#Fossils like this belong in museums not collections

[grimmgrinningghouls]

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

[amnhnyc]

Get a leg up on the weekend with these colossal limbs! Snapped circa 1899, this archival photo from the Museum’s digital collections depicts a Museum preparator standing beside the fossilized limbs of dinosaurs discovered in Wyoming. The larger bones belong to sauropods, while the smaller bones belong to a theropod—likely Allosaurus.

Photo: Image no. 46523 / © AMNH Library

[doorbloggr]

There is no dinosaur named Troodon

Sunday 23/4/23

Alaskan Troodontid - Julio Lacerda @paleoart

A brief sorry for not writing for a while. Had a lot on my mind and also just struggled to get that jump-start on my creativity again. But after having a bit of nerd-out at a friend recently, I have a dinosaur related thing to talk about today.

For anyone knee-deep into dinosaur stuff, they'd know about the popular stereotyping around small meat eating dinosaurs. The likes of "Raptors" are often portrayed as problem solvers; coordinated, and clever. And although most modern birds have more developed brains than extinct non-bird dinosaurs, the exception of Troodon is often brought up.

Troodon - @/the_meep_lord on Twitter

Troodon is a name that dino-nerds will bring up as a notable example of smart dinosaurs. It was one of the dinosaurs most closely related to birds, it had large eyes for its head, and in fact the largest brain to body size ratio of any non-avian dinosaur. But what many dino-nerds might struggle with, is that most palaeontologists believe that the genus Troodon is not valid.

Now when I first heard this information, my reaction was likely the same to yours reader. What do mean the genus isn't valid? Ask anyone what Troodon looks like, we have a very clear picture. How can we have full skeletons of a dinosaur that didn't exist? How come we have a significant clade of dinosaurs named after it (Troodontidae)? It is a dinosaur that even had unfortunate older stereotypes in its design (pictured below: the olive green smooth skinned Troodon that inspired the ugly Dinosauroid speculative biology thing).

llustration of Troodon - De Agostini Library (unable to find artist)

The issue, as I'll try to explain, was an unfortunate game of guesswork and generalisation across the Palaeontological community.

Discovery and Naming

In 1855, a single fossil teeth was found in Montana, USA. This was a particularly jagged tooth, and seemed to belong to some form of carnivorous or at least omnivorous reptile. It was named Troodon formosus meaning "wounding tooth, well formed". This tooth was originally classified as belonging to a lizard, so the genus Troodon was born.

Troodon holotype drawing, 1860

In 1901, it was decided that Troodon's tooth belonged to a dinosaur, within the group Megalosauridae. But as I've discussed previously, Megalosaurus was a wastebasket taxon, and other experts wanted to place Troodon somewhere more definitive. In 1924, Troodon was classified as a relative of dome-headed dinosaurs such as Pachycephalosaurus and Stegoceras. And since Troodon pre-dated many dinosaurs in this group, the family was at the time referred to as Troodontidae.

"Sandy", Pachycephalosaurus specimen at Royal Ontario Museum

Troodon as a Pachycephalosaur lasted until 1945, when Troodon was finally reclassified as carnivorous dinosaur, and the dome-headed dinosaurs were renamed under the title Pachycephalosauridae.

Other Troodontids

For a long time, the issue with Troodon was that because it's teeth were one of a kind, they did not know how the rest of it's body looked. The first dinosaur to be classified under Troodontidae that wasn't named just for teeth was a dinosaur called Stenonychosaurus (meaning 'narrow claw lizard").

Stenonychosaurus, Nix Illustration @alphynix

The original specimen of Stenonychosaurus did not have teeth, but it's close relative Saurornithoides did. And once both specimens had more complete specimens collected, they were classified under the group Saurornithoididae in the 1980s. But soon, scientists found similarities between the teeth of Saurornithoididae dinosaurs, and that of Troodon. The Principle of Priority states that earlier names for taxon are more valid taxonomically, so Saurornithoididae was considered synonymous with Troodontidae, and all specimens previously referred to as Stenonychosaurus were now called Troodon.

"Troodon" Specimen, Perot Museum, Texas

Most of the facts we now think of as Troodon were originally attributed to Stenonychosaurus, and many other North American Troodontids were considered as possible synonyms of Troodon, but this received some push back.

The idea that most of North America's Troodontids all belonging to one taxa was questioned. So, as had happened to other wastebasket taxon prior, Troodon was reanalysed.

In the late 2000s, a Troodontid called Pectinodon was separated from the Troodon genus and considered its own taxon. In the mid-late 2010s, some material originally classified under Stenonychosaurus, and then Troodon, was given its own genus, Latenivenatrix.

Latenivenatrix sculpture, @bookrat

Was "Troodon" really Troodon?

So the question of "What is a Troodontid?" had a very clear answer now. They were small to medium Theropod dinosaurs with narrow skulls, front facing eyes, larger braincases, and often restored with sickleclaws and feathers, similar to the Dromeosaurs. But the question came back to the Genus Troodon itself. We had sufficient material of many other Troodontids to tell what most of their body looked like, but the "holotype" of Troodon was still just one tooth.

In case you need a refresher on the terminology, a holotype is the first fossil a new species is named for. For another fossil to be named the same species, it needs to be identified as similar enough to the holotype. Holotypes are often fragmentary, it is common practice to fill in the full skeleton with details from similar relatives, but you still need enough details to identify who your relatives are.

The holotype of Troodon was so fragmentary, (again one bone), that it has been referred to as undiagnostic. Terminology lesson again, that means you CANNOT tell what it belongs to.

The fragmentary Holotype of the more recent Troodontid "Talos sampsoni", was almost complete in comparison to Troodon's. Credit: Scott Hartman

The Troodon tooth was *similar* enough to Stenonychosaurus that they were proposed to be close relatives, but there were differences enough for there to be initial scepticism at their synonymy. The original explanation proposed that the Troodon tooth came from an individual who was older, or in a different part of the mouth to teeth found from Stenonychosaurus, but this was never scientifically scrutinised, just proposed. The whole absorbing of Stenonychosaurus into Troodon was based on heresy that had never been scientifically tested.

So in 2017, almost universally, it was decided that Stenonychosaurus be separated from Troodon as its own valid dinosaur. Almost all material that had at that point been assigned to Troodon were reassigned to Stenonychosaurus or Latenivenatrix. And now the genus Troodon had a problem. If all known fossil material came down to a single, very undiagnostic tooth, then what WAS this dinosaur actually like?

Stenonychosaurus - Anuperator (deviantart)

The current take is that there was no dinosaur known as Troodon in the technical sense. The tooth may not even belong to a Troodontid. But since Troodontidae has become an established group with established diagnostic traits, we still get to keep the name, for the group at least.

Troodontids Now

Troodontidae is still a very popular mainstream group of dinosaurs, but the names Stenonychosaurus, Saurornithoides, and Latenivenatrix are not as well known as Troodon. Many recent paleoart projects, particularly animations have depicted Troodon-like dinosaurs. But for scientific accuracy, they often decide to use the catch-all term "Troodontid", so audiences know what dinosaur we're talking about without being unscientific.

The YouTube Animation series "Dinosauria" features an episode on Arctic North American Dinosaurs. The main character is referred to as an Alaskan Troodon. This dinosaur has been originally proposed as a larger subspecies of Troodon described from larger teeth found in Alaska. As of writing, this Troodontid still does not an official description or scientific name.

In the 4th episode of the Apple TV+ series, Prehistoric Planet, we again see a dinosaur probably based on the Alaskan Troodon, this time just referred to as a "Troodontid".

In both pieces of media, the Troodontids engage in intelligent problem solving, but nothing on the level of what Jurassic Park would engage in. In Dinosauria, the Troodontid uses vocal mimicry. In Prehistoric Planet, it uses burning sticks to spread a wildfire. Both behaviours that different modern birds engage in, but may have been a stretch for what non-avian dinosaurs were capable of.

