Visions of the Prehistoric Past Reviewed by Mark P. Witton
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R~;: PHYSIOLOGICAL, MIGRATORIAL
....----------- 'r~;: i ! 'r; Pa/eont .. 62(4), 1988, pp. 64~52 Copyright © 1988, The Paleontological Society 0022-3360/88/0062-0640$03.00 PHYSIOLOGICAL, MIGRATORIAL, CLIMATOLOGICAL, GEOPHYSICAL, SURVIVAL, AND EVOLUTIONARY IMPLICATIONS OF CRETACEOUS POLAR DINOSAURS GREGORY S. PAUL 3109 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 ABSTRACTT- he presence of Late Cretaceous social dinosaurs in polar regions confronted them with winter conditions of extended dark, coolness, breezes, and precipitation that could best be coped with via an endothermic homeothermic physiology of at least the tenrec level. This is true whether the dinosaurs stayed year round in the polar regime-which in North America extended from Alaska south to Montana-or if they migrated away from polar winters. More reptilian physiologies fail to meet the demands of such winters -in certain key ways, a· point tentatively confirmed by the apparent failure of giant Late Cretaceous phobosuchid crocodilians to dwell north of Montana. Low metabolisms were also insufficient for extended annual migrations away from and towards the poles. It is shown that even high metabolic rate dinosaurs probably remained in their polar habitats year-round. The possibility that dinosaurs had avian-mammalian metabolic systems, and may have borne insulation at least seasonally, severely limits their use as polar paleoclimatic and Earth axial tilt indicators. Polar dinosaurs may have been a center of dinosaur evolution. The possible ability of polar dinosaurs to cope with conditions of cool and dark challenges theories that a gradual temperature decline, or a sudden, meteoritic or volcanic induced collapse in temperature and sunlight, destroyed the dinosaurs. INTRODUCTION America suggests that dinosaurs were regularly crossing, and NCREASINGNUMBERSof remains show that dinosaurs lived living upon, the Bering Land Bridge within a few degrees of the I near the North and South Poles during the Cretaceous. -
State of the Palaeoart
Palaeontologia Electronica http://palaeo-electronica.org State of the Palaeoart Mark P. Witton, Darren Naish, and John Conway The discipline of palaeoart, a branch of natural history art dedicated to the recon- struction of extinct life, is an established and important component of palaeontological science and outreach. For more than 200 years, palaeoartistry has worked closely with palaeontological science and has always been integral to the enduring popularity of prehistoric animals with the public. Indeed, the perceived value or success of such products as popular books, movies, documentaries, and museum installations can often be linked to the quality and panache of its palaeoart more than anything else. For all its significance, the palaeoart industry ment part of this dialogue in the published is often poorly treated by the academic, media and literature, in turn bringing the issues concerned to educational industries associated with it. Many wider attention. We argue that palaeoartistry is standard practises associated with palaeoart pro- both scientifically and culturally significant, and that duction are ethically and legally problematic, stifle improved working practises are required by those its scientific and cultural growth, and have a nega- involved in its production. We hope that our views tive impact on the financial viability of its creators. inspire discussion and changes sorely needed to These issues create a climate that obscures the improve the economy, quality and reputation of the many positive contributions made by palaeoartists palaeoart industry and its contributors. to science and education, while promoting and The historic, scientific and economic funding derivative, inaccurate, and sometimes exe- significance of palaeoart crable artwork. -
A Bird's Eye View of the Evolution of Avialan Flight
Chapter 12 Navigating Functional Landscapes: A Bird’s Eye View of the Evolution of Avialan Flight HANS C.E. LARSSON,1 T. ALEXANDER DECECCHI,2 MICHAEL B. HABIB3 ABSTRACT One of the major challenges in attempting to parse the ecological setting for the origin of flight in Pennaraptora is determining the minimal fluid and solid biomechanical limits of gliding and powered flight present in extant forms and how these minima can be inferred from the fossil record. This is most evident when we consider the fact that the flight apparatus in extant birds is a highly integrated system with redundancies and safety factors to permit robust performance even if one or more components of their flight system are outside their optimal range. These subsystem outliers may be due to other adaptive roles, ontogenetic trajectories, or injuries that are accommodated by a robust flight system. This means that many metrics commonly used to evaluate flight ability in extant birds are likely not going to be precise in delineating flight style, ability, and usage when applied to transitional taxa. Here we build upon existing work to create a functional landscape for flight behavior based on extant observations. The functional landscape is like an evolutionary adap- tive landscape in predicting where estimated biomechanically relevant values produce functional repertoires on the landscape. The landscape provides a quantitative evaluation of biomechanical optima, thus facilitating the testing of hypotheses for the origins of complex biomechanical func- tions. Here we develop this model to explore the functional capabilities of the earliest known avialans and their sister taxa. -
