Mesozoic Mind

 Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays folks! As a christmas day gift, I'll give you all a follow up to last week's post, where I show you sonething made new fashioned out of something old: concepts for new episodes of Dinosaur Planet that fix the balance issues I voiced last time! I'm setting them on landmasses that weren't in the original series' lineup These two episode concepts were actually concieved in 2020 before I even got the idea to start the blog. I've decided to update them with what I know now. They're a what if? excersise, and I will write the episodes as if I were in 2003, using sources and information from at least before that year and nothing after, though there won't be much concern for budget from both Meteor Studios and Evergreen Films, as it is my imagination. Before we get started, I'd like to offer a special thanks to Deviantart user ThalassoAtrox , for inspiring me to write these after seeing a rundown of Dinosaur Planet ...

It's the start of the Spooky Season! What better way for Mesozoic Mind to celebrate it then a concept for a palaeontology-centric horror film? My idea is inspired by all the horror pictures on Twitter (I will never call it X) I've been seeing around the time I wrote this. Like this one for example. Thieving Lizards Our protagonist is palaeontologist Billy DeSantis, a hotshot palaeotologist who begions the film making. However, he starts seeing these ghostly beings who resemble prehistoric life. Some are raptors, some are mammalian creatures, but either way they unnerve the heck out of Billy, who recognises them all as creatures he has studied directly in particular the taptor, which he has named Kleptiasaurus  (from Klepto, the greek). They even start to get more and more aggresive, charging at him, breaking into wherever he is, and snarling in his face. Initially it looks like Billy is an innocent victim who doesn't deserve the haunting, and you want him to escape them som...

Hello again. Here's something to tide you over until the next review, now in-progress. Ashfall From Dean Lomax's book Locked in Time ; illustrations by Bob Nicholls An animated film, inspired by the palaeontological site in Nebraska. It would tell the story of a crash of the ancient rhino Teleoceras as they weather out the ash clouds due to their leader being too stubborn to try and escape in any way even as the other animals start to die out as thr volcanic ash suffocates all that inhates it. Don't worry, it would have a bittersweet ending with most of the lead herd members getting their own moments of closure and solace in their last ones. This movie would all be without dialogue save brief narration. Beasts from Bones A documentary about mythical creatures that may have been inspired or influenced by ancient people discovering remains of extinct lifeforms. Examples would include (but not be limited to): Indigenous tribes of the interior plains creating myths of water mo...

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. June is here, and I'm kicking it off with two ideas related to how June is been labelled both Jurassic June and Pride Month, both of which are quite to my interests, hence why all June posts this months will have at least more then one Jurassic taxa and be dubbed Junerassic . Jurassic Giants Art by Nils Hoff (2011) Yet another documentary idea of mine, this one about one of the underrepresented Late Jurassic locales known: the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania. It's not as well known as other contemporary formations (China's, Europe's, or North America's), but what sets it apart is that it preserves both terrestrial and marine fossils due to representing a coastal plain of lagoons and deltas. This documentary would thus be about the giants of both the land and the sea, and how the ecosystems of both influence one another. For example, washed out dung from dinosaurs on land brings nitrogen to the sea. And yes, there would be sc...

Hello, everybody. I'm just here to add the latest RPWIOTD, and something I will be doing this weekend you'll findf very interesting. The River Styx This would be a horror/survival story about a palaeontology student visiting his rural family in Montana and goes fishing together, only to get into a time warp back in time, to (where else?) the Hell Creek Formation 66 million years ago - during a weat season and when the forests are flooded. Stuck on an island, they must find a way off and more importantly a way back to their time - but the local wildlife is going to make that very difficult, as they're mere appearence disturbs them and drives them nuts - though some of the humans aren't helping either. The major creatures in the story, and the subjects of each setpiece would be: The crocodilians  Borealosuchus ,  Brachychampsa , and  Thoracosaurus . They would be the main threat the characters face, as many of them choose to bask on the island and get into conflict with e...