Thanks for Reading

If you are still a bit confused as to what this all meant, that's OK, it took me a while to get me head around it too. I encourage readers to do their own research and come to their own conclusion as to what this all means.

If you did feel my explanations helped you learn something new today, please reblog and spread the word. Of course add on your own commentary to the reblogs if you have insight that would better clarify the topic.

Thankyou for reading, and I'll hopefully have something else to post on here soon.

[rabbitcruiser]

Dinosaurs Day  

Discover a lost world of colossal creatures, where gigantic predators and gentle giants once roamed the earth.

Dinosaurs have been the subject of scrutiny, fascination and even mysticism for more than 300 years, since the first dinosaur bone was discovered by scientists. Now, Dinosaur Day provides an opportunity for students, teachers and just general fans of dinosaurs to learn more about them and celebrate them just as they deserve!

History of Dinosaur Day

While no one knows exactly the dates, some scientists have researched and estimated that non-bird dinosaurs probably were roaming the planet in the time range from 245 to 66 million years ago, which was still millions of years prior to human history.

The era in which dinosaurs lived, the Mesozoic Era, which is a geological age that can be divided into three parts: Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. This may have been the time when the land on earth was originally in one piece, but eventually split into the several pieces which are now referred to as the modern continents.

It is estimated that dinosaurs became extinct from the earth around 65 million years ago, perhaps due to the impact of an asteroid, volcanic eruptions and possible climate change. Sadly, humans now can only make educated guesses about what happened to them.

The first evidence of the existence of dinosaurs on the planet that was discovered by humans happened in 1677 when naturalist and Oxford professor, Robert Plot, found a lone bone from a dinosaur. Since he didn’t really know what it was, Plot’s best guess was that it had come from a giant human.

More than 100 years later, when William Buckland became the first geology professor at Oxford University in the early 1800s, a fossil was identified as being from a dinosaur. It was in 1815 when he discovered teeth, jaw and limb bones that he found more bones in his travels. In 1824, he determined that these bones must have been from some extinct creature.

Buckland originally though this species to be some sort of ancient lizard, which he called “Megalosaurus”. The second fossil to be named was suspected to be like an iguana, so it was called “Iguanodon” in the early 1820s.

Eventually, by 1842, this family of fossils was grouped together by scientist Sir Richard Owen, who called it “Dinosauria”, which translated to “terrible lizard”. Owen would eventually go on to found London’s Natural History Museum in 1881 and that museum is still famous for its dinosaur bone collections today.

It’s no surprise that creatures with such a mysterious history would fascinate and confound even the most intelligent and educated scientists. Today, children and adults of all ages love learning more about the types of dinosaurs, how they lived, what they ate, and so much more.

Dinosaur Day is the perfect way to celebrate and pay heed to this unique and enigmatic species of creatures that preceded humans on this planet.

Dinosaur Day Timeline

245 Million Years Ago

Dinosaurs live on earth 

Scientists estimate that dinosaurs may have walked the earth somewhere beginning around this time.

65 Million Years Ago

Dinosaurs go extinct

Sadly, at least 65 million years before humankind, dinosaurs are eradicated through some type of major natural disaster, perhaps an asteroid, volcanic eruptions or climate change.

1677

First dinosaur bone is discovered 

Though he doesn’t know it at the time, Robert Plot of Oxford, England, unearths the first dinosaur bone, which he thinks is a bone from a giant human.

1842

Dinosaurs are first given their category name 

Oxford geology professor, William Buckland, realizes that many of these ancient bones belong together in one category, so he names them “Dinosauria”.

1993

Jurassic Park is released in theaters 

This film by Steven Spielberg  combines the genres of science fiction and action to become a hit with audiences.

How to Celebrate Dinosaur Day

Kids and adults alike can enjoy the fun and adventure of Dinosaur Day with tons of different educational and creative activities to choose from:

Visit a Museum with Dinosaurs

What could be better than hanging out with actual dinosaurs and visiting a bunch of ancient dinosaur bones in celebration of Dinosaur Day? This is the day to head over to a museum, whether local or far away, to get up close and personal with these unique and interesting characters.

Here are some of the most interesting dinosaur museums in the world:

The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Featuring dinosaurs from all over the globe, including Antarctica and Madagascar, the Evolving Planet exhibit houses Sue, the world’s largest Tyrannosaurus Rex, weighing 600 pounds and revealing 58 teeth.

Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. This natural history museum hosts a giant collection of bones of many species, particularly those excavated from Tanzania, Africa in the 20th century. This museum is most famous for its 41-foot, 5-inch Brachiosaurus, which is the tallest dinosaur in the world that is on display today.

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Science in Brussels, Belgium. The impressive collection of fossils at this museum is home to the largest dinosaur hall in the world. Particularly of note is its collection of 30 Iguanodons, which were the second dinosaur to be classified in the 1800s.

National Dinosaur Museum in Canberra, Australia. In addition to bones, fossils and footprints, this museum boasts an outdoor garden that features large dinosaur sculptures and even animatronics.

Subscribe to the National Geographic for Kids Magazine

Want the kids to keep up with all that’s going on in the world, including the dinosaur world? The National Geographic Magazine for Kids (sometimes called NatGeo for Kids) is a superb way to keep them interested in learning about all sorts of scientific and natural subjects, including their favorite dinosaurs, of course.

Watch a Movie with Dinosaurs

Those who just want to stay home in celebration of Dinosaur Day can still join in on the fun by taking a look at some of these delightful flicks featuring dinosaurs:

Jurassic Park (1993). Steven Spielberg directs this classic sci-fi dinosaur movie that has gained a bit of a cult following. This movie is based on a 1990 novel by Michael Crichton and becomes the first in a franchise of several films.

Night at the Museum (2006). Ben Stiller stars in this fantasy comedy that is about tons of creatures coming alive in the museum at night, including Rexy, the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that is a major exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in New York City, USA.

The Land Before Time (1988). This heartfelt animated film features an orphaned dinosaur who faces challenges and learns how to survive after meeting up a few friends.

Land of the Lost (2009). Based on a 1970s television show of the same name, this sci-fi adventure comedy movie stars Will Ferrell as a pompous paleontologist who goes on the adventure of a lifetime and, of course, encounters dinosaurs along the way.

Dinosaur Day FAQs

Are dinosaurs real? 

Yes! Scientific evidence shows that dinosaurs are a group of reptiles that lived on planet earth for many millions of years until they became extinct.

When did dinosaurs go extinct?

Scientists estimate from ancient fossil and bone evidence that dinosaurs went extinct around 65 million years ago.

Did dinosaurs have feathers?

Yes. Preserved specimens of dinosaur feathers were found in China in the 1990s.

Have dinosaurs been found on every continent? 

Scientists have found evidence that dinosaurs lived on every continent, but it is suspected this is because all of the land masses were joined together in one during that time.

What killed the dinosaurs?

A theory presented in 1980 caused most scientists to embrace the idea that a giant asteroid killed the dinosaurs, though climate change and volcanic eruptions may also be to blame.

Source

[abyssalzones]

favorite deep sea creature?

sorry this one took so long to answer. it's also very long. but I feel like you knew what you were getting into when you asked tumblr user "abyssalzones" what his favorite deep sea creature is.

now immediately my mind jumped to coelacanths because they're among my favorite fish Ever for a multitude of reasons, such as (but not limited to):

-their mystique (their fossilized ancestors were initially discovered in the 19th century, and due to their illusive nature were thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period until one was found alive by an unknown(?) fisherman off the coast of South Africa, and from there the discovery was accredited to museum curator Marjorie Courtenay-Latimar who spotted it in the day's catch. however it's worth mentioning fishermen in the eastern South African region may have known about the species before then. kind of a 'who can say if it wasn't written down' situation.)