Screaming Biplane Dromaeosaurs of the Air. June/July
5c.r~i~ ~l'tp.,ne pr~tl\USp.,urs 1tke.A-ir Written & illustrated by Gregory s. Paul It is questionable whether anyone even speculated that some dinosaurs were feathered until Ostrom detailed the evidence that birds descended from predatory avepod theropods a third of a century ago. The first illustration of a feathered dinosaur was a nice little study of a well ensconced Syntarsus dashing down a dune slope in pursuit of a gliding lizard in Robert Bakker's classic "Dinosaur Renaissance" article in the April 1975 Scientific American by Sarah Landry (can also be seen in the Scientific American Book of the Dinosaur I edited). My first feathered dinosaur was executed shortly after, an inappropriately shaggy Allosaurus attacking a herd of Diplodocus. I was soon doing a host of small theropods in feathers. Despite the logic of feath- / er insulation on the group ancestral birds and showing evidence of a high level energetics, images of feathered avepods were often harshly and unsci- Above: Proposed relationships based on flight adaptations of entifically criticized as unscientific in view of the lack of evidence for their preserved skeletons and feathers of Archaeopteryx, a generalized presence, ignoring the equal fact that no one had found scales on the little Sinornithosaurus, and Confuciusornis, with arrows indicating dinosaurs either. derived adaptations not present in Archaeopteryx as described in In the 1980s I further proposed that the most bird-like, avepectoran text. Not to scale. dinosaurs - dromaeosaurs, troodonts, oviraptorosaurs, and later ther- izinosaurs _were not just close to birds and the origin of flight, but were see- appear to represent the remnants of wings converted to display devices. -
(PDF) Dinosaur Art: the World's Greatest Paleoart Steve White
(PDF) Dinosaur Art: The World'S Greatest Paleoart Steve White - download pdf free book pdf free download Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, Free Download Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Full Popular Steve White, by Steve White pdf Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, full book Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, Steve White epub Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, PDF Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Free Download, online free Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, Download Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart PDF, Download Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart E-Books, Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Ebooks, Free Download Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Ebooks Steve White, Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Ebooks, Read Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Ebook Download, Download PDF Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, Free Download Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Full Version Steve White, Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Full Download, by Steve White pdf Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, Steve White ebook Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, by Steve White pdf Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart, Read Dinosaur Art: The World's Greatest Paleoart Full Collection Steve White, CLICK FOR DOWNLOAD epub, mobi, pdf, kindle Description: The review included little on what I looked like and no word to say about how much that got in way of my head, only some mention from other readers those reading just knew who read The author was a real geek. -
Dinosaur Art Evolves with New Discoveries in Paleontology Amy Mcdermott, Science Writer
SCIENCE AND CULTURE SCIENCE AND CULTURE Dinosaur art evolves with new discoveries in paleontology Amy McDermott, Science Writer Under soft museum lights, the massive skeleton of a Those creations necessarily require some artistic Tyrannosaurus rex is easy to imagine fleshed out and license, says freelancer Gabriel Ugueto, who’s based alive, scimitar teeth glimmering. What did it look like in Miami, FL. As new discoveries offer artists a better in life? How did its face contort under the Montana sun sense of what their subjects looked like, the findings some 66 million years ago? What color and texture also constrain their creativity, he says, by leaving fewer was its body? Was it gauntly wrapped in scales, fluffy details to the imagination. with feathers, or a mix of both? Even so, he and other artists welcome new discov- Increasingly, paleontologists can offer answers to eries, as the field strives for accuracy. The challenge these questions, thanks to evidence of dinosaur soft now is sifting through all this new information, including tissues discovered in the last 30 years. Translating those characteristics that are still up for debate, such as the discoveries into works that satisfy the public’simagination extent of T. rex’s feathers, to conjure new visions of the is the purview of paleoartists, the scientific illustrators prehistoric world. who reconstruct prehistory in paintings, drawings, and Paleoartists often have a general science back- sculptures in exhibit halls, books, magazines, and films. ground or formal artistic training, although career Among the earliest examples of paleoart, this 1830 watercolor painting, called Duria Antiquior or “A more ancient Dorset,” imagines England’s South Coast populated by ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs. -
