Make Way for Millipedes
10:24 pm
“Spike” is the nickname given to the life-sized bronze Pentaceratops that stands outside the entrance to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science, and one Sunday morning each September hundreds of cyclists pass by his five-horned face as they embark on Spike’s Ride, an annual fundraiser for the NMMNH&S.
Each participant in Spike’s Ride gets all kinds of perks, like free museum admission, discounts at the gift shop, and the chance to sample dozens of chile sauces and stews from Albuquerque restaurants. And every participant gets a Spike’s Ride t-shirt, which features artwork depicting New Mexico’s favorite cycling ceratopsian.
I’ve been able to work on shirt art for the past five ‘Rides, and the challenge of squeezing a Pentaceratops onto a bicycle has yet to get old (the long tail and lack of opposable thumbs are easily overcome, but the ornithischian pelvis definitely did not evolve to rest on a bicycle seat). Just to keep it interesting, the last few shirts have portrayed Spike in some sort of prehistoric predicament based on new displays at the NMMNH&S. In 2003, after we completed our Cretaceous exhibit upgrade, Spike was shown outcycling the Bisti tyrannosaur. Last year, with the opening of the new Jurassic exhibit, Spike cruised beneath the legs of a startled Seismosaurus.
And this year, with the announcement of giant Arthropleura tracks from northern NM, Spike is forced to interrupt a Carboniferous cruise in order to “Make Way for Millipedes.” Click here to load this year’s full t-shirt art in a new window.
Click here for more information on how you can participate in Spike’s Ride. Even if you can’t make it down for the event, less than $20 will help fund the NMMNH&S educational programs, and get you a nifty 5 color tee not available anywhere else.
[...] I can see that my summer wardrobe, currently overrun with spiffily designed T-shirts, is going to have to accomodate a few more pieces of science-based casualwear. In addition to Ray Troll’s Embrace Your Inner Fish design, I’m going to have to place an order for this charming “Tree of Life” number. According to the site, the design “celebrates the theory of evolution and was created to give a voice to those who favor traditional biology and oppose the growing American support of various forms of creationism.” All that and a rooted cladogram? Sold! [...]