-their beautiful blueness (others have waxed poetic about their appearance more skillfully than I, but just look at this guy. wow. albeit I have to wonder if how blue they appear is very dependent on lighting but whatever he's beautiful)

-and, finally, their importance as lobe-finned fish! (the two extant species of Coelacanth today- alongside lungfish, who are also incredibly cool- hold a unique position in taxonomy and evolutionary history as the only living non-tetrapod sarcopterygians that we know of ^_^ they used to be much more dominant as freshwater predators, but then the great dying came along and they suffered a significant decline. so, essentially, these guys are survivors! ...if you felt it necessary to frame it as such. and "sarcopterygian" more specifically describes them as belonging to the clade 'Sarcopterygii', which classifies them as lobe-finned bony fish. this contrasts the other clade of bony fish, Actinopterygii, which describes ray-finned bony fish. in essence, they are the great-great-great-great-ad-nauseum-grandparents of all tetrapods! very very important animals from a grander biological perspective.)

...however, after typing all of this out, I realize this is a little bit of a cop-out. Coelacanths, as cool as they are, are actually not the deepest of deep-sea fish. It's difficult to get the exact numbers on their whereabouts as, previously stated, they're pretty elusive guys, but generally during the daytime they're found about 100-500 meters deep, resting in caves and saving their energy for nocturnal reef-feeding. apparently they've been found to migrate deeper as well, but it still feels a little disingenuous (to me) to say that they're truly deep-sea animals.

...so if I want to live up to my username, I need to take you on a journey. to the abyssal zone. where you will find some truly terrifying, near-alien creatures, straight from the pits of Dante Alighieri's visions of hell, or Hieronymus Bosch's bizarre garden of earthly delights...!

no, not that guy! get him out of here. shoo.

Instead we're going to be talking about his big brother. his... very, very big brother.

okay so chances are you've seen this photo before, it circulates quite a bit online as "BIG FUCKING SCARY THING IN THE OCEAN" and it's pretty apparent why, but I'm incredibly fond of "Scary fucking thing in the ocean" in general, and as such I think this guy is delightful. I debated on picking a couple of different, lesser-known species from the abyssal-hadal range (such as various arctic amphipods), but if I'm honest I have a soft spot for cephalopods. typical, typical I know, I should be ashamed, but in this case I can safely say the Bigfin squid (genus Magnapinna) is anything but "typical".

oh, sure, there's a level of wonder healthily exacerbated by the rarity of sightings- but that's all we have! sightings and footage! well, that and washed-up corpses dating back to 1883, all being damaged juveniles that were never properly collected. even so, their significance and oddity isn't really made apparent until you see their adult form, which first came to science's attention properly in 2001 when some very grainy footage was captured by an oil drilling ship, the Milennium Explorer, in the gulf of Mexico.

he's shy.

I say "first came to science's attention" because the Bigfin had actually been recorded prior, all the way back to 1998, but no one had really gotten up out of their chair and started dancing around at the realization of holy shit, what is this thing? and from there further work was done on properly identifying and analyzing the species based on footage.

however... it's still just footage. there has not yet been a captured live specimen, nor a well-preserved cadaver, or... really anything to tell us more about this mysterious cephalopod, other than what we can tell visually and geographically. we know it sure looks distinctive compared to various species of squid (check out the elbows on that thing), we know the largest adult specimens seem to be about 25 feet long (with estimates going up to 40 feet), and we know it might be the deepest-occurring genus of squid (we've had sightings as deep as 6,212 meters below the surface- well into the hadal zone, actually, not just the abyssopelagic), but in terms of behavior? breeding? feeding habits?? there are a lot of unanswered questions. and that's not to discredit any legitimate scientific analysis, past or present, of the bigfin, but moreso to stress that it's a very mysterious creature we don't have much data on.

I think just in general, my favorite deep-sea creatures (and this extends to just about any species, sea-dwelling or otherwise) are those that do a very thorough job of not being found. I am driven by a deep curiosity into whatever is so weird and leads such an unimaginable life to us humans that it eludes the microscope or the scalpel time and time again.

oh, and bigfin squids kind of remind me of the alien controllers that fly around your head during the xen levels in half-life. so there's that as well.

[mattykelevra]

Perfectly preserved Dinosaur embryo found inside fossilized egg

A preserved Dinosaur Embryo inside a fossilized egg is estimated to be around 66 to 72 million years old and is one of the most complete dinosaur embryos ever found.

Discoveries like this are valuable and rare. The unborn specimen reveals an incredible link between dinosaurs and modern birds. The fossilized egg has been collecting dust for over a decade in a museum in China.

The dinosaur belonged to a group of feathered theropods known as oviraptorosaurs. The unhatched creature is estimated to be 27 cm long and marks the very first discovery of a dinosaur embryo displaying posture that is typical to present-day bird embryos.

[oops-its-a-fanwork]

H!Sans and H!Papyrus: Skull and Sugar

Today it's Horror! Sans and Papyrus as legendary pokémon! Learn more about their home and the discovery of their fossils here! :)

Now Sans and Papyrus are from this long ancestral line of protector-pokémon, with them being the new generation. However, their family tree seems to be growing some odd branches…

You see, no one has realized that some of the excavated fossils actually belonged to the ancient ancestors of the legendary guardians! Not only that, but these two truly were pokémon of legend, having protected people during the cave-in of the underground and unfortunately having met their end doing so.   The names and legacies of these pokémon are unfortunately lost to time, but recently, a group of scientists has requested temporary access to the fossils for more accurate time dating, cross referencing their database with their DNA in order to determine their species, and collecting data on the fossils with equipment the museum doesn't have. You know, normal nerd stuff scientific proceedings.

  What they didn't tell the museum staff however, is that these fossils would be part of a new fossil revival program. You see, when a fossil has lethal physical damage they can't be revived using the normal method as the damage would be perfectly recreated and would kill the poor pokémon a second time. Therefore, an experimental method was used: a mix of cloning and the revival procedure used for other fossils. And to their credit: it worked! 

  However, the panic of waking up in a place that looks like nothing you’ve ever seen before, combined with your last vague but pressing memory being the panic of a crumbling cave system and the urgency of mass evacuation, meant that Skull immediately broke out of containment, broke everyone else out of containment and then rounded everyone up for evacuation outside. Once everyone was accounted for they took off, and instinctively the guardians found the place their species once called home: Mount Ebott. The group burst in from the top and hasn't left since.

Skull has trouble speaking fluently and has a somewhat slower perception, and the hole in his skull is,,, well, it's in a weird state, obviously. It's not healed (it CAN’T be healed), but it's not an open wound he could die from due to the revival process. He clearly has some memory problems due to both the revival process and the wound, and he needs to be stopped from scratching at it often, as it seems to be a subconscious move.    The distress from it gradually lessens as he settles into his new environment: he has his brother by his side, and though his memories are few and confusing they are still a great comfort to him. It does however influence his ability to transform: where Sans and Papyrus can use their magic to mimic pokémon and humans near perfectly, Skull does not have stable control of his magic due to the wound, resulting in skeletal versions of whatever he's trying to mimic. It's... an adjustment, for sure. Luckily the pokémon instinctively trust him a bit, so he won them over despite everything. Speaking of which:   Skull loves observing humans and pokémon as much as the others of his species, and although he misses the abundance/presence of people and the holidays, he gets fulfillment out of observing and interacting with the ghost pokémon (who seem to recognise him somehow?) and the new species that migrated into the mountain after the incident. They are just as curious about him as he is about them, and his gentle giant demeanor is immediately rewarded by lots of attention from the younger pokémon.

