Mesozoic Mind

I apologise for the nearly-month hiatus at Mesozoic Mind. I had other projects to work on. But don't worry, this blog is still active, so welcome back everyone. And I've been to a new place today (well kind of, as you shall learn) that's on my my mind today - my Mesozoic mind. Today as part of an excersise walk with my personal trainer, I went along the waterfront of Toronto and eventually went to Budapest Park, located on the west side of Toronto on its Lakeshore. It wasn't planned, and I have never set foot thewre, but we did so. Budapest Park itself is a smalk lakeside park not unlike others out there, save for one thing I came for now that it was in walking distance for me: it has dinosaur statues. The statues consist of two ornithischians, Chasmosaurus and a Stegosaurus . They are made of concrete and are small, at the very least as tall as me. Apparently they came from a now-closed park open in the 1960's and 70's in Huntsville, Muskoka Dinosaur Land, that...

Happy halloween season, reader! Say, remember these books? It's easier if you were born and/or raised in the 90's or early 2000's, but to those born later then that, allow me to introduce them to you. These are the Looking At... Dinosaurs books . They are all illustrated by Tony Gibbons, and written by a body that included authors Heather Amery, Tamara Green, Frances Freedman, Mike Brown, and Jenny Vaughn. Finally, Cambridge's David Norman was the consultant for the book series, while Gareth Stevens Publishing published the books; they also did other series like it, covering topics like animal victims of the Anthropocene Extinction and arthropods. Each of the books follows a typical formula. There are a few deviations in order from book to book, but they mostly go: The introduction to the genus A size comparison spread A spread with the skeleton of the subject. An illustration of the dinosaur in its time. Two or three freespace pages that vary by subject, often seeming ...

  The Hatchling premeired on October 17 last week from this mini-review's posting. I watched it the moment it came out, and here are my thoughts on it (if you haven't seen my Twitter tweet on it). I think it's excellent. First and foremost, the visuals for the dinosaurs done by Max Bellomio ( Forgotten Bloodlines fame) are excellent and highly accurate, provided by Max Bellomio. The short's runtime, while only 10 minutes, is still rather well paced, playing out like an excerpt from a feature length film, aided by great performances from the actors (I hope they go onto bigger things), and keeps the other dinosaurs in it only briefly to keep focus on the Deinocheirus . I also like how the characters actually do address that the dinosaurs showing up and making themselves at home would be bad for the eosystem no matter what (something I wish a certain Jurassic Park film did in detail, but enough of that). The music is also nice too, carrying the classic 80's and 90...

Hello, I wanted to bring to your awareness a short film coming this month and only announced yesterday, called The Hatchling . Not much is known so far besides a score piece being released, but won't stop me from writing about it. First, the wide beak of the Hatchling and the claws show it's going to have the giant duck-like Deinocherirus as the dinosaur at the heart of it. As someone who loves  Deinocheirus  and how bizarre it is, I'm on board with seeing it. This probably one of the first appearences of it in fiction as opposed to a non-fiction work like documentaries or books. And of course I'm glad they chose a dino like Deino instead of thw usual Rex or herbivore we've seen a milliomn times in stories like these. The short also appears to be done in the now-classic 80's throwback style, like a Saurian version of Stranger Things , as evidenced. 1980's throwbacks are so common these days, aren't they? Like, the hand drawn poster style is almost as es...

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...

  Just wanted to give this little indie project attention, even more then it already has on other platforms. Concept art This is an animated series created by Ben Mulot and Floating Rock Studio, with a possible game coming too. Pretty ambitious stuff.  Kyōryū (after the Japanese word for dinosaur) is about a post-apocalyptic Japan where genetically ressurrected prehistoric life lives wild in the extinction of humanity, and battle among themselves for survival, like an improved version of Jurassic World Dominion , Tokyo Jungle , or Stray , depending on what you think it's most like out of the three. The CG is astounding, and this is just the teaser; imagine what the full series will do. The creatures move with visible weight and have excellent detailing. They are also stylised, yet still retain accurate designs (for the most part). The samurai-like armour on the Tyrannosaurus stands out, looking badass and fits how they apparently will be Shogun-esque leaders of the world ...

Phew, sorry for the hiatus. I didn't go to college after all - yet. I'm back! Got another obscure palaeo -documentary at hand! No, this is not that book I reviewed  despite the prescence of both the American Museum of Natural History and Mark Norrell, nor a documentary calledd The Dinosaur Hunters from 2002 about Gideon Mantell and other 1800's palaeontologists based off a book, nor the utterly terrible Discovery Reality series Dino Hunters . Sheesh, National Geographic's Dinosaur Hunters is such a generic title you need to specify what you mean everytime. Anyway... Rather, it's the National Geographic documentary special from 1996, back before Nat Geo had its own channel and put out specials on other channels and VHS. It was made at the height of the Dinosaur Renaissance as new discoveries of theropods were coming out of Asia to reveal how birdlike and caring the smaller dinosaurs were rather then the lumbering idiots. That's what the doc is about: those very...

Hello and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. I've decided I'm going back to doing what I do best: obscure documentaries few have heard of. In this case, we once again return to the early 2000's with another Discovery Channel doc, titled  Mega Predators *.  * Just note I'm not sure if its 2001 (which I've seen given elsewhere) or 2004, which I've seen elsewhere, hence why no date is given here. If anyone could clarify which is which, that would be great. This documentary produced by one Rubin-Tarrat Productions focuses on predators of the Cenozoic and what made them deadly hunters. In many ways,  Mega Predators  feels like a predecessor to the much-reviled awesombro Discovery series  Monsters Resurrected . The focus on carnivores and how they hunt and kill prey. The random scenes of them in the present killing people. The hyperbolic treatment of them as monstrous killers and how they would hurt us: you will find them all there in Mega Predators , hell even a few spec...

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...

The atlas is one of the many ways dinosaur books have been organised, going from continent to continent and highlighting the genera and fossil find of each of them. To my knowledge, it became common in the 80's and 90's during the height of the Dinosaur Renaissance and into the 21st century, as new discoveries were being made and revaluated in the southern hemisphere and Asia that expanded views in palaeontological beyond just North America and Europe (although funding for research is still confined to those two, because imperialism), and into the 2000's. Today we will look at one such example, 2007's  The Kingfisher First Dinosaur Picture Atlas , written by nature writer David Burnie, who usually writes about extant life, most prominently for the  Eyewitness  series, and published by Kingfisher, a pretty big purveyor of books like these. The book's art meanwhile is by Anthony Lewis , who has done more in a series of similar childrens' atlases for Kingfisher. I ...