The Paleontograph______
__________The Paleontograph________ A newsletter for those interested in all aspects of Paleontology Volume 8 Issue 1 March, 2019 _________________________________________________________________ From Your Editor Welcome to our latest edition. Happy Spring to you all. Well, we made it thru the winter pretty much okay here in CO. The weather here really is pretty nice with the "Bomb Cyclone" being the exception. I'm excited to be heading back east to the big fossil and mineral show in Edison, NJ., April 3-7. I usually run into many long time friends at this show. My booth "Lost World Fossils" is just inside the entrance. If you make it to the show, please stop by and say hello. I'm the old guy with the white beard. I have a note on the last page detailing an exciting new arrangement. We will soon have all back and future issues of The Paleontograph archived on the AAPS website. The Paleontograph was created in 2012 to continue what was originally the newsletter of The New Jersey Paleontological Society. The Paleontograph publishes articles, book reviews, personal accounts, and anything else that relates to Paleontology and fossils. Feel free to submit both technical and non-technical work. We try to appeal to a wide range of people interested in fossils. Articles about localities, specific types of fossils, fossil preparation, shows or events, museum displays, field trips, websites are all welcome. This newsletter is meant to be one by and for the readers. Issues will come out when there is enough content to fill an issue. I encourage all to submit contributions. -
LOOKING BACKWARD John Taine Was an Important Figure in Science Fiction When I Began Reading It Seven - Ty-Odd Years Ago, Though He Is Pretty Much Forgotten Today
REFLECTIONS Robert Silverberg LOOKING BACKWARD John Taine was an important figure in science fiction when I began reading it seven - ty-odd years ago, though he is pretty much forgotten today. He was in reality Eric Temple Bell, a professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology, who under his own name published books on mathematical and technical subjects, and under the Taine pseudonym wrote a dozen or so superb science fiction novels, mainly in the 1920s and 1930s. When I was about twelve I encountered one of them, Before the Dawn, which dated from 1934, and it had a tremendous impact on me. The jacket of the first edition, which was published not by a regular publisher of fic - tion but by one that specialized in scientific textbooks, proclaimed it to be a novel of “TELEVISION IN TIME,” television then being something more in the province of science fiction than commercial reality. In a somewhat apologetic preface, the pub - lishers declared, “When a house that has devoted its attention wholly to factual books and journals in the realm of research science or its applications publishes a romance, it is no more than reasonable to explain the phenomenon. Dr. Bell’s Before the Dawn is fiction, written for the love and fun of the thing, and to be read in the same spirit. It is a romance. But it is not mere unguided romancing. There is scientific background for everything he writes. If there is no television in time as a matter of sober fact, it is also a matter of sober fact that the thing is possible; science has sown the seeds. -
The Life of Mary Anning – Biography and Comprehension
The life of Mary Anning – biography and comprehension The life of Mary Anning – set one A rainstorm. Three people and a 15-month-old baby took shelter under a tree. Lightning struck them. Only the baby survived. The baby’s parents said that it was the reason that their sickly baby became alert and lively. This baby was Mary Anning. She was one of the most influential people in history and instrumental in changing the way we see the world. Mary Anning was a fossil hunter! Mary was born on 21 May 1799 in the small coastal town of Lyme Regis. Her family was very poor and her parents had ten children. However, only two, Mary and her brother Joseph, survived. Mary’s father, Richard, was a cabinet maker and fossil hunter. Richard called the fossils he found ‘curiosities’. Richard and Mary would search along the coastline, looking for curiosities and would sell the ones they found to earn extra income. Sadly, in 1810 Richard died from tuberculosis leaving the family in debt. They needed to rely on their fossil hunting skills for survival. Fossils are the preserved remains of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological age. After an animal dies, its body decomposes leaving harder parts like the skeleton behind. This becomes buried by small particles of rock called sediment. As more layers of sediment build, the skeleton starts to compact and turn to rock. The bones start to dissolve by water seeping through the rock and are replaced by minerals to leave a rock replica. -