Sugar used to help set up celebrations with everyone. Therefore, he knows the place like the back of his hand!! Or rather knew. Where Skull sometimes has trouble remembering the past, Sugar has trouble not remembering it. He keeps feeling like something should be right here only to find the spot empty or unreachable. He could be of great help to archeologists, but it is very confusing for him. Due to both this and his somewhat poor eyesight, the pokémon surrounding him help him navigate and are very supportive.   They tried to help him recreate some of the older celebrations, but it just isn’t the same without human aid. They all got an A+ for effort though! Which means handmade festival treats for everyone! He knows recipes long gone, but he can't always get every ingredient. What he does manage to make (sometimes with help, as his body does not always do what he wants) is loved by most, except for the bitter medicines he sometimes ends up making.   Sugar can regulate his magic much better than Skull can but he, too, has some wonkiness to his transformations. Namely, his form seems just a little stretched, and if you look closely, you can make out some crystal formations on the left side of whatever creature he’s decided to become. As he practices the transformations more it becomes subtle like glitter, but it definitely is still there. Despite all of this, he actually tends to use a skeletal form as well, in solidarity to his brother. “Look, we match!”  Their memories are hazy, but they definitely remember evacuating everyone from the mountain as it rumbled around them. Any movement in the rocks sets them on edge, and they check the walls for cracks whenever they can. Not finding evidence of current instabilities in the main area combined with the tales of the pokémon currently living there helps to soothe their nerves bit by bit.   Eventually, when they are calmer, they start recalling earlier, far calmer memories: bouts of laughter between siblings, the pride of the youngins who pass their trials, the kindness of a flower handed to them in good faith. And also the rougher, but necessary things: Tussling with each other, mending wounds with bitter recipes, distracting upset children with stories. The rush of fighting off alpha pokémon who encroach on their territory. Sleeping the tiredness off in a warm corner of the temple.   The brothers are quite content now, living with each other and the next generation of pokémon in their glowing mountain. Life is good.

[ashleysingermfablog]

Wk 16, 15th of June, 2024 Studio Work development

Arcane ways of holding knowledge, knowledge systems for a few

Right: Ashley Singer, concrete driveway, 2024, research image

Left: Ashley Singer, crushed clay flower casts on concrete driveway, 2024, research image

Ashley Singer, spell casts, 2024, guide for viewing floorwork, incantations derived from Graham King's The British Book of Charms and Spells

Arcane knowledge (requiring secret knowledge to be understood) is mysterious and only known by a few people. Folk traditions have become forms of arcane knowledge as some practices have become less popularised through a greater push for knowledge that is transpired with reason, rational, strict or literal logic (not myth) or is belonging to a more popularised cultural view (like pop culture and other universal knowledge systems or knowledge from organised religion). Folk knowledge keys into ways that everyday folk, people and groups of people added meaning to life, events, and happenings like natural phenomena, people's actions and the wills of deities. Fine Art can use modes of arcane thinking to mystify works and the methodologies behind them. By engaging with a greater sense of mysticism and the unknown, or information only 'knowable' to some, a sense of ritual, divinity and mystery is conjured in my practice.

Clandestine meetings or knowledge sharing rituals are evoked in instances like fortune telling, rune reading, many types of divination (through the diviner). As the ages have gone by meanings of flowers, languages of the seasons, folk tales and fairy stories have become more and more recondite. Texts that speak of alchemy, the medieval ages, Victorian flower arrangements, turn of the century fairy tales have become digitised through online sources such as Jstor, online digital archives and museum collections. Falling into the realm of historic knowledge, the practical manifestation of esoteric knowledge systems is lost. Impositions on the evocation of some ancient or old ways of knowing is that the practical action of ancient knowledge may lose traction in family systems and become stagnant or unremembered. By evoking knowledge systems relevant to my Celtic (Cymry) Whakapapa, I am activating modes of thought that currently sit dormant or lay waiting in my family's lineage.

Joseph Jacobs, More Celtic fairy tales 1854-1916, Publication date 1902

Joseph Jacobs, Preface of More Celtic fairy tales 1854-1916, Publication date 1902

Joseph Jacobs, Tale of Morraha in More Celtic fairy tales 1854-1916, Publication date 1902

In art making, making collections of works can be seen as a way of gathering knowledge. Hans Ulrich Obrist in the text Ways of Curating discusses making a collection in the chapter "Collecting knowledge" (Page 25).

From the text: Ways of Curating by Hans Ulrich Obrist (Chapter: Collecting Knowledge and Architecture, Urbanisms and Exhibitions)...

To make a collection is to find, acquire, organise and store items, whether in a room, a house, a library, a museum or a warehouse. It is also, inevitably, a way of thinking about the world- connections and principles that produce a collection contain assumptions, juxtapositions, findings, experimental possibilities and associations.

The compulsive interest of [people] in collecting expressed itself as a drive to collate and understand significant objects: the fossils, minerals, specimens, tools and artisanal products that provided evidence of our knowledge of and theories about the world.

Today, important collections are stored in public institutions.

By the Renaissance, Wunderkammer-maker Athanius Kircher and other scholars were using 'museum' to refer to any place or object- a study, a library, a garden, an encyclopaedia- where items were collected for learned study.

Further in Chapter: Architecture, Urbanisms and Exhibitions,

Curating can be urbanism, that [curating] can be about the mutation of changing cities.

If cities can be urban sites filled with multiple knowledge systems, then some information of the cities could be found in the vegetal matter that leaves a trace throughout. Is a space for information gathering, a knowledge-bank? Is this also what an exhibition attempts to manifest? An exhibition could be understood as a specific amalgamation of knowledge and knowledge systems represented in space.

Philippe Parreno on French contemporary exhibition Immatériaux:

If you haven't seen the exhibition, it's hard for me to describe it. If I tell you how it was, it will sound like a dream. 'The show was surprising in the curatorial choices, in the manner in which objects and experiences were arranged.

Both sites themselves and what is bought into the site are littered, so to speak, with information. The cohesion between the collection of knowledge brought in by the artist in installation, and the pre-established information of the site space, co-opts and experiences art together. Reading through an exhibition can be done in a way that sees the gallery space (and it's outdoor environment) as readable with the work brought in for exhibition. Perhaps reading the gallery as a site, gives an installing artist the multitudes they need to arrange or co-opt a site in alignment with the subject matter of their work.

Further, I wonder, if it has been made clear by Obrist that collections are information holders, then so too are exhibitions. This may seem very obvious, and perhaps fundamental to the aim of having an exhibition in the first place, yet it is important to acknowledge that the harmonisation between artwork and site is not always forefront to an installation strategy by the curator or installing artist.

If work seeks to ritualise in space, then harmony is key to a convincing install.

On this, we run into two key terms: variable media and dimensions variable

From the text: Dimension variable by New Museum Digital Archive...

“Dimensions Variable” is the standard term for designating the size of an art object which varies or cannot be physically bounded. The artists included in the exhibition sought to explore the ephemeral, elusive, and undefinable by creating and utilizing specific substances and objects with little or no “art” identity: light, prisms, water, motors, plastic, wires, and gas. In so doing, the artists achieved phenomena not commonly visible in art, and were able to express observations and ideas that resisted verbalization — these means challenged the viewer to see what was not physically there.

This could link to the esoteric and ineffable spiritual component of my work that seeks to engage with the cultural understandings and customs of complete rituals in my work.

access below:

From the text: The Variable Media Initiative by the Guggenheim...

The Variable Media Initiative, a nontraditional, new preservation strategy, emerged in 1999 from the museum’s efforts to preserve media-based and performative works in its permanent collection, and later spawned the Variable Media Network (VMN). Initially supported by a grant from the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology in Montreal, Canada, the VMN now comprises a group of international institutions and consultants, including University of Maine, the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives, Franklin Furnace, Rhizome.org, and Performance Art Festival & Archives. VMN is recognized for its ground-breaking methodology, which seeks to define acceptable levels of change within any given art object and documents ways in which a sculpture, installation, or conceptual work may be altered (or not) for the sake of preservation without losing that work’s essential meaning.

