Random Palaeo-Work ideas of the Day #16

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't the dumb creature thought of (nor did it or any other animal need to be as smart as us). And let's face it, we humans for all our big brains, don't always act smart.

The art would be of the gross caricatural kind, like its from the books of the 90's or early 2000's I grew up with. I wads inspired to write it from Dinosaur Devotions, a book with a similarly novel idea of relating information about dinosaurs in a different way then others - albiet in a more crude way.

If you want something more wholesome and less mean-spirited, here you go.

Ancient Pharaohs: Journey into Prehistoric Egypt

A picture-centric book about Egypt in Deep Time, with many, many references to Ancient Egyptian mythology and culture, right down to the art and a flat layout for it being inspired by their own wall and heoroglyphic art. I even have an idea for the opening blurb.

"In Egyptian Mythology, the world began as a swirling sea of water, and from it came a giant bird, Bennu, whose cry created the world and the gods. It's only myth, but truth of Egypt's origin is much like it: one of water and astounding monsters, stretching back millions of years."

Yes, Spinosaurus and the denizens of the Bahariya Formation (giant fish Mawsonia, saurischian dinosaurs Parilititan and Carcharodontosaurus) would make up a big chunk of the book, but there would be three other times featured.

• The Late Cretaceous, specidically turtles from the Dakhla Formation (including a large one described by Abu El-Kheir 2021) and the sauropod Mansourasaurus from the Quseir Formation.
• The Eocene and its ancient whales and giant sea snakes of the time, like Basilosaurus and Pterosphenus respectively. Also, elephant relative Arsinoitherium would also be featured.
• The Miocene Moghara formation and the giant mammals of the time, like the giant carnivore Megistotherium and proboscideans, and a focus on the connection that formed as Africa collided with Eurasia and faunal interchanges between the continents.
• The Ice Age/Pleistocene, and the rise of humanity.

I have another idea for one about dinosaurs of Asianamed after religious figures in Buddhist and Hndi mythology like Shri devi and Citipati, but I have nothing else at the monent, so that's for another day.

Hope you liked these ideas. Please share them if you can (how did I not say this for two years?).

Sources/See Also

• Abu El-Kheir, G.A.-M., AbdelGawad, M.K., and Kassab, W.G. 2021. "First known gigantic sea turtle from the Maastrichtian deposits in Egypt". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 66 (2): 349–355.