Engaging my Disacknowledgement

Tupandactylus imperator, a rat, and the Disacknowledgement. Not in that order. From Witton (2013).

Weirdest thing happened today: I finished two planned bits of work ahead of time (I know. I'm scared too!). That doesn't mean I'm off the hook work-wise. I was away last week (hence the lack of a fresh post) and catching up is making for a very hectic few days, but the fact that two bits of work were finished bang on time for an afternoon tea break means I've got time to slip in a quick bit of blogging without the usual guilt trip. We'll have to keep it brief, though, and discuss the rather straightforward image shown above.

Rather obviously, this image is a play on those most standard of palaeontological artworks, the extinct-creature-human-scale diagram, in this case showing the flamboyantly crested tapejarid pterosaur Tupandactylus imperator and a fully-fleshed Homo sapiens instead of a silhouette. Those who've read my book, Pterosaurs, may recognise this image from page 221. Note that the Tupandactylus soft-tissue crest is convex along its posterior margin instead of concave, as it's often been depicted. New fossils, such as those mentioned in Pinheiro et al. (2011), suggest that this 'fuller' crest is more likely than the concave crest indicated by the T. imperator holotype (Campos and Kellner 1997). The mandible shape also follows the specimen described by Pinheiro et al. (2011) rather than, as in most depictions of this animal, a generalised tapejarid mandible based on closely related species. Believe it or don't, virtually all that's known for certain of T. imperator is skulls, with only two specimens preserving mandible remains. Tapejarid skeletons without skulls are known from the Tupandactylus-bearing Crato Formation, and some of them likely represent bits of T. imperator itself, but we can't be certain of this until skeletons with associated cranial remains are recovered. Until then, we'll have to be satisfied with the revelation that T. imperator has chin big enough to scare even Kurt Russell, and wait for further discoveries. Be sure to check out this image of Tupandactylus navigans, another Crato pterosaur with a penchant for elaborate headgear, for more information on this genus.

But enough about that
What makes this picture more unusual than many like it is that it depicts an actual, real-life person who I happen to know very well, and anyone who's read Pterosaurs will also be familiar with. Here's where she's mentioned at length, from the 'Acknowledgements' page. She got her own section and everything.

Disacknowledgement

Finally, although customary in book acknowledgements to honor those who help steer projects to completion, it seems unfair to not mention the tremendous negative impact on this project made by Georgia Maclean-Henry. As the single most destructive force against this work, she took my attention from this project so frequently that we ended up moving in with each other halfway through the writing process and have ended up making some sort of home together. She continues to distract me from all kinds of work to this very day and, frankly, I could not be happier about it.