The Variable Media approach integrates the analysis of materials with the definition of an artwork independently from its medium, allowing the work to be translated once its current medium becomes obsolete. By identifying the work’s behaviors (contained, installed, performed, reproduced, etc.) and strategies (storage, emulation, migration, and reinterpretation), artists, conservators, and curators can advance the preservation of new-media art.

access below: https://www.guggenheim.org/conservation/the-variable-media-initiative

[gokitetour]

Australia's top nine historical and cultural museums

Australia's historical and cultural museums offer captivating glimpses into the rich tapestry of the nation's past. These institutions serve as repositories of stories, artifacts, and memories that weave together the diverse threads of Australia's heritage. From the ancient Aboriginal cultures that have thrived on this land for thousands of years to the more recent chapters of European settlement and immigration, these museums chronicle the journey of a nation.  Stepping into these museums is like embarking on a journey through time, where visitors can explore the experiences of Australia's indigenous peoples, learn about the trials and triumphs of early settlers, and witness the cultural fusion that has resulted from waves of immigration over the centuries. Whether it's the rugged landscapes of the outback, the bustling streets of colonial cities, or the vibrant multicultural communities of modern-day Australia, these museums provide windows into the many layers of Australian identity. Through carefully curated exhibits, interactive displays, and immersive experiences, visitors can gain a deeper understanding of Australia's history, culture, and traditions. From the iconic Sydney Opera House to the remote reaches of the Northern Territory, each museum offers a unique perspective on the Australian story, inviting visitors to explore, learn, and connect with the past in meaningful ways. Whether you're a curious traveller or a lifelong resident, Australia's historical and cultural museums hold treasures waiting to be discovered.

Here are some of Australia's historical and cultural museums.

1. Australian Museum, Sydney: The Australian Museum, located in Sydney, is Australia's oldest museum, having opened in 1827. It has a vast collection of natural history objects, including fossils, minerals, and indigenous artifacts. Visitors may explore displays on Australian wildlife, Aboriginal culture, and Pacific Islander heritage, making it a must-see for anybody interested in the country's natural and cultural past.

2. National Museum of Australia, Canberra: The National Museum of Australia, located in Canberra, displays the country's social, cultural, and political history. Its eclectic displays include issues including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage, immigration, and national identity. The museum's interactive displays and immersive experiences provide visitors with unique insights into Australia's past and present.

3. The Australian War Memorial (in Canberra): The Australian War Memorial, also in Canberra, commemorates the sacrifices of Australians who fought in wars and conflicts. It houses a museum with large collections of military items, including weaponry, uniforms, and personal belongings. The memorial's commemoration areas, such as the Hall of Memory and the Roll of Honor, pay solemn respect to the nation's dead troops.

4. Powerhouse Museum, Sydney: The Powerhouse Museum, a division of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, is a premier institution displaying science, technology, design, and social history. The museum, located in Sydney, hosts interactive displays on subjects ranging from space exploration to fashion and transportation. Its unique collection attracts visitors of all ages, making it a popular location for both families and aficionados.

5.The National Gallery of Victoria (in Melbourne) : The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is Australia's oldest and most popular art museum, situated in Melbourne. It has an extensive collection of artworks from diverse periods and genres, including Australian indigenous art, European masterpieces, and modern works. The NGV organizes temporary exhibits, public activities, and educational projects, making it a vibrant cultural destination for both locals and visitors.

6.The State Library of New South Wales in Sydney The State Library of New South Wales, located in Sydney, is one of Australia's major libraries, hosting an extensive collection of historical and cultural items. Its collections include rare books, manuscripts, pictures, and maps that shed light on the state's history and legacy. The library provides exhibitions, events, and research services and welcomes people to explore its treasures and use its resources.

7.Old Melbourne Gaol (in Melbourne): The Old Melbourne Gaol is a historic landmark and museum in Melbourne that depicts Australia's convict heritage. Built in the nineteenth century, the prison housed legendary convicts such as bushranger Ned Kelly. Visitors may go through the gaol's cells, gallows, and displays on crime and punishment, immersing themselves in the harsh reality of colonial justice.

 8.National Portrait Gallery, Canberra: The National Portrait Gallery in Canberra showcases Australia's rich cultural heritage through portraiture. Portraits of notable personalities from Australian history, such as politicians, artists, athletes, and indigenous leaders, are included in the collection. The gallery's exhibitions and events examine issues like identity, representation, and narrative, providing visitors with a better knowledge of the individuals who have built the nation.

9.Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle: The Western Australian Naval Museum, located in Fremantle, celebrates the state's nautical heritage and seagoing history. Its displays focus on shipwrecks, exploration, and naval warfare, with highlights including the America's Cup-winning yacht Australia II and the Oberon-class submarine HMAS Ovens. The museum's waterfront setting and interactive displays attract both maritime aficionados and families. 

Conclusion

Australia's historical and cultural museums are not just repositories of artifacts but gateways to understanding the essence of the nation. They offer a glimpse into Australia's rich tapestry of history, culture, and identity, allowing visitors to connect with the past in profound ways. Whether you're exploring the ancient traditions of indigenous peoples or delving into the stories of immigrants who have shaped the country, these museums provide valuable insights into what it means to be Australian. For travelers planning to visit these museums and explore Australia's wonders, obtaining an Australia visa from Delhi is an essential step. With an Australia Tourist Visa from Delhi, visitors can embark on a journey of discovery, immersing themselves in the vibrant cultural landscape of the country. From the bustling streets of Sydney to the serene beauty of the Great Barrier Reef, there's no shortage of experiences awaiting those who venture down under. So, whether you're drawn to the iconic landmarks of the cities or the natural wonders of the outback, Australia's museums stand ready to enrich your understanding of this fascinating country. With their wealth of exhibits, interactive displays, and immersive experiences, these institutions offer something for everyone, making them essential stops on any Australian adventure.

[college-girl199328]

Forests of giant, scaly-stemmed club mosses rose from ancient swamps in Atlantic Canada 350 million years ago. But below the canopy sprouted even stranger trees, whose fossils were recently discovered in a quarry in Norton, N.B.

Like the truffula, the new fossil species, Sanfordiacaulis densifolia, was a little taller than a human but not extremely tall (about three meters) and had a spindly stem poking into a dense mop of long leaves. That mop was more extreme than the truffula's in size--over five meters, or about the diameter of an above-ground pool.

Sanfordiacaulis lived at a time called the Mississippian, an early part of the Carboniferous period. It was before dinosaurs or even reptiles had evolved, and insects and salamander-like amphibians were just starting to colonize the land. At the time, New Brunswick had a subtropical to tropical climate, and its lakes were surrounded by swampy forests.

King and Stimson are both graduate students at St. Mary's University in Halifax who also work for the New Brunswick Museum. They were searching for the tracks of those early animals, often in quarries that allowed them to, because those are places where fresh rock is constantly being exposed by digging. At Sandford quarry, the sandstone comes from the bottom of a very long, ancient lake that's so deep that near its bottom, there was no oxygen to promote decay. It preserved not just fish, but sections of the surrounding forest plunged into its depths by earthquake-triggered landslides.

While searching there in 2017, King and Stimson spotted a tree trunk embedded in a boulder. As they dug it out to expose more, they realized that the trunk was attached to branches and leaves that didn't belong to anything they recognized.

They began sending photos to experts in fossil plants to help them identify it. They also contacted the quarry owner, Laurie Sanford, who offered his staff and machinery to dig the boulder out and transport it to the New Brunswick Museum. The fossil is named after him for his contributions.

Robert Gastaldo, an emeritus professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, was among the paleobotanists called in to help identify and study the unusual plant. He recalls walking into the room where the huge block was stored, with the tree embedded in it. "And [I] went, 'Oh wow.'" Not only was it large, but it's very unusual to find the crown of a tree preserved with a trunk, he said. It's also unusual for them to be preserved in three dimensions, instead of flattened during the fossilization process.

Study co-author Adrian Park, a geologist with the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, found evidence of earthquake-triggered landslides at the fossil site. The researchers believe the sediment that encased the tree during an ancient landslide protected it from getting crushed by additional sediment piling overtop in the hundreds of millions of years that followed.