Hello. I came up with this idea just a couple days ago, though I swear my mind created it even earlier. Hopefullt it'll tide you over until the next short review coming soon. Streched Necks and Horns: How the Giraffe got its Neck A would be documentary about the evolution of the giraffe and it's long neck, and the factors that played into it, like sexual selection, fighting, and feeding opprotunities, as well as how evolution in general works and theorires on it, like Lamarck's own theorum oft-represented with giraffes' necks. Species that would appear in potential CG reconstruction sequences are: Prolibytherium Sivatherium Discokeryx , naturally headbutting Palaeotragus Bohlinia I'm surprised there has never been a full documentary on giraffe evolution, even though its one of the most famous scenarios used when explaining how evolution and passing on genetic traits works.

For this week's RP-WIDOTD, I'd like to credit museum employee and writer for the blog Extinct Monsters Ben H. Miller, whose series of Framing Fossil Exhibits  and the nature of early fossil exhibits and the popular stereotypes being parades of big skeleton mounts was the inspiration for this idea, conceived at 2 AM in the morning. Towering Titans This would be a museum exhibit homaging the idea of mount after mount of giant prehistoric creatures, only here having a more nuanced take on such, focusing on just how these big creatures could evolve in the first place, wheher its interal factors, like dense bones or airsacs to lighten the body, or external factors, like suitable climates and vegetation. The vast majority of the exhibit would be a central platform, with additional ones around the perimitre of the exhibit hall. The first creatures museum-goers would see even before entering from whatever main hall of the museum is are a pair of Edmontosaurus , among the biggest of t...

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind . So while on vacation, my family visited on the highway the Big Apple. No, not Ney York, but a roadside attraction featuring a giant fibreglass apple, tacky and saccarhine rustic decor, kiddie attractions, and a petting zoo of stinking pens. It's as cheesy as you'd imagine, and the only thing I like about it were the animals in the petting zoo, like turkeys and hissing geese. I'm honestly surprised they haven't added some animatronic dinosaurs while at it too. Really, dinosaurs are a pretty common choice for roadside attractions. Most famously are those from around the Cold War era, like Dinosaur Park in South Dakota, but in recent years they have been suplanted by relatively cheap animatronics made in the 90's and early 2000's, and in my opinion age horribly from a scintific standpoint and sn artistic one, remaining unfeathered and pronated-handed and barely functioning, while the fibreglass and concrete models do have ...

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind . Man, its been forever snce I did a Random Palaeo-Work idea of the Day instalment. Figured I'd be at least in the double digits long ago. Anyways, better late then never. Prehistoric Paradise Inspired by a vacation to Grand Cayman I took in late June, this documentary would document the geological and evolutionary course of the Carribbean, particularly Cuba to its wide variety of fossils preserved and strata there. It would make heavy use of timelapse shots from space showing the landmasses forming and moving overtime, but there would still be plenty of reconstruction . Episode One Art by tuomaskoivurinne Episode one establishes the origins of the Carribbean in the Mesozoic due to the breakup of Pangaea and. A large portion of it is spent in a Mid to Late Jurassic formation known as the Jagua , which has a wide variety of marine reptiles on par with Britain's. Featured taxa would be: The pliosaur  Gallardosaurus The ples...

I'd like to thank everyone who clicked on the links here and stayed throughout the last year for supporting me, so here's another round of Random Palaeo-Work ideas of the Day ™ ! Jurassic Jaws Art by Robert T. Bakker for The Dinosaur Heresies . Narrative two-part documentary about the life of a Megalosaurus in Middle Jurassic England 166 million years ago given the name of Billy Buck, from a hatchling to an adult and its trials in life. Megalosaurus bucklandii  - The lead dinosaur species for the documentary. Cetiosaurus oxonensis  - A sauropod dinosaur. It maybe nowhere as big as others in Jurassic England, but they can still pack a punch. Proceratosaurus bradleyi  - A small tyrannosauroid dinosaur. They're quite the menace when Billy is young, but once he grows up they're only a nuisance at worst. Think the Ornitholestes from Walking with Dinosaurs . Dacentrurus armatus /” Omosaurus ” - A big stegosaur. Callovosaurus leedsi  - A small flocking ornithopod that'...

