Mesozoic Mind

Couple days ago I went to Ripley's Aquarium og Toronto. It is a pretty good aquarium with some rare species, though a bit on the small side, and it being in one direction means backtracking is difficult. It also has a few fossils in it, might I add. First, is a hanging skeleton of the fish  Xiphactinus , which is cool to see, as is the whale behind it, really shows . And being an aquarium, it make sense to have a fossil fish on full display. Nearby on on the wall is a cast of the mosasaur Clidastes , another Xiph head, and a trilobite in there. The Julian Johnson art from Sea Monsters are a nice touch too, even if presumably it wasn't liscenced. Further down is an exhibit called Dragons, about creatures behind the myth of dragons. It's pretty nice, highlight rarely represented fauna like the Siren (my fiest time seeing one), and even has the chad classic Dragonology in there, but also these model of two certain varanids. It also has both a little Archeopteryx and a Pachy-s...

Yeah, despite college, this blog is still planned to resume. Here's a quicky to start things up again and get back my mojo as it were. So back a few weeks ago, me and a friend of mine were gonna got to Heart Lake Conservation Area in Brampton only for it to be closed for the season, so we went to Chingacousy Park instead. We thought it was nice, with iys petting zoo and library within it, and we has just finished making a round about it. But then we saw a banner with a stock model of a  Triceratops on it (one of the better ones anatomically and aesthetically, in my personal opinion). Sure enough, as we went up and passed it, we saw an entire miniature minigolf course of animatronic dinosaurs, many of whom seem to be repurposed into statues, apparently first opened this year. It's name is a cheeky and obvious reference to you know what. Most of the animatronics are of the usual Jurassic Park-aping Awesomebro era with all that entails. I can recognise a few, like Amargasaurus and...

Phew, sorry for the hiatus folks! I had other stuff to work on (to varying degrees of success), but I'm back and mesozoic Mind is going back to the late 2000s with a picture book about what else? The Mesozoic. A Year in the World of Dinosaurs is a book by Elizabeth Havercroft and cobsulted on by Bristol's Michael Benton released around 2008 and '09 as part of the Time Goes By series, those picture books from libraries showing timelapses of certain places kids would like. In this case, Late Jurassic US. We start with a basic introduction. But we can skip it. The book begins proper with with showing the birth of some  diplodocus . Naturally, the coelurosaur Ornitholestes comes to eat them, while Brachiosaurus are nearby. Sounds like a familar setup .... though funnily enough, the open is more akin to what we know sauropods did nest (or at least some, like titanosaurs). Next, as summer starts and the baby diplos are growing up, though the main focus is directed to a  Stegosa...

 Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. Today, let's try something new and delve into the work of a particular palaeoartist. Specifically, one who you may not know by name but may know his artstyle.  Joe Tucciarone is not exactly well known as his contemporaries from the tail end of the Dinosaur Renaissance, but if you see his art anywhere, chances are you'll know it. I sure do, as my family used to have a placemat just like the one pictured above. Whether it was on other merchendise, books, or online in edgy tribute AMVs, Joe's dinosaurs were everywhere. Look at them on his (now-archived) website  and see how many you recognise. The man himself Joe himself (at least according to his website) is an Ohio resident born in 1953 (and likely Italian-American) who specialises in space art as much as palaeoart (he loves both), getting his start at the Memphis Museum's (presumably the Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium - is that right Memphians?) planeterium in 1978, and wh...