Hairy Museum of Natural History

Hairball 02.07.10

Several new (and newish) blogs in this weeks tangle of links:

Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs: a daily dose of Mesozoic megafauna. Highly recommended. This week’s pick: An interview with pterosaur researcher/artist Mark Witton.
Pterosaur.net Blog: posts from Mark Witton and the rest of the team at Pterosaur.net. Pick: John Conway’s discussion of the Pot-bellied Pteranodon.
Jim Robins Zoo.Art: art of a paleontological nature. Pick: The multi-view rendering of Caudipteryx zoui.
Theropod Database: Mickey Mortimer’s in-depth examinations of theropod anatomy and phylogenetics. Pick: A handsome little picture of the first Asian alvarezsaur fossil ever cataloged.
Morbid Anatomy shows off an admission certificate for an 1869 course on Practical Anatomy. Instructor: Joseph Leidy, who named the first American dinosaurs.
Laelaps describes how Arctodus simus, the Pleistocene “short-faced bear,” got a makeover.
More fossil pigments: the plumage color patterns of Anchornis. In 3D!

—Matt Celeskey.

This week’s tangle of links, coughed up for your examination:

New basal alvarezsaur: Haplocheirus sollers.
What’s an alvarezsaur? Dave Hone’s got it covered.
Why is a basal one noteworthy? Jonah Choiniere, of Haplocheirus-description team, puts it in context and highlights some of its unique features.
Fossil pigment 1: Belemnite ink
Fossil pigment 2: Chestnut-striped coelurosaurs
Happy Family: Proboscidea
Medical Texts: A long, painful decline (courtesy bioephemera)
The Wonderful World: Compellingly awful

—Matt Celeskey.

A tangle of links I’ve partially digested over the past week:

A trip through Desmatosuchus country, and a beautifully rendered restoration of the same aetosaur.
New Mesozoic exhibit at the VMNH.
Osteology of the Utahan therizinosaur Falcarius.
Albertaceratops and young.
Synapsid review I: A gallery of “mammal-like reptiles,” remarkable in its completeness. Ruthiromia? Lumkuia? Fantastic. (courtesy The Dragon’s Tales).
Synapsid review II: Developmental Paleontology. (courtesy Palaeoblog) And more developmental palaeontology, synapsid and otherwise.
Lovely little sketch of Turkana/Narikotome Boy. Or at least his skull.
Palorchestes, the “marsupial ground sloth” with a joey in its pouch.
Other bodily companions: Parasite of the Day.

—Matt Celeskey.