Mesozoic Mind

The  Tampa Bay Times  published an article I just had to comment on because it piqued my interest, and it will pique yours too. The basics: Florida Man donates contraband dinosaur to glorified soft play. Concept art from the press release Long story more long, two years ago, the world's largest known specimen of Triceratops (first found by a private group in 2014) was put up for auction in Paris after display in Trieste, Italy for a while, then sold for a whopping 7.7 million and attracted a large outrage from paleontological circles, not wanting a valuable specimen to be lost to science. Now, it has resurfaced as its owner have come forward as Floridian entrepenuer Sidd Pagidipati, and he's apparently going to loan it to the small Glazer Children's Museum in Tampa, FL for three years (or more), now renovating an entire floor and education centre to help accommodate it. I'm quite mixed on the news. On one hand, I'm glad such a magnificent specimen got into a museum ...

We've hit 2000 views this month, a record at Mesozoic Mind! Today (and perhaps to commemorate it - albiet in a rather small and short way unfitting for it), we got some book ideas! You're Dumber then a Dinosaur! This book lists various dinosaur andotherprehistoriclife-themed insults readers could use in arguments and the context behind them. It would also double as rebuttals to misconceptions people have about dinosaurs or facts regarding them. A few examples to get you an idea of what would be inside are: "You mama's so fat, sauropods don't think she can can walk on land!" - Would explain sauropods had had hollow bones and airsacs to lighten them in spite of their massive size, but Yo Momma has no such thing to her. The corresonding illustration would be a morbidly obese woman next to an unimpressed Argentinosaurus herd. " Stegosaurus had more brains then you!" - Stegosaurus didn't have two brains with one in its hip/ass region, but it wasn'...

I acknowledge I live on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat and Wyandot Nations. Since October last year there's been a unique little exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto-based Fisher Creek Cree artist Kent Monkman, who depicts through his two spirit alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle the culture and history of Indigenous people, and the trouble and resilience against White colonialists, lampooning western art that glorified the white thieves (not settlers, they were thieves, plain and simple). I visited it two times so far: one in October when it debuted, and this month on the 8th. You can also view paintings on his website . Now a warning to any Indigenous reader: I'm not one of you (I'm South Asian-Canadian), so I might and will get things very wrong. I apologise in advance. While the primary focus is on Indigenous culture and history, there are a few fossil specimens at the...

  This trailer was released just a few days ago.  Talon is a cartoon created by one artist Heather Parra about a baby raptor with magic lightning powers who learns she and other dinosaurs like her will save their world from evil aliens, who if not stopped could cause a mass extinction (..... guess they failed), and they embark to do so. I have one word for it: fantastic! I love the idea of super powered magic dinosaurs, like Avatar: The Last Airbender meets The Land Before Time , and the designs are stylised yet accurate to a tee, which I always love. My only gripe is that generic fantasy wizard who it set up to be the mentor for the series.  It feels out of place in the Mesozoic setting, unless that's the point. I would have gone with a more avian or reptilian look. And also, Talon is mentioned as a Dakotaraptor , now regarded as an invalid genus (long story). I'm hyped for Talon , is what I'm saying, and so should you. I eagerlt wait updates, and urge you to support it...

Ah, Eyewitness . That 90's British natural history franchise I adore. In the libraries of the 2000's you flourished as both books and VHSs, narrated in the latter by Andrew Sachs*, and would inspire many young kid to love science and the natural world. * I will never accept the Martin Sheen Americanised versions, which I swear I didn't grow up with as a Canadian. While prehistoric life has been discussed throughout episodes (including season one's  Dinosaur , naturally), today we will focus on the season two episode  Prehistoric Life , about the evolution of animals throughout time and the study of them. The episode relays its information as a broad overview of life over Deep Time, going from: Calculating the age of the earth Stromatolites Cambrian Trilobites Dunkleosteus Carboniferous plants and insects Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs Mammals of the Cenozoic Human evolution And finally waxing about the creatures that may have never been preserved in the fossil record never to...