Meet Terry. She’s a chipper little flyer who would love to scramble up onto your shoulder and nibble your ear (just a little nibble, it tickles). And could she please, pretty please have a tiny bit of that sandwich?
Terry always likes a snack, especially small morsels like snails, grubs, and worms she digs up. That sandwich looks quite tempting though, and she won’t turn her nose up at an opportunity to snatch it out of your hand, so keep an eye and a firm hold on it. 😀
She might not look it, but this little pterosaur (not dinosaur), is very good at walking and running around on the ground. She spends a lot of her time poking her sensitive snout in the dirt for all sorts of burrowing creepy crawlies. When she feels one, she nabs it with her tiny teeth and gulps it down. Yum! Continue reading →
Meet Nessie. This curious undersea critter is always looking for an opportunity to nab a treat. You’ll never see her coming! Her favorite game is hide-&-seek. 🙂
Look at that smile, I think she wants you to chase her!
Nessie loves a good game of hide & seek. She’ll find a good spot in the sand, bury herself with those powerful flippers, and wait until an unsuspecting fish or squid comes by…
Snap! Up comes her head, and the squid is lunch before it knows what’s happening.
Other times Nessie likes to be the seeker instead, and come up to a school of squid. It’s hard to tell exactly how close she is…the squid are easily tricked into thinking that she’s further away than she really is, so that long neck of hers can dart in for a quick bite.
Her neck is actually quite stiff, more like a fishing pole for extra leverage than the swan-like curviness you usually see on the Loch Ness monster. But Nessie can put that leverage to good use.
There were more squid and squid-relatives than fish in Jurassic oceans, and one of those relatives are ammonites. If you’ve never heard of an ammonite (am-oh-night) before, then you can think of them as squid with snail shells.
The big difference (aside from not being related to snails)… Continue reading →
Meet Tigger. This big guy is always ready to flash a big, toothy smile, especially at mealtime.
Look at that giant, toothy grin. He’s sure happy to see you! He’s looking for a treat or two (or ten), so that’s what this stinky bucket of slimy deliciousness is for. Tigger has a huge appetite, and he’ll eat anything that fits in that giant mouth of his. Even dinosaurs if one of them decides to go for a swim. (you heard right, dinos can swim, we have tracks to prove it)
Now when I say dinosaurs, I don’t mean swimming critters like Tigger. If you want the nitty gritty on what a dinosaur is or isn’t, you can quiz yourself on “Which One is the Dinosaur?”. 🙂 But even though Tigger wouldn’t mind a dino snack on occasion, it wasn’t usually on the menu, since he has plenty of turtles, squid, ammonites (think squid with a snail shell), fish, and marine reptiles to chomp on.
I say marine reptiles, because that’s what this big guy is. Tigger isn’t a dinosaur at all, but a pliosaur. In fact, his species, Pliosaurus, named his whole group!
The other marine reptiles swimming around here are ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. My little girl calls them “icky-saurs” and “pleasy-saurs”. 😛
Meet Picasso. This quiet softie loves spending time with his special person. Snuggling under the tree to hear a good story? That sounds like a lovely way to spend a warm afternoon. 🙂
Picasso looks very happy to see you, and he wonders very much if you like his red crest. He’s very proud of it, you see, and he’s been strutting around the field like a very large rooster.
He marches up and down the fence line with his chest puffed out and his neck arched like a stallion. He watches over his patch of yard like the duke of the land, and if something doesn’t look quite right, he’ll stand as tall as he can and show off those blue feathers- just so you know he has things under control.
Oh yes, feathers! Now we don’t know for sure if this critter had feathers or not, and the whole subject of feathered dinos deserves it’s own series of posts, but there’s a definite possibility. 🙂
I’ve given Picasso a coat of feathers similar in texture to an emu’s, which gives him the furry look. His fingers and feet are feathered too, like a snowy owl, but they have pads on them for walking and grabbing.
If you’ve watched a lot of Jurassic Park, take note that Picasso has awesome grabby hands that are good for hugs. Not dangly zombie bunny arms. What good are those for? 😛
Making progress…
Happy New Year! I hope you’ve been having a good holiday season.
I have big plans for the new year…Here’s a basic list, kinda in the order I want to accomplish it.
officially set up Mailchimp so that I can launch Pete’s Postcards from the Shop.
Finish Dippy vs. Ball so I can publish my first book (ever.)
