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. Continue reading
Skittles is happy to see you! She wonders if you would please, pretty please, give her a treat. Can you resist those puppy-dog eyes?
She may be about the size of a golden retriever, but believe it or not, Skittles here is the great-great-great-great-grandmother of Stegosaurus!
It’s hard to imagine how long a time span the Jurassic period covers, but we can get a few hints when we see that a little critter like this had enough time to change and diversify into animals like the spike-tailed Stegosaurus, or the armored, club-tailed Ankylosaurus.
The Jurassic period started at the end of the Triassic period (big extinction event there, to separate the two), and lasted 56.3 million years until the beginning of the Cretaceous.
56.3 million years. Think about that. Humans have been around for about 2 million. Between us and the latest dinosaurs like T-rex? About 65 million years.
So that means Dinosaurs had their “golden age” in the Jurassic for almost as long as the nearest T-rex is to us. Pretty mindboggling.
And that’s not even thinking about the Triassic and Cretaceous periods yet…
Dinosaurs have been around for a looong time (especially if you count birds living today!).
Skittles is just happy to have a few moments to cuddle. 🙂 Completely oblivious to how long dinosaurs have been around. Or that she’s related to Steggy. 😛
One more down, three more to go!
I was doing a little research on Createspace, and I discovered a few things…
Createspace is a company that allows you to sell a print book on Amazon. It’s not the only one out there, but it’s my best (and cheapest) option at the moment, so that’s the one I’m going with.
I was double checking what sizes I can print the book in and, alas, 10×10 inches is not available. 😦
10×10 is a fairly common size for children’s picture books, so I guess I assumed it was a “standard” size, but there’s always trouble when you assume. It’s not what I would like, but I’ll be printing this book in a “standard” 8.25×8.25 inches instead. On the plus side, this means it’ll be available at a cheaper price for you. 🙂
A quick interesting tidbit on the money side of things. (because Createspace has a little calculator to estimate royalties)
The average paperback picture book that is 8.25×8.25 inches sells for about $5.
If I sell my book for that price, I lose money with every book (about $3 in fact).
The average hardback picture book in the same size sells for about $10.
If I sell my book for $10, then I earn about $4
If I sell my book for $9.50, then I earn just over $3.
Naturally, you understand if I don’t want to lose money for every book I sell. I love what I’m doing, and it’s fun, but it’s also a way to help pay bills. 😛
So for now, while I’m still new at this and figuring things out, I’ll stick with Createspace and print an 8.25×8.25 paperback book (Createspace doesn’t really print hardbacks). I’ll sell it for $9.50, and earn about $3 per book.
$3 doesn’t sound like much, but this is a book we’re talking about. The key to earning money with books is to have a lot of them. The average number of books 6 figure authors have in their back-list is about 30, so I’ve got a long way to go!
I’m in this author business for the long haul. $3 or $10 here and there adds up after a while, especially if I try my very best to go out and meet my audience so that you know I exist. It’s not enough to have a bunch of books. You have to put yourself out there and let others know you exist too. 🙂
Later on, once the series has a gained more of an audience, I can host a kickstarter event to fund the printing of the full size, beautiful hardback books. That’ll be awesome. 😀
Thank you for stopping by, I really appreciate you spending a little time with me. 🙂
And for my fellow Americans, I hope you had a great (and safe!) 4th of July yesterday!
This critter is furry, loves to swim, and has a flat, sorta scaly paddle tail…Is she even in the right time period?! 😉
Share your guess in the comments! She’ll be one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂
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. Continue reading
Pretty please with cherries on top?
Can’t fool her, she knows I brought some of those little dried fishy treats. Look at that face, she might even snuggle for some.
But please don’t Cassie. Down girl. Thank you. I don’t really want to smell like river mud at the moment.
Have a treat!
I’m sure you must be wondering what she is…
She is a small mammal from the middle of the Jurassic China, just a bit smaller than a modern platypus. She has a lot in common with platypus, such as a love for water, strong digging paws, a thick fur pelt, and probably even laid eggs like a platypus (though there’s no way to know for sure).
But she’s not actually related to platypus, beavers, or any modern mammal. She is from an extinct group of mammals called docodonta.
You can find out more about Cassie and her family here.
Making progress… Continue reading
Skittles is happy to see you! She wonders if you would please, pretty please, give her a treat. Can you resist those puppy-dog eyes?
She may be about the size of a golden retriever, but believe it or not, Skittles here is the great-great-great-great-grandmother of Stegosaurus!
It’s hard to imagine how long a time span the Jurassic period covers, but we can get a few hints when we see that a little critter like this had enough time to change and diversify into animals like the spike-tailed Stegosaurus, or the armored, club-tailed Ankylosaurus.
The Jurassic period started at the end of the Triassic period (big extinction event there, to separate the two), and lasted 56.3 million years until the beginning of the Cretaceous.
56.3 million years. Think about that. Humans have been around for about 2 million. Between us and the latest dinosaurs like T-rex? About 65 million years.
So that means Dinosaurs had their “golden age” in the Jurassic for almost as long as the nearest T-rex is to us. Pretty mindboggling.
