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Helveticosaurus: the small-headed, long-armed Triassic marine reptile that...
Helveticosaurus zollingeri, one of those strange Triassic marine reptiles that no-one ever talks about, wrestling in a coastal swamp. Not everything about being a marine tetrapod takes place in the...
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No, Cretaceous sharks did not leap from the water to eat flying pterosaurs
How the heavy hitters covered Hone et al. 2018: a short, open-access and easy-to-read paper about a shark tooth preserved with Pteranodon. The Sun gets bonus stupid points for making their own graphic....
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Plesiosaurs on the rocks: the terrestrial capabilities of four-flippered...
Maurice Wilson's charming c. 1958 painting of plesiosaurs coming ashore, from the Daily Mail Boys Annual (note "boys": girls aren't allowed to be interested in prehistory. Get out of our tree house!)....
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How to spot palaeontological crankery
Pterosaurs, such as the newly described Jurassic species Klobiodon rochei, are magnets for palaeontological cranks: those individuals who harbour and promote idiosyncratic and problematic ideas about...
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The science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, part 1: marine reptiles,...
The southerly approach to one of the most spectacular collections of historic palaeoartworks on the planet: the Crystal Palace prehistoric animals. Over 30 sculptures depict Victorian takes on...
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The science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, part 2: Teleosaurus, pterosaurs...
It's time to continue our palaeoartistic discussion of the famous 1850s Crystal Palace prehistoric animal sculptures. As you'll know if you've read part 1 of this series, I've been supplying artwork...
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The science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, part 3: Megalosaurus,...
The Crystal Palace Iguanodon and Hylaeosaurus as illustrated in Matthew Digby Wyatt's 1854 Views of the Crystal Palace and Park, Sydenham. These Iguanodon are surely some of the most famous Victorian...
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Monsterising prehistory! The "how", "why" and "so what" of monstrous palaeoart
Just a quick heads up and some steering links in this post, normal service will be resumed next month.I recently wrote an article about the palaeoartistic monsterisation of prehistoric animals for the...
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The science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, part 4: The mammals of the...
An 1853 illustration of one of the Crystal Palace mammals, Palaeotherium magnum, imagined next to the plesiosaurians it would eventually share the Geological Court with. The Palaeotherium sculpture...
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We need to talk about teratorns
Very awesome take on the teratornithid Teratornis merriami by Charles Knight. Like virtually all illustrations of teratorns, the implication of this image is that Teratornis is a scavenger, arriving to...
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Megafuzz under the microscope: how credible are restorations of giant fluffy...
Images of giant prehistoric animals covered in thick, fluffy coats are par for the course in modern palaeoart, including lots of my own (image above shows Therizinosaurus, from 2015). But... hey: just...
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Book review: Luis V. Rey's Extreme Dinosaurs Part 2: The Projects
Cover art for Luis Rey's 2019 book Extreme Dinosaurs Part 2: The Projects, featuring the latest incarnation of Luis'Deinonychus. Notice the presence of lips. Image borrowed from the Luis V. Rey Updates...
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Interview with Abby Howard, author and artist of the Earth Before Us series
Following on from last months'review of Luis Rey's Extreme Dinosaurs Part 2, this month we're spotlighting another palaeoart-heavy book - or rather, books - by comic author and illustrator Abby Howard:...
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Recreating Prehistoric Animals in Art: a new palaeoart short course for March...
Here's some pleasant news for the start of 2020: it's time to announce that I'm running a palaeaort short course in association with the University of Portsmouth: Recreating Prehistoric Animals in Art....
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Horn function in Arsinoitherium OR... the ArSUMOitherium Hypothesis™
Hello, 2017 painting of sheathed-horn Arsinoitherium zitteli. Time to see if we can figure out what those horns were for, other than looking regal in artwork.Recently, I was in the Teylers Museum,...
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The ugly truth behind Oculudentavis
The beautiful tiny fossil skull of Oculudentavis khaungraae in its amber tomb and reconstructed state, as figured by Xing et al. (2020). Behind this beauty, however, lies an ugly, seemingly under-known...
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Realistic raptors: pop-culture dromaeosaurs vs current science, part 1
Recently, I shared this image of our greyhound, Beau, next to a Velociraptor* skeleton on social media. Twitter quickly lit up with likes and comments...We test-mounted a Velociraptor skeleton...
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In pursuit of giant pliosaurids and whale-sized ichthyosaurs
Some marine reptiles - like Shonisaurus popularis - were big. So big, in fact, that you can't fit them all into a picture. But just how large did the largest marine reptiles get? Finding the answer can...
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Spinosaurus 2020: thoughts for artists
A 2020 take on some dinosaur or another. I forget its name. This individual has recently gorged itself, resulting in a distended belly and sleepy demeanour.Unless you've been living under a rock for...
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Racism in palaeoart and #BlackLivesMatter
The recent Black Lives Matter protests resulting from the cruel murder of George Floyd at the hands of US police officers have once again drawn attention to matters of racial inequality around the...
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