Earn my first 99 cents from said book. 😀
Prep Dippy vs. Ball to make a print version available.
Create more Critter Cam episodes until I have enough for the anthology, which will also be available in print.
And…
Publish “Little, Quiet Dinosaur” (working title) by my birthday this year! We’ll see how realistic a goal that is later, but I’ll try my best to have it at least finished (if not ready to publish on Amazon).
I have a strategy in mind, to make sure this happens. Once Dippy vs. Ball is published, I’ll then work on an illustration for the picture book.
With an illustration complete, I’ll prep Dippy vs. Ball so that it can be available in print as well.
Then another illustration for the picture book…then I’ll start a second Critter Cam episode…you get the picture. 🙂
This way I hope to have more books out there (and therefore more easily seen, so future readers know I exist) while still making progress on the picture book. 🙂
P.S. – In case you didn’t notice, Picasso got an update!
He looks more like most of the other critters now, style-wise
He’s more balanced over his hips now, and doesn’t look like he’s about to fall on his face
His head crest is shorter, and more like the latest skeletal drawings
His body is leaner, since I gave his feathers a slightly shorter, more fur like look.
Here’s the older picture for comparison. 🙂
Coming Next Week…
This big guy is always ready to flash a big, toothy smile, especially at mealtime.
Meet Opie. He’s a happy little fella who loves to curl up in your lap, so it’s a good thing he’s about the size of a big dog!
Yes, Opie seems to think he’s a big lapdog, and he loves it when you stroke his feathers. Where is he off to now? It looks like he’s going to show you his favorite toy…Opie carries Teddy around everywhere. He’s gone through quite a few “surgeries” to poke the stuffing back in after Opie nibbled on him.
Oh! That’s Miss Kitty peaking around the corner. She’s a little shy after Opie tried playing a game of snatch with her. He’s just a big softie though, and he only wants to play. He’ll get a little droopy when Miss Kitty doesn’t understand. So he’ll curl up in his bed to snuggle with Teddy, and he’ll chirp happy chirps when he snuggles. He sounds a lot like this…
Speaking of soft and cuddly, those feathers are rather like those on an emu or kiwi. Looks a lot like fur, doesn’t it? 🙂
Emu feathers. Photo courtesy of Amanda Slater (2009)
Making progress…
Getting along spiffily (is that a word?) on my little storybook, Dippy vs. Ball. Here’s what I have so far on one of the spreads. A handy little map so we can take a little stroll around Dippy’s hometown to meet the neighbors.
Meet Copper & Daisy. These gentle giants are always happy to meet new friends. They love being part of the group.
Copper is a strapping young bull, and never leaves the side of his lovely lady. He’s very much the gentleman with her, and any friend who joins the herd. Just keep a close eye on your pockets if you have treats!
You can’t hear him, since it’s a picture of course, but Copper is chirping to Daisy. He’s found a good patch of something tasty, and he’s telling her to follow him. Many dinos could probably make a lot of noise without ever opening their mouths, like the gurgly hum Copper is making here. But you can see his lovely red throat all blown up like a bullfrog. 🙂
I imagine him sounding a lot like this…
Making progress…
I’m making progress like a ninja tortoise on my little project. If you want to see what that looks like, here’s a surprisingly fast tortoise I found on Youtube. 😛 (I love how everyone in the clip makes such a huge deal on how fast this tortoise is)
So here’s what I’ve got…
line work for the comic is complete. (though it needs a couple of updates, I found a paper describing the soft spines on Dippy’s back, and I’ve been drawing them wrong.)
first page color nearly complete.
thumbnails for front and back cover, and a few other pages are done, so I just need to finish the line work there.
Here’s a quick look at the first page. I’m going for a simpler style that’s animation friendly later on, so aside from a few tweaks on the background, this is just about done. Do you prefer the simpler, more suggestive backgrounds, or a little more detail?
Personally, I’m thinking of very minimal background, similar to the Wall-e and Big Hero 6 shorts. 🙂 Those short clips have pretty much no background, but the little scene at the bottom of the page is closest to what I’m going for. Very minimal.
Here’s a look at the Wall-e and Baymax clips, so you see what I mean.
What do you think? I would love your feedback! 😀 Just leave a quick word or two (or three) in the comments. 🙂
Coming Next Week…
This little dino is a bit shy, but she’ll come out of the bushes for a sweet hug and a small treat. 🙂
Hello there! Alfred is super excited to see you, and look at how curious he is. Do you own a cat or dog? Because he seems to think you smell good. (stay back Alfred, be nice). Here we go, I’ve got a nice ball of cheese and bacon here. He’ll love it. Here Alfred, go get it!