And that’s not even thinking about the Triassic and Cretaceous periods yet…
Dinosaurs have been around for a looong time (especially if you count birds living today!).
Skittles is just happy to have a few moments to cuddle. 🙂 Completely oblivious to how long dinosaurs have been around. Or that she’s related to Steggy. 😛
Making progress… Continue reading
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? 🙂
You can find out more about Alfred at his critter page.
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.
Share your guess in the comments! He’ll be one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂
1. Soft or hard-shelled turtle?
Steggy’s a bit smaller than the average wild stegosaurus, but she’s still quite a bit taller than we are. If you reach up on your tip-toes you might be able to touch the biggest of her plates, the one right above her hips there.
There’s been some speculation in recent years on if these plates were hard and covered in keratin- like a turtle’s shell or cow’s horn- or if the plates were soft and covered in scales or skin.
I did a bit of digging (research wise), and came across this lovely gem of information written by Darren Naish. He cites a paper provided by Christiansen & Tschopp (2010), who reported a continuous sheath-like covering on one of the plates they referred to another spiketail known as Hesperosaurus.
So there you have it. Hesperosaurus is a very close cousin of Stegosaurus, so in the realm of phylogenetic bracketing that makes it more likely that Steggy had a smooth, hard sheath of horn on her plates and spikes.
2. Armed to the teeth.
The same Hesperosaurus described had another very rare insight on spiketails- fossil skin. As you can see on Steggy here, most of her body is covered in small, non-overlapping scales, called tubercles. They look a bit like pave stones don’t they? Now look up here, a bit higher up on her side. Interesting isn’t it?
Steggy has some pretty tough scales. These large oval scales are called osteoderms, just like the large, hard scales on the backs of crocodiles. They’re covered in keratin, like our fingernails, and they do a pretty good job as armor. I’m sure Alfred‘s wild relatives had a tough time munching on wild stegosaurus. 🙂
3. She might not be the sharpest rock, but she’s one tough cookie.
Steggy might have a brain the same size as a dog’s, but she’s not nearly as dumb as movies and the media would have you think. (I’m looking at you Spike, in The Land Before Time). I think most encounters would not have ended up like the stego in Disney’s Fantasia (which is totally what inspired my love for them in the first place 🙂 )
With all that armor, and tons of fossil evidence with some serious dino damage on Alfred‘s wild relatives, it looks to me that spiketails had an attitude to match their prickly array of spikes and plates.
Because of that, I’ve given Steggy a bright warning pattern. Someone told me it reminded her of a skunk, and that’s exactly what I’m going for. Steggy’s color is something that says “stay away!”
Good thing Steggy is a calm and peaceful pet then, a domesticated spiketail. Domestic spiketails have a tendency to be nervous, and spook easily (like horses), but Pete works with her a lot, and hardly anything bothers Steggy now. (horses can be trained like this too)
Just for fun, here’s my reasoning on why Steggy may not be as dumb as you think. A quick check on Youtube brings up plenty of smart tortoises. Yep, after discovering that it couldn’t fit through the pet door, this one figured out how to open a sliding glass door.
Quick Question: Animals do all sorts of crazy things we wouldn’t expect. Do you have a story about an animal or pet that did something unexpected? I’d love to hear your answer in the comments!
P.S.- You can always hop over the the A&S page to pick out who you want to see next! 🙂
OR
I can save you the big snore (because the technical stuff is tough to read, and I like this sort of thing!) and have an excuse to draw yet more cute critters, while sneaking in a few quick fossil facts in a bite-size post or convenient picture. 🙂
Why am I doing this?
The truth is that I got a little frustrated. All the dinosaur books for kids fall into one of two categories-
Super cute story and dinosaurs, but no science. For example, “Pteradactyls” lumped in with the dinosaurs, and dinos stuck with the appearance of rubber toys from the 80s.
OR
“Educational”, but tough to read. Because after reading a list of names like Tyrannosaurus rex, Euplocephalosaurus, and Parasaurolophus 20 nights in a row, I know that book is going to put aside for “some other time”. Plus the computer graphics always look a bit unpleasant to me.
Pete’s Paleo Petshop is the best of both worlds. A cute story with illustrations based on the latest scientific research I can find. But I also want to make clear what part of the illustration is something we actually know as fact, or really just an educated guess. Speculation. A hypothesis. 🙂
So this is the start of a new series called The Art & Science of Pete’s Paleo Petshop. That’s super long though, so I’ll have to shorten it somehow. 🙂
For your convenience, I’ll keep a list of all posts in the series here on this page, and I’ll update the list with links as we go along. I’ll begin with the main cast, and we’ll see where we go from there. 🙂
Main Cast:
Bonus Question: Any special requests? I’ll be going over these critters in no particular order, so if there’s one you really want to see first, let me know. First one to answer in the comments gets first pick! 🙂
I really love my country, and everything the founding fathers worked so hard to cultivate in the early years. So here we have some American dinosaurs to help us celebrate.
From left to right…
That’s all for now! Thank you for dropping by, and I hope your day is fun and safe. 🙂
Pete's Paleo Petshop 