Gastaldo said very tall club moss trees and low undergrowth plants had previously been found in forests from the Mississippian, but researchers had not yet found evidence of a middle layer of intermediate-sized trees, like those in the "subcanopy" of modern tropical forests — until this one. Its huge mop of dense foliage likely aimed to capture as much light as possible between the canopy and the undergrowth.

Gastaldo said the existence of such a strange tree suggests this was a time when plants, which had only recently colonized the land, were experimenting with many different forms and strategies. King noted that in the case of the form taken by Sanfordiacaulis, "we don't see it before this time and we don't see it after. So it's a bit of a failed experiment."

That said, Sandfordiacaulis did have fleeting success — more digging led the researchers to find another four specimens, and it turned out that many of its leaves and branches had previously been collected, though not identified, suggesting it was quite a common plant in its forest. The most similar modern plants, tree ferns and palms have far fewer leaves and didn't evolve until later.

Plant fossil researchers who weren't involved in the study were excited by the implications for what forests were like 350 million years ago. Cindy Looy is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who teaches a course in paleobotany and who studies how ancient plants responded to major environmental changes, such as mass extinctions and deglaciations. She said she was struck by the image of what the tree would have looked like.

Will Matthaeus is a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin who measures and incorporates fossil plants into simulations of ancient ecosystems. He said that while plants this ancient are generally strange-looking, "this is the top of the heap in terms of an unfamiliar-looking tree."

Both Looy and Matthaeus said finding an entire tree with a trunk, branches, and leaves was very rare. But they were most excited that this tree provided the first evidence that forests were complex enough to have a middle layer of plants, even 350 million years ago, between the canopy and the undergrowth.

The new study was supported by science and research funding from the Canadian, U.S., and U.K. governments and the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development.

[kaitlynfernandess]

Type Specimen Book~ Final Rationale

The following process of making my type specimen book was to first think of what typeface I wanted to use and how it represents me. I researched many different typefaces and finally chose the typeface called Museo. This font caught my eye the most, with the way it presents itself in the many different types in the family font. This font also means museum in many different languages. Museums provide a meaningful connection a place in India called Indian Museum of Kolkata and is also the largest museum across India. This museum in India, holds many historical belongings. This museum has a broad number of exquisite collections of armor, antiques, ornaments, fossils, and beautiful Mughal paintings. I have always been fascinated by this museum and will hopefully be able to go and visit this special museum someday. Another reason why I picked the Museo font is because of the different font families that are presented. Each family is used for different reasons and also shows the variation of the font and how it still looks very clean and readable at any eye level. Personally, I think that my theme is connected with the letters also, as the serif at the end of the letters remind me of the Hindi language letters which is the most common language in India. My Pepeha also relates to me, as it is about my mountain, river, country, and where I am from. When designing my type specimen book, I did thumbnails to see the best way to envision my typeface which is connected to my theme of India. I used keywords like Namaste, and Indian images to show how the Museo font links with my chosen theme. I also went through challenges on displaying the most important information i needed to include in my specimen book, and difficulty in ways to display it so that it would catch the audience's eyes.

My Kinetic Typography Animation's main focus is on the title of India and its sub-title A place I call home. I have developed a Kinetic Type Moving Image to the appropriate methods for Module 2 and have demonstrated to a wider audience with my content and unique story how India is a place I call home. I wanted to connect more to my hometown in my animation which I have used in one of the clips. I used Hindi text to also think to the thought that I said that the Museo font reminds me of the Hindi language text, which I have envisioned in my kinetic type project (animation).

[myfeeds]

Multiple species of semi-aquatic dinosaur may have roamed pre-historic Britain

The team, from the University’s EvoPalaeoLab, carried out a series of tests on the 140 million year old tooth, discovered in the early 20th century, in a thick, complicated rock structure named the Wealden Supergroup. The Wealden lies across south-eastern England and was formed around 140-125 million years ago. The scientists conducted statistical analysis on the tooth, which is stored at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery in East Sussex. They meticulously compared its characteristics with other species in the spinosaur ‘family’ of dinosaurs to which it belongs. Their findings, published in the journal PeerJ, confirm the tooth doesn’t match that of any identified spinosaur species. Project supervisor, Dr Neil Gostling explains: “While we can’t formally identify a new species from one tooth, we can say this spinosaur tooth doesn’t match any of the existing species we know about. Given how many individual teeth exist in collections, this could be just the tip of the iceberg and it’s quite possible that Britain may have once teemed with a diverse range of these semi-aquatic, fish-eating dinosaurs.” The Wealden is famous for its spinosaur fossils. Baryonyx — discovered in Surrey in 1983 — is one of the world’s most significant spinosaur specimens, since it was the first to reveal the true appearance of this crocodile-headed group. Less impressive spinosaur remains — isolated teeth — are common throughout the Wealden, and have often been identified as belonging to Baryonyx. However, some experts have long suspected that this is incorrect. “We used a variety of techniques to identify this specimen, in order to test whether isolated spinosaur teeth could be referred to Baryonyx,” said lead author Chris Barker, whose PhD focuses on the spinosaurs of southern Britain. “The tooth did not group with Baryonyx in any of our data runs. It must belong to a different type of spinosaur.” The results show that distinct and distantly related spinosaur types lived in the region during Early Cretaceous times. This backs up research by the EvoPalaeoLab team, who argued in previous studies that the spinosaurs of southern England are more diverse than previously thought. In 2021, they named the ‘Hell Heron’ Ceratosuchops from the Isle of Wight, and in 2022 announced the discovery of what might be Europe’s largest ever land predator, a giant known only as the ‘White Rock’ spinosaur. These several spinosaurs did not all live at the same time, but inhabited the region over the course of more than 15 million years. “Museums themselves are places to make exciting discoveries as our understanding of specimens changes from the time they were deposited,” said Dr Neil Gostling. “What this work highlights is the importance of keeping collections alive, and developing our understanding of them. Curators are essential to help us navigate the cupboards and displays, helping us to unpick the often-incomplete records — either never fully recorded, or lost to time. The diversity of palaeoenvironments is not always hidden in rocks, it is often waiting in a museum, its importance waiting to be rediscovered!” Co-author Darren Naish said “Dinosaur teeth preserve numerous anatomical details, and we can use various analytical techniques to see how similar, or different, they are to other teeth. Our new study shows that previously unrecognised spinosaur species exist in poorly known sections of the Wealden’s history, and we hope that better remains will be discovered that improves our knowledge. Here’s another reminder that even well-studied places like southern England have the potential to yield new dinosaur species.”

[gvdgreta]

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in relation to ACNH - Week 5

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Analyzing how the game can be interpreted:

Physiological Needs:

In ACNH, you are immediately provided with a tent that includes a bed as shelter and rest. You can upgrade your shelter by purchasing a house and continuously playing off your loans to upgrade your house. Although it is not an absolute necessity, the player can eat food in the game, which increases their strength to complete tasks like cutting wood from trees. If the player has a toilet, they can also use it to dispose of said food. The player is always provided clothing to start with and can purchase clothing for themselves. They can use their bed to sleep.

Safety and Security:

The player can be stung by wasps, and their face will be inflamed. However, it is possible to both craft and purchase medicine. If villagers on the island get sick, the player can also give them medicine. The player always has a job on the island because they have to take care of villagers’ needs and customize the island, including terraforming. 

Love and Belonging:

An integral part of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is having a sense of community. The player can have up to 10 villagers on their island to talk to, give gifts to, invite to their house, and visit in their homes. Villagers will actively come up to the player and interact with them. The player can also visit other player’s islands, invite others to their island, and add other players to a friend list. There are always avenues for the player not to feel alone. The villagers also have varying personalities. When it is the player’s birthday, the villagers set up a party to celebrate, which is a nice touch. 

