Been pretty productive here for a bit... gonna go on hiatus for most of September as I am going on a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. When I unplug I really unplug so I probably will not be responding to comments either. But I plan on hitting the ground running through late September & October with more of the same grande guignol theropod madness... including more bonesaw stuff, theropod death assemblages, theropod socio-ecology, predator-prey ratios, ontogeny, carch, ceratosaur and dromaeosaur stuff further down the pike and... hint - hint, what is tomorrow the anniversary of?
Also I will be at SVP in Dallas spreading my antediluvian tentacles, so if you are a reader make sure you come up and say hi and chat me up!! And talk about bonesaw theropods over some Texas BBQ!!
Everyone's out on vacation or at school/work, and I'm just sitting here fantasizing about bone shimmies and vultures. That sentence is basically my life summed up right now for the past several weeks. I hope you have fun on vacation and at SVP. I guess I'll just be sitting here at my computor for the next month collecting dust. Oh, btw, please take notes at SVP when you hear of something new/interesting. They always announce new stuff at SVP that isn't published yet, then the general public has to wait another few months to even years for an actual paper to confirm that they aren't just rumors. I remember about how there were rumors of a fluffy Ornithischian (might have been at SVP, might not have been), and afterwards everyone in the paleoblogosphere was either chanting that they were right all along, or they were saying that it was just a rumor, then suprise, suprise, it was real. The list goes on with stuff like this, but I won't even bother naming all the stuff like that. Like I said, please try and take notes when your hands aren't covered in BBQ sauce *'Murica intensifies*.
ReplyDeleteWould i be wrong in pointing out that its the 1 year point for Spinogate ?
ReplyDelete@khalil beiting if I divulge secrets the paleo-mafia will have my heart on a platter. Seriously though I do have to chuckle a bit about the whole press embargo "non-disclosure" aspect of these meetings. You can hear a presentation, talk to the presenters, see the abstract online already but you can't blog about new stuff? It's all kind of weird and cultish if you ask me. Sure I guess there are reasons for embargo and so on but sheesh this stuff is not like military secrets or something. And yeah there is a total sewing circle henhouse type gossip/rumor mill in paleo that everyone seems to engage in... kinda cute actually wish it could just be out in the open.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes BBQ will be bonesawed by yours truly (when in Rome), but then back to kale smoothies!!
@Robert Haan Bingo!! I got to do some, you know responsible adult type stuff (translation securing a job) but hopefully I can concentrate on spino in the immediate future. Probably gonna go down to 1-3 posts per month most likely (but I will make them "meaty" posts).
Yay for meaty posts! So are you back home or are you just replying over phone/poor internet connection from some random computor? Also, on the whole top secret paleo stuff, I've heard of so many cool things from the past few years from those meetings/conferences that were eventually forgotten. The first thing that comes to mind was the discovery of a Psittacosaurus sp. with a fish in it's gut. Such a find could somewhat "revolutionize" how we imagine Ceratopsians (since quill like feathers weren't enough I guess). It could shed much more light on the whole omnivorous Ceratopsian "debate" (I use quotations seeing as how no one actually talks about the valid points and counterpoints to the idea), which could change a whole lot of people's "childhood nostalgia" (I don't know if JP fanboys would love or hate this new idea).
ReplyDeleteYeah I sort of remember that too about the Psittacosaurus with fish in it's gut. Maybe it was never published because they could not rule out a taphonomic input for the fish. I also remember some mention of an egg nest (from Mongolia?) that had a variety of animals in the same clutch - I think theropod and some croc eggs of some sort? The implication being that some form of brood parasitism was going on but, again, nothing ever came of it - maybe taphonomy again.
ReplyDeleteBut I am back got to explore environments of the pacific nw which was inspiring for imagining Mesozoic environments. I have to study for my B license to secure this bus driver job I just got so it might be a bit for my next post. But we can chat over email about any of the talks at SVP you are curious about.
Why thank you, and I am glad you're back. I never even heard of the brood parasite clutch from Mongolia, but seeing as how many modern day Dinosaurs do the same it's not really suprising to me. Good luck wih getting a job :D. I know the struggle all to well and I'm still just in High School.
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