While Alfred gets the ball, I can share this lovely disclaimer. Que elevator music…
I do the best I can with research, but I definitely don’t claim to be an expert. I try my best to keep up to date, and all my illustrations reflect this. (thank you internets, and to all hard-working paleo-nerds who are kind enough to make your papers open source!) 😀
That said, all the drawings in the A&S post series are quick doodles to illustrate a point, with not as much reference as I usually use, so there are plenty of inaccuracies for you to point out for me. 😉
Thank you disclaimer, you can go bother someone else now. 😛 Elevator music fades out…Oh and here comes Alfred! Looks like he wants more…
There we go, good boy Alfred!
Now Alfred here is an Allosaurus. He’s young, so only about 12 feet long so far, but he’ll grow to be a lot bigger. Not as big as his wild cousins though, a few of them could be as big as T-rex! (very few, gotta be old to get that big, and most dinos have a live fast, die young policy)
1. On Scaly Skin vs. Feathers
So you see Alfred here has these lovely bright yellow and forest green scales, the colors of youth. (They’ll mellow out a bit when he gets older, like monitor lizards do)
Also like a monitor lizard, you’ll notice that most of Alfred’s scales are quite small, with a rather pebbly texture. They get a bit larger and thicker on his back, which is good since adult Allosaurus tend to get into quite a lot of tussles with each other. But most of his scales have that nice cobblestone look to them.
Short answer as to why Alfred has scales…there’s a young Allosaurus with preserved scales somewhere on it’s body. (Unfortunately the report didn’t say where)
Looks like Alfred’s all worn out from chasing after that giant, cheesy bacon-ball. He hasn’t quite grown into his adult silhouette yet. He’s still young enough to think he can chase after stuff, but he’s starting to get to an age where it’s getting hard to make those quick turns.
When he fills out his more barrel-chested adult figure, he’ll be spending quite a bit of his leisure hours (think energy-efficient) laying around. Since his body is a bit taller than it’s wide (more lanky cat than double-wide gator), it’s more relaxing to be lounging on his side.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he can’t do other things to relax, even things that may surprise us (ever seen a large horse roll? It’s hilarious 😀 ).
Sit!Down!Good boy! Roll Over!
Oh, and here’s that horse… 😀 I can totally picture some “duckbill” dino doing this.
3. Where are His Teeth?!
Clearly I need more practice drawing people. Thank you for volunteering Pete. 🙂
I hear ya, I wondered the same thing when I looked up pictures of Komodo Dragons and monitor lizards. But wait, what does that have anything to do with it?
Pete will help us out here. I know Alfred looks a little awkward, but he’s actually quite comfy. Ah- I’ll let Pete tell you the rest…
“Thank you. Yes, Alfred is quite at ease here. I’m not heavy to him at all, and he weighs at least a good 300 pounds at this age. So he doesn’t mind a bit.
I’m tilting his head back very gently- show us your teeth there Alfred, that’s it, nice and easy.
See this is the biggest difference between a domestic Allosaurus like Alfred here and a wild one. Look how completely relaxed he is. He’s not fighting me at all, and even his eyes are closed, look at that. (Alfred makes a gurgly, kinda purring sound in his throat)
Anyhow, I’m holding onto his lips here so I keep my fingers out of his mouth. My fingers can look a bit like treats, so I’ll be sure to keep them right at the edge here, at the gums.
All this, the lips, the gums, the saliva- it all keeps his teeth nice and moist. Dinosaurs have a healthy coat of enamel on their teeth, same as your teeth, and the key to healthy teeth is to keep them moist. Even better if you can give your teeth a constant bath of saliva.
Yes, drool is essential to healthy teeth!
Now Alfred will lose his teeth and grow new ones, just like crocodiles and alligators do, but if you look closely at these teeth-they’re serrated. They’re like steak knives- not like the cone-like teeth of crocodiles.
Thank you Alfred, you’ve been quite patient. Here’s some jerky.
But crocodiles don’t need serrated teeth. They’re eating different things, they have a different habitat, and different diet, they’re eating in a completely different way. Alfred has teeth like a bone saw.
