and Folly.”

Connective Issue: The Disillusioned Taxonomist challenges readers to solve a photographic puzzle: “What’s the connection between the following animals?” (Including a fossilized trilobite and a lion.) The answer is here.

Interpretative Art: Peter Bond at ART Evolved presents a gallery of therizinosaur sketches and paintings. (One portrayal resembles an oversized, carnivorous zebra-striped turkey.) “Therizinosaurs have had a long and convoluted history when it comes to reconstructions. Meat-eater or plant-eater? Prosauropod or coelurosaur?  Skin or feathers? These questions led to wild variations in what a therizinosaur looked like!”

Blasts From the Past: Catalogue of Organisms presents “A Beginner’s Guide to Blastoids.” (Coolest. Species. Names. Ever.)

Psychedelic Trilobites: Walcott’s Quarry bemoans the lack of color in fossils, prompting two trilobites to experiment with a bold new look.

Saltasaurus and Peppernychus: Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs exalts over a discovery in an antique shop: A vintage pair of dinosaur salt and pepper shakers. Apparently, the design concept is quite rare: “This is, in my opinion, one of the most grievous oversights in the history of kitchenware. Disgraceful.”

Ice Age: SV-POW! posts remarkable photos that are a guaranteed cure for the winter blues: giant sauropod snow sculptures.

A T-Rex Walks Into a Bar: “Perhaps because they’re no longer around to lodge any objections, dinosaurs (and other prehistoric reptiles) have increasingly become the butt of kindergarten-level knock-knock jokes,” notes Bob’s Dinosaur Blog, which presents a few of his own humorous quips.

The neck of the Sauroposeidon at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Courtesy of Matt Wedel of SV-POW!

That’s Entertainment: In the wake of the “Clash of the Dinosaurs” fiasco, David Hone at Archosaur Musings, has drafted a brief “manifesto” on the dumbing-down of dino documentaries. “If you want your show to be a trashy dinosaurs fighting show then fine, do it,” Hone writes, “but please don’t pretend it’s a serious examination of palaeontology.” For more on the de-evolution of documentaries, see this earlier essay we posted on how sophisticated special effects are increasingly blurring the line between science and fantasy.

Artistic License Revoked: “Learn from my folly,” advises Craig Dylke at Art Evolved, who offers helpful tips on paleo-art after making some rather embarrassing mistakes in an attempt to accurately portray a Squalodon (a whale-like species with teeth).

Why Dinosaurs Matter: At the Whirlpool of Life, Scott Sampson pens an eloquent essay on why dinosaurs are more than “prehistoric eye-candy” and play a vital role in science education: “These ancient creatures can be used to demonstrate that every ecosystem on Earth, whether in the Mesozoic or the present day, is the culmination of millions upon millions of years of co-evolution between and among life forms. Since their heyday overlapped with the fragmentation of Pangaea, dinosaurs also provide an excellent forum for communicating the workings of plate tectonics and the physical evolution of our planet. They can even serve as able guides as we contemplate such pressing issues as global warming….and mass extinction.”

Neck the Halls: “Ever since we started working on Sauroposeidon, Rich Cifelli and I dreamed of seeing the reconstructed neck on display,” writes Matt Wedel at SV-POW! “That vision has come to fruition.” See their photos taken at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

Y Not? The Disillusioned Taxonomist, who has been blogging an A-to-Z guide to British wildlife, was disillusioned to learn that not many scientific names begin with “Y.” Still, his determined research prevailed. Meet Yaverlandia bitholus.

Why Dinosaurs Hate Christmas: Ediacaran explains.

Not Amused: “I usually try to stay away from politics on my site—that’s one of the advantages of writing about creatures that have been dead for 65 million years,” notes Bob’s Dinosaur Blog. Yet Bob’s ire was raised by this political cartoon, suggesting that dinosaurs became extinct because they listened to the advice of climate change activists.