Self-Esteem:

There are several methods for the player to feel a sense of achievement, but I believe the most obvious one is the ability for the player to catch fish, bugs, and sea creatures, as well as collecting fossils. They can fill up their collection and ,granted they do not time skip, this will occur based on the season and time of day. The player can gaze at their achievements by contributing to the museum, and seeing everything they collected on display. It is a great addition to the island, both aesthetically and for the player to feel proud. Villagers and other players can also enjoy the museum. 

Self-Actualization:

Personally, I believe self-actualization is when the player no longer plays ACNH with a particular goal, but simply because it makes them feel good. It is the type of game where you can just spend time exploring, customizing the island, creating designs, visiting others, etc. even after the initial goal of the game (getting KK Slider to visit the island) has been reached. When a player is content with the state of their island and plays the game just for fun and to feel relaxed, that is self-actualization. 

2. How the game mechanics can be modified

Overall, I believe Animal Crossing: New Horizons already fulfills Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs because of the nature of the game as an easy-going, daily life simulator. However, a feature that could be added to improve this could be the addition of other, perhaps smaller islands, instead of the player only having just one. That way, the player can experiment with different aesthetics, maybe have a different ‘holiday’ island for each seasonal event, without having to drastically change their entire island when they want a change. 

[sciencespies]

It’s Turtles All the Way Down in the Fossil Record

https://sciencespies.com/news/its-turtles-all-the-way-down-in-the-fossil-record/

It’s Turtles All the Way Down in the Fossil Record

How smushed shells could help to resolve paleontological mysteries.

You never know where a bit of unusual scientific research is going to lead. Consider a 2012 study about turtle shells. Researchers subjected the skeletal remains of pond sliders, diamondback terrapins, painted turtles and box turtles to incremental increases in mechanical forces and measured where and how the shells began to buckle.

This may sound a little sadistic, but no living turtles were hurt in the study. Other scientists understand the appeal of looking at the material properties of the interlocking plates and ribs that make up turtle shells.

“It’s actually fun to just play around with them and see how they bend under a point or certain loading regimes,” said Holger Petermann, a paleontologist with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Earlier this year, Dr. Petermann and colleagues took the unusual project and applied it to an unrelated problem. The flatness of a turtle shell, he found, could help paleontologists figure out how deeply a fossil site was originally buried before eons of other geological activity. They came up with a simple but catchy name for their measurement method, now in an article published in the journal Geosphere: the Turtle Compaction Index.

Over millions of years, the sediments that bury a given site are compacted and shifted by geological processes before erosion reveals them. Accurately measuring the original burial depth is vital to understanding what conditions were like when fossils were laid down, Dr. Petermann said. Most methods for determining burial depth — analyzing the color of fossilized pollen, for instance — only work ‌at sites subsequently entombed under a mile of stone. Shallower deposits — the sort likely to be buried only about 1,000 feet down — are harder to accurately measure, because they tend to lack clear indicators.

Dr. Petermann and his colleagues have studied different fossil sites in Corral Bluffs, Colo., which is composed of rocks about 63-million years old. These ancient sediments preserve glimpses of an aquatic ecosystem knitting itself back together after the asteroid impact that caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. The minerals at these sites could be an important clue about the environmental conditions that formed them — but only if the burial depth is clear.

“We tried a bunch of ways of figuring it out,” Dr. Petermann said, “and then we realized we had all these complete turtle shells.”

Turtles — formally known as chelonians — evolved around 230 million years ago. They quickly became an ubiquitous part of freshwater ecosystems like rivers and ponds: the very sorts of inland environments that tend to collect fossils.

From left to right, top and side views of a barely impacted, medium impacted and highly impacted turtle shells. The left specimen belongs to the genus Eubaena, and the middle and right to the genus Baenidae.Rick Wicker/Denver Museum of Nature and Science

There’s also been a great deal of basic research done on how turtle shells perform under pressure, which helped to inform the invention of the Turtle Compression Index. The team looked at roughly 70 complete shells: 21 from Corral Bluffs, 44 from the Cretaceous rocks of the Hell Creek Formation in the Western United States and five from other earlier Cretaceous and Jurassic period sites. Then, they measured where the shells fell on the spectrum, Dr. Petermann said, of ���normal perfect turtle shell to pancake.”

All of the shells showed certain consistent patterns at various levels of compression. First, the shells cracked above the hip. Then, along the side of the spine. “The more sand I bear onto it, the flatter it gets,” Dr. Petermann said. “When they get really flat, they’ll have a little wall running around them. That’s the edge of the shell.”

The other key to the Turtle Compaction Index is to figure out how porous the sediment of a site is — how much open space exists between each grain, such as the difference between coarse sand and fine-grained, dense silt. The relationship between porosity and depth is well understood in geology, Dr. Petermann said: Petroleum geologists will drill a sample knowing the depth, then work out how porous the sample is to predict the existence of oil and gas reservoirs. The turtle team just worked in reverse — they figured out how porous the site was, figured out how much pressure was required to crack a turtle shell, and solved for depth.

Using the Turtle Compaction Index at Corral Bluff, Dr. Petermann said, they found that many of the turtles had been buried in the ooze at the bottom of waterway, and over time under beds of silt around 1700-1800 feet deep. The denser the original sediment, the more deeply the turtles had been buried.

The chelonian-crunching method can also be applied to other turtle-rich fossil sites where shallow burial histories have been suspected but tough to confirm. “If you have the turtles, then you really can begin to figure out how much burial these things have undergone,” said David Fastovsky, a paleontologist at the University of Rhode Island who was not involved in the study. He added that the paper is “really neat.”

Turtle power might not be the only method for measuring these sorts of shallow sites, Dr. Petermann said. Mammal skulls from the Cenozoic era tend to shatter around the opening of the snout, he said, while crocodile skulls often break at a weak spot between the eyes. It’ll take some work to figure out how these patterns relate to specific depths.

If these sorts of solutions to geological problems seem to come from left field, Dr. Petermann and Dr. Fastovsky both point out, that’s because they take a certain amount of lateral thinking to invent. Proxies using fossil pollens and the teeth of eel-like vertebrates called conodonts are the traditional methods of measuring deep burials, Dr. Petermann said, in part because of their changing colors under certain levels of heat and pressure. However, none of them are immediately intuitive.

“It took a lot of creativity to realize those colors are associated with different pressure and temperature,” Dr. Petermann said. “Finding a pattern, that requires a lot of looking at fossils and a lot of imagination.”

In the historical imaginations of many cultures — particularly those of India, China and the Americas — cosmic chelonians are said to carry the world on their backs. When it comes to analyzing the buried worlds of the past, it really is turtles all the way down.

#News

[museums-are-cool123]

The Dinosaur Hall

Cleaning the dinosaur hall — Dinosaurs in their Time — was our main project this semester. An annual fall tradition, the Paleontology and Conservation Departments team up to clean the Hall's exhibits. Paleontology is in charge of the dinos, and Conservation covers the ground and foliage.

By "Paleontology," I mainly mean Linsly and her two volunteers — a small portion of the Paleontology Department. Linsly trained under Gretchen and is often in charge of us when Gretchen is unavailable. Quiet and meek in nature, Linsly is sweet and always greets us good morning. Her office sits in the Paleo Prep Lab, a large lab dedicated to storing specimens and making casts. We store our conservation cart, vacuum, and belongings in a corner of the lab next to the giant mastodon pelvis that says "MASTODON HIP BONE" as if you couldn't tell.

Linsly and her team stand on ladders or lifts and use various brushes and Swiffers to dust the old bones. Starting at the archosaurus exhibit, we moved to dryosaurus and Ceratosaurus, then to stegasaurus, to "The Green Scene," then to the allosaurus and apatosaurus display, to camptosaurus, and now we're at the "Dinosaurs with Feathers" display. The exhibit has three fake birds in the exhibit.

"At the time, when we built this exhibit, we didn't realize just how many dinosaurs actually had feathers," Gretchen said, nodding to the display case, which was filled with numerous slabs of feathered and fossilized dinosaurs.