Ever cut a roast turkey with an electric knife? That’s what Alfred’s teeth are doing when he eats, so they need to stay sharp, and they need to be strong in his mouth. So the gums hold his teeth, and his lips keep them nice and moist so they stay strong and don’t get brittle.”
Thank you Pete, and Alfred. Just for comparison, here is a crocodile monitor lizard.
Looks friendly doesn’t he? Image not my own, but I couldn’t find who to credit. If you know who I should credit, please let me know. 🙂
My first thought, “Where are the teeth?!” Then I noticed those sharp white triangular things inside the lip. Also interesting is that it looks like there are pockets for the bottom teeth to slip into. 🙂 Here’s the skull of the same animal…
Image not mine. If you know who I should credit, I’d love to give credit where credit is due. Thank you. 🙂
They look quite different from the other picture don’t they? Almost, shall I say, dinosauresqe? Take a look at an Allosaurus skull. 😀
Image copyright to Jason R. Abdale.
The one and only skull I could find that doesn’t have its teeth halfway falling out of their sockets (it happens when the dead critter decays). Jason has many more pictures of the Allosaurus mounts at the American Museum of Natural History, and I’d highly recommend you check out his blog post. You’ll also discover all my errors and where I need to fix Alfred. 😀
Quick Question: Help me find what I need to fix! If you wouldn’t mind checking out this blog post on Allosaurus, you’ll get to see some great pictures of excellent mounts, and you’ll see what I have to correct in my illustrations of Alfred.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments! I’ll be posting a comment on how many I find, and let’s see if we come up with the same ones or more. 😀
Every time I turn a corner, there’s a new feathered dinosaur to join the line up of “enfluffened” critters. T-rex, Velociraptor, Gallimimus…iconic dinosaurs from movies like Jurassic Park have bonified proof of some sort of floof covering their bodies. Even the plant eaters are getting floofy with critters like Hypsolophodon and Kulindadromeous.
Don’t get me wrong, I love feathery dinosaurs, and I’m a pretty big fan of a huge, fluffy, grizzly-hawk T-rex (that’s just epic 😀 ).
But sometimes artists can take this idea a little too far. “Woolly” Arctic ceratopsians (“three-horns” & cousins), and spike-tailed stegosaurus with porcupine quills is going a bit far on the speculation even for me.
There’s a fine line between reasonable speculation, and downright fantasy.
But let’s pause for just a moment. I know that a lot of paleoart is speculative, a way of illustrating hypotheses proposed by paleontologists, but there’s also a surprising amount of stuff we do know.
What I mean to say is…
The stuff you see in paleoart is not some wild guess, and just because the critters are long dead doesn’t mean anything goes. I’ve described the process of reconstructing prehistoric critters in my blog post series, Fleshing Out the Bones. You can click this link to read more on that if you’re interested.
So how do you decide if you’ll give your dinosaur feathers or scales?
“Butterfly!” Silly Alfred is just going to get worn out. He’s about the size of the young Allosaurus described below. About 12 feet long from nose to tail-tip.
Let’s take Allosaurus and my illustrations of Alfred as an example. How do I know if he should be covered in feathers or scales?
Based on the fossil, the young Allosaurus had small scales about 2-3 mm in diameter. So tiny, pebble-like, non-overlapping scales, rather like the sort you see on gila monsters and monitor lizards.
“Yo, ‘sup?”
But What if I didn’t Have Fossil Evidence?And for some, a patch of skin in one part of the body is not enough. Afterall, in some dinosaurs you get quite the mixture of feathers and scales. Compsognathus, for example, has close relatives with evidence of “full floof”, but the critter itself has scale impressions on its tail and legs.
Step 2: Look at Their Relatives.
Like we just did with Compsognathus up there, we can look at close relatives in the same family to figure out the scale/feather thing. In the case of the compy, the possibilities can get even more confusing, but let’s go back to Alfred.
If you go back to last week’s post on Theropods, you’ll see that Allosaurus is in the family Carnosauria. One rather infamous member of this group is Concavenator. It has what looks like quill knobs on its arms, which in modern birds are small bumps on the bone where ligaments for flight feathers attach.
The “quill nobs” of Concavenator are a subject of much discussion. Duane Nash has a particularly interesting interpretation over at his blog, Antediluvian Salad. I’m not a fan of how monstrous he illustrated the poor critter, since I tend to see the beauty even in Earth’s homeliest of creatures, but the article is a very interesting read, and I’d recommend you check it out. 🙂
Step 3: Where is it in the Family Tree?