A Four-Legged Megalosaurus and Swimming Brontosaurs
Channels: Where Disciplines Meet Volume 2 Number 2 Spring 2018 Article 5 April 2018 A Four-Legged Megalosaurus and Swimming Brontosaurs Jordan C. Oldham Cedarville University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/channels Part of the Geology Commons, History of Philosophy Commons, Paleontology Commons, and the Philosophy of Science Commons DigitalCommons@Cedarville provides a publication platform for fully open access journals, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. However, the opinions and sentiments expressed by the authors of articles published in our journals do not necessarily indicate the endorsement or reflect the views of DigitalCommons@Cedarville, the Centennial Library, or Cedarville University and its employees. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their work. Please address questions to [email protected]. Recommended Citation Oldham, Jordan C. (2018) "A Four-Legged Megalosaurus and Swimming Brontosaurs," Channels: Where Disciplines Meet: Vol. 2 : No. 2 , Article 5. DOI: 10.15385/jch.2018.2.2.5 Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/channels/vol2/iss2/5 A Four-Legged Megalosaurus and Swimming Brontosaurs Abstract Thomas Kuhn in his famous work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions laid out the framework for his theory of how science changes. At the advent of dinosaur paleontology fossil hunters like Gideon Mantell discovered some of the first dinosaurs like Iguanodon and Megalosaurus. Through new disciples like Georges Cuvier’s comparative anatomy lead early dinosaur paleontologist to reconstruct them like giant reptiles of absurd proportions. This lead to the formation of a new paradigm that prehistoric animals like dinosaurs existed and eventually went extinct. -
Jurassic Park Connecticut Valley
JURASSIC PARK is in the CONNECTICUT VALLEY Meet Dr. Robert T. Bakker Saturday, November 19 who will sign books Talks and Book Signings at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and talk at Dinosaur State Park World-renowned paleontologist and author, Dr. Robert Bakker, will be at the park on Saturday, November 19, 2016. He will give two talks: at 11 a.m. and at 2 p.m. He will also be available to sign books. Bakker was a student at Yale working with Dr. John Ostrom when the tracks were discovered 50 years ago. He will be able to offer a unique perspective on what that was like as well as discuss his own work. The bookstore will have copies of his novel, “Raptor Red,” and several of his children’s books for sale including his newest book, “The Big Golden Book of Dinosaurs,” which is illustrated by the famous paleo artist Luis A. Rey. Bakker is probably most famous for his book, “The Dinosaur Heresies,” published in 1986. He helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic (warm-blooded). He earned a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. Along with his mentor at Yale, John Ostrom, Bakker was responsible for initiating the ongoing “dinosaur renaissance” in paleontological studies, beginning with Bakker’s article “Dinosaur Renaissance” in the April 1975 issue of Scientific American. His special field is the ecological context and behavior of dinosaurs. Bakker has been a major proponent of the theory that dinosaurs were active, intelligent and adaptable. -
The Origin and Diversification of Birds
Current Biology Review The Origin and Diversification of Birds Stephen L. Brusatte1,*, Jingmai K. O’Connor2,*, and Erich D. Jarvis3,4,* 1School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, King’s Buildings, James Hutton Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FE, UK 2Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China 3Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA 4Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA *Correspondence: [email protected] (S.L.B.), [email protected] (J.K.O.), [email protected] (E.D.J.) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.003 Birds are one of the most recognizable and diverse groups of modern vertebrates. Over the past two de- cades, a wealth of new fossil discoveries and phylogenetic and macroevolutionary studies has transformed our understanding of how birds originated and became so successful. Birds evolved from theropod dino- saurs during the Jurassic (around 165–150 million years ago) and their classic small, lightweight, feathered, and winged body plan was pieced together gradually over tens of millions of years of evolution rather than in one burst of innovation. Early birds diversified throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous, becoming capable fliers with supercharged growth rates, but were decimated at the end-Cretaceous extinction alongside their close dinosaurian relatives. After the mass extinction, modern birds (members of the avian crown group) explosively diversified, culminating in more than 10,000 species distributed worldwide today. Introduction dinosaurs Dromaeosaurus albertensis or Troodon formosus.This Birds are one of the most conspicuous groups of animals in the clade includes all living birds and extinct taxa, such as Archaeop- modern world.