Today for Random Palaeo-Work idea of the Day, we're gonna do something different, and mostly do museum exhibits. Ichthyosaurs: Age of Sea Dragons As mentioned in my previous post on how I'd redo the Royal Ontario Museum's fossil dinosaur galleries, I suggested that the marine Jurassic fossils be replaced and put into storage, but also they go to their own exhibit. Well here it is. Layout The main layout of the exhibit would be as a Walk Through Time representing different periods of the mesozoic, with each section of it focusing on a different aspect of these marine reptiles. #1 Introduction - The first fossil discoveries of ichtghyosaurs in England, naturally bringing up Mary Anning. # 2 Origins in the Triassic (China and BC) - The evolution of early ichthyosaurs. # 3 Giants from the Deep (either Shastasaurus  or  Shonisaurus as centrepiece) - Covers the giant ichtyosaurs of the Triassic, and to a lesser extent how they as a whole swam via the fins. # 4 Cutting-Edge Hun...

For my birthday (well weekend afterwards) in 2021, me and my mother went to the Royal Ontario Museum, and several times afterwards. I loved all of it, but me being me, I looked most forward to the museum's dinosaur gallery, the James and Louise Temerty Galleries of the Age of Dinosaurs. They were good, but I did feel they could be better, and with some of if not a lot of the info and exhibit design outdated to the 2000's, it's due for a renovation. Now today we're doing something new: Palaeo-Redo , where I reimagine works of palaeo-media, both as I would have done or could be improved. And without further ado, I present... The Ahmed Family Gallery of Dinosaurs ! The new gallery will be themed around the jaws and teeth of dinosaurs and their diets and evolution. In one direction, if you arrive from the Dawn of Life Gallery, the axis would be the latter and how environmental change impacted them. In the other direction, is the anatomical differences between clades of dino...

Happy holidays to all of ya! Here are some ideas for all the support and views you gave me! Savage Lizards A film about a family which washes up on a Lost World inhabited by mesozoic life, including a race of highly intelligent raptors who take them in and give them sanctuary. However, one member doesn't appreciate it, an asshat teenager who buys into the awesomebro rhetoric of all dinosaurs being violent savage monsters who can't do anything but but fight and kill, and threats them accordingly, refusing to see otherwise, even though A) he acts very violent and bellicose himself, and strains his relationships with his family, and B) the raptors are fairly pacifistic outside of hunting and aren't all that violent, and as a whole the other dinosaurs would act as animals do and avoid conflict. Things get so heated between the three that a fight erupts between them, leading the family to leave the island for home, save the son, whose arrogant beliefs get him disowned and abando...

Hello everyone. Just gonna drop this idea I've had for days, if not months. Land of the Raptor A three-part documentary following the life of the iconic giant dromaeosaur Utahraptor of Early Cretaceous North America 135 million years ago. We would follow the lives of two of them from the same clutch, one female and one male, respectively named Streak and Whitesnout. The story’s told from their birth to adulthood, trying to survive predators, weather, each other, and of course hunt the massive prey they live with. Each episode would be around 48 minutes long. While I haven't really fleshed the story out, and I don't have any plans on doing so, the story would end with Whitesnout, now a leader of a pack, leading it after a herd of  Hippodraco into a mud pit where they will become trapped and become the infamous Utahraptor Megablock , while Streak has also formed her own pack and has hatched her own chicks as they walk away into a sunset. The final scene is in our time with an...

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind! We're ending Walking with Dinovember (for realsies this time) with ideas of a trio of docs in the vein of Chased by Dinosaurs , and because stateside there's Thanksgiving weekend, a film appropriate for the holidays. These first two shows would be tributes to nature documentaries of yesteryear, specifically of the kind put out by Steve Irwin, Jeff Corwin, or Austin Stevens that typically aired on Animal Planet where the host goes on safari and interacts with the creatures, often by grabbing creatures and holding them up to the camera. The third... well, you can read it for yourself. Mesozoic Micro Monsters Much like Chased by Dinosaurs, Mesozoic Micro-Monsters focuses on a human host and camera crew traversing Mesozoic in search of a specific creature of interest, much like Chased by Dinosaurs . However, the main difference it as evidenced from the the title, it focuses more on the smaller creatures of the time and area. These are crea...