Pterosaurs are about as closely related to dinosaurs as alligators and crocodiles are. Neither are dinosaurs, but they’re all in a much larger group called Archosauria.
Because of this relationship, it’s a pretty big deal if the fuzzy pycnofibers on pterosaurs are the same as the fur-like fluff on certain dinosaurs (like Compsognathus & cousins).
Why? Because it’s much simpler to assume that the great-grandmother of dinosaurs & pterosaurs had the fuzzy feathery fluff.
Much more complicated to assume that dinosaurs & pterosaurs developed the same fuzzy feathery fluff each on their own.
What’s easier? Learning with a friend from a teacher, or each of you studying on your own? Not exactly the same, I know, but I think you get my drift. 🙂
With this in mind, let’s see where Alfred is on the family tree, and how far away he is from the main branch or outlying branches.
Image not my own. Cladogram copyright to Tom Holtz. Sourced from the University of Maryland Department of Geology website.
Alfred is on the branch labeled Carnosauria. This is quite a ways away from the base of the branch, with many critters in between that are known to be scaly. So feathers from that direction are very unlikely.
Once proof of scales appears we don’t see any real evidence of feathers until we get to the branch labeled Coelurosauria.
Final Verdict: Allosaurus is More Likely to Have Scales, Based on Current Knowledge.
So what would that look like? The scales are small and non-overlapping in our sample, so let’s look at Komodo Dragons and Monitor lizards. 😀
“Nothin’ better than a warm rock on a sunny day…Zzzz” – Komodo Dragon“Hey. Nice day ain’ it?” – Komodo Dragon.“Hi! You wouldn’t have a snack handy would’ya?” – Monitor Lizard
Bonus Question: With this research, I think Alfred could use a bit of a makeover! What would you prefer to see?
A much needed nap after chasing that butterfly
Curious Alfred is curious
Is that the dinner bell?
Playtime!
Which scenario should I use to revamp his profile picture? I’d love to hear your answer in the comments! 🙂
Meet Alfred. The lion of the Jurassic! The prince of the Mesozoic! The…oh, there he goes after another butterfly. All he needs to be happy in life is his food, his chew toy, and a nice long nap.
Looks like Alfred has found something to chase. No worries though, that butterfly has nothing to fear, and he’ll give up soon enough. Allosaurus (ah-low-saw-rus) wasn’t very fast, but he can’t help it- if it runs off, he’s got to chase it! After a quick sprint, Alfred loves to settle under the shade of a tree and take a nice nap.
What’s that you say? He’s a fearsome predator? Well yes, yes he is. Take a quick look at lions, and tigers, and bears (oh my!), and most of the time you’ll actually catch them napping. Crocodiles and eagles, Alfred’s closest living relatives, also do a lot of nothing. Once you have a full belly, why not enjoy a siesta in the sun? 🙂
Fun Fact: This guy is the first critter that I kinda found my style. All the ones I drew before him were very inconsistent, but this one had the sketchiness and detailed painterly mixture I was looking for. All other critters after him I’ve been refining my technique and getting better.
Now I have to practice on my people!
Making progress…
I had a big surprise planned. The goal was to have Pete’s Postcards from the Shop all set up by my birthday (that’s today. I just set it as a convenient goal date. 🙂 )
The Critter Cards were done, I got the PDF file sorted out, Mailchimp all set up and ready to go…I run through the motions to test it out for myself and…
Nothing.
I wasn’t really surprised, since I can’t really use my personal email account to send you emails from the Paleo Petshop. But it was worth a try. I’m trying to spend as little money as possible until I start earning a little. This can turn into a really expensive hobby really fast if I’m not careful.
Not exactly what I’m going for. 🙂
So now I’m figuring out the best place to purchase a domain name, so that PaleoPetshop.wordpress.com can turn into PaleoPetshop.com. Only problem is that so many places offer so many different packages with bells and whistles I’m not ready for just yet. Like webhosting.
All I need is an official domain name, and the email address I can use with Mailchimp.
Wish me luck! I’ve got a couple of options I’m looking at, but it’s just a matter of figuring out which one’s a better fit. 🙂
In the meantime, here’s the Critter Card chart with all dinosaurs colored in. 😀
Coming Next Week…
A giant with a heart of gold, life is never boring when this big guy is around. Nothing is out of reach! He’ll stick his nose into everything until every mystery is solved.
Pete's Paleo Petshop 