Once the paleontology team finishes dusting the bones, we clean the rest of the foliage:

Dust

Collect loose leaves/debris

Dust and vacuum ground

Wash all foliage

Reorganize exhibit

An exhibit takes between 10-20 hours to complete, depending on the number of fake plants and the size of the exhibit. One fern takes me about 15 minutes to dust, and about double the time to water.

It's menial work, and many visitors apologize or told us that it "must be a labor of love" — but there is an art to it that's fun once you figure it out.

It's satisfying, for one. But sometimes you find secret crevices in the exhibit that are untouched, where the dust is so thick you can pick it off with your fingers. Dust bunnies are considered invasive to the exhibits, and they have even been found in some of the most desolate environments of the Hall. It's pretty sometimes — the way it flies off surfaces in a gentle puff, it's slight iridescent sheen, the diversity in its contents.

Dust is the accumulation of our everyday lives — sloughed off skin cells, clothing fiber, hair, pollen, soil, plastics, bacteria, bug parts, dust mites — and causes significant damage to museum collections. Dust and dust mites may cause allergic reactions or asthma-like symptoms, and are most dangerous to children and toddlers. Dust can also carry contaminants and toxins that can be harmful to both people and collections. That, and dust isn't pretty.

There were methods that we were told and some we learned ourselves:

Work top to bottom

Work back to front

Use different brushes for different objects

Don't touch the bones!

If something breaks, tell someone IMMEDIATELY

Cover the motion sensors

For the ground, we pat a Swiffer underneath foliage, focusing on hard-to-reach and unvacuumable areas. We use a bristled circular head for vacuuming and lift it about an inch above the ground to buffer the suction.

Watering has no real tips, you simply wash the plant with a damp rag. When Gretchen first taught Celia and I, she demonstrated just that.

"... and that's it." Gretchen said with a beaming smile. Celia and I blinked. That truly was it. Sometimes it requires a bit of elbow grease, but that truly is it.

Gretchen likes makeup sponges for watering, but they deteriorate and leave white flecks on the foliage. Celia and I prefer microfiber cloths and I especially like Q-tips. On our watering days, Celia grabs water from the bathroom while I set up our containers: a small Tupperware container that holds Q-tips (I put them in there for Celia but she rarely uses them), a smaller Tupperware of water, and a variety of cloths. The little "go" pack helps protect the exhibit from Me and Celia's clumsy habit of spilling water, and helped us not take as many trips to our conservation cart.

Yes, it may be a menial job, but we're interns and have to start somewhere. Doing an easy, low-stakes task while being a few feet (inches sometimes!) away from a real dinosaur definitely beats sitting in front of my computer screen for 10 hours a week.

[alphynix]

Retro vs Modern #19: Quetzalcoatlus northropi

Named after an Aztec deity and often called "the largest animal to ever fly", Quetzalcoatlus northropi is probably the most famous large pterosaur after Pteranodon – but despite its popularity for a long time we actually knew very little about it.

1970s

Discovered in Texas in the United States during the early 1970s, the first known fossils of Quetzalcoatlus were just a few giant wing bones, along with several partial skeletons of smaller individuals which at the time were thought to be juveniles.

But although it was given its charismatic name in 1975, the fragmentary nature of the find and it only being given a brief non-formal description meant it was very poorly understood at the time. Worse, the known fossil material was notoriously difficult for other paleontologists to study for several decades afterwards, with the museum housing it often refusing access requests entirely or demanding promises of total secrecy from anyone who was actually allowed to see it.

Most pterosaurs at the time were thought to be soaring seabird-like fish-eaters, but this huge species had been discovered in an inland environment. So Quetzalcoatlus was interpreted as being a huge vulture-like scavenger, with early reconstructions based on this idea ending up highly speculative due to the lack of good anatomical information. A common paleoart meme in the 1970s and 1980s depicted it with a long snake-like neck, a bizarrely tiny head, snaggly teeth, and a small nub-like crest.

1990s

In the mid-1980s Quetzalcoatlus was recognized as belonging to the newly-discovered azhdarchid lineage, a group with extremely long necks, toothless beaks, and long legs – although these pterosaurs were also rather poorly-known until more complete specimens were found in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Reconstructions during this period were considerably less demonic, reflecting the changing ideas about pterosaurs at the time. Quetzalcoatlus became sleeker and more bird-like, depicted with long narrow wing membranes, its neck held in an S-curve, its legs sticking out straight behind it in flight, and sometimes pycnofiber fuzz on parts of its body.

(…And sometimes there was excessive shrinkwrapping.)

During the early 1990s Quetzalcoatlus was also often shown with a blunt chunky beak based on fossil jaws found in west Texas, but in 1996 these remains were determined to belong to a different pterosaur. At the same time more material of the "juveniles" suggested they actually represented an entire second species of Quetzalcoatlus, about half the size of Quetzalcoatlus northropi, with partial skulls showing evidence of a bony crest on the head.

Quetzalcoatlus was also interpreted as a skim-feeder during this time, thought to fly along just above bodies of water with its lower jaw trawling over the surface, snapping up any fish it contacted.

2020s

The skimming hypothesis was widely accepted until 2007, when a detailed study showed that it was physically impossible for any pterosaurs to have actually fed that way. Based on their anatomy and known habitats azhdarchids like Quetzalcoatlus were subsequently reinterpreted as highly terrestrial predators, spending a lot of their time stalking around on all fours snagging prey in their huge beaks like a stork with the proportions of a giraffe.

A full technical description of the known fossil material had been promised since the early 1980s, but decades had passed and by the 2010s it still hadn't been published. The specimens continued to be inaccessible, information was still under heavy embargo, and what little had been published in the 1970s and 1990s was argued to be sparse enough and undiagnostic enough that it was starting to be genuinely unclear if Quetzalcoatlus northropi was even a valid species name at all.

Finally, finally, after over 40 years, a whole collection of papers about this pterosaur were released in 2021 – and in a refreshing contrast to the many years of secrecy and hoarding they were all free and open access. The second species finally got a name, Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni, and the genus as a whole is now properly and officially defined, instantly going from dubious and almost unknown to one of the most complete azhdarchids so far.

The study isn't without its issues or controversy, particularly in regards to some of its retro-seeming interpretations of Quetzalcoatlus' posture, proportions, and launch mechanics. But since the publication means that the fossils are finally unrestricted to other researchers, there's probably going to be plenty more studies and arguments and new discoveries about it in the future.

While Quetzalcoatlus northropi is still only known from fragments, the new knowledge about its smaller relative means we now have a much better idea of what it was probably like. It lived at the very end of the Cretaceous period, about 68-66 million years ago, and is currently known just from Texas – but it probably ranged much further than that, since azhdarchids are thought to have been able to fly for potentially thousands of kilometers at a time using energy-efficient thermal soaring.

It was one of the largest animals known to have been capable of powered flight, but not necessarily the largest ever. Some past Quetzalcoatlus wingspan estimates got ridiculously over-enthusiastically huge, in some cases up to to 21m (69'), but modern estimates based on better knowledge of azhdarchid proportions suggest something shorter-winged and much closer to 10m (33') – and some other azhdarchids are now thought to have had similar or possibly even slightly larger wingspans.

Still, Quetzalcoatlus was very big, and when standing on all fours it was probably similar in size and shape to a modern giraffe, about 6m tall (~20') with at least half of its height just being its neck. It had limb proportions more like an ungulate mammal than most other pterosaurs, suggesting it was highly adapted for walking and running around on the ground – but it could also catapult itself up into the air using its powerful forelimbs to take flight.

It would have been a ground-stalking predator similar to some modern storks and ground hornbills, using its long sharply pointed beak to snatch up any smaller animals it could fit into its mouth. Since its Texan habitat was a semi-arid "fern prairie" dominated by the titanosaur Alamosaurus, hatchlings and small juveniles of this sauropod may have made up a major part of Quetzalcoatlus' diet. 

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