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Hey guys!Did you notice there was a Megaloceros in The Hobbit?

I think I was the only one in the theatre excited about that XD

Remaking my Integument CladogramIt has been a year since I've made my , and I think it's time for it to be remade. Some new discoveries have naturally made it obsolete, such as ornithomimid wings and Sciurumimus (although frankly I'm still skeptical about it being a megalosaur). But before that, I'd like to share some musings of mine.
Firstly, I'm still fond of the idea that primitive feathers are basal to Ornithodira in some way or another, perhaps evolving from dermal spines or something along those lines. But I'm starting to believe that, as wondrous as I find the idea of fuzzy ornitischians to be, extensive coats of feathers were really limited to coelurosaurs.
That's because, up until now, the only confirmed examples of something other than scales in ornitischians come from Psittacosaurus and Tianyulong. I'm sure these are homologous with each other and that primitive ornitichians had bristles as a basal condition, but I'm not so sure if these and coelurosaur feathe

Check the freshness date on your skeletalsAs my "watchers" are most likely aware by now, I'm rolling out a bunch of updated skeletal reconstructions. Any time I provide a skeletal reconstruction to a client (museum, publisher, app maker, producer, etc.) I update the skeletal to bring it into line with the most current research. Many times these are subtle changes, but over time they add up. I realized that I'd done a large number of these over the last couple months without updating any of my DA skeletals, so as I am able to grab a few spare minutes here or there I'll be continuing these updates over the coming weeks.
The reason I've been checking the "notify" tab is because anyone who wants to use them as the basis of either a reconstruction or for understanding dinosaur anatomy should really be using the most recent versions, so if you're ogling one of my skeletals be sure to check the date on it for maximum freshness.
-Scott

Time to do some speed paintingsThe last several months I decided that i wanted to start pushing myself to become a better artist. As I said in my Jersey Boys Dig Dinosaurs interview last week http://jerseyboyhuntsdinosaurs.blogspot.com/2013/02/interview-with-artist-and-scientist.html I really have no training as an artist, and indeed most of my career has been more of the technical diagram variety of illustrations. And I doubt that will change, as skeletal reconstructions and other anatomy diagrams are what I do. That said, I also value improvement, and I intend to do so by starting to do regular speed paintings, as well as trying my hand at some artwork types I've not considered in well over a decade.
I've in fact been doing speed paintings now for several weeks, but many of them were not finished to a level where I wanted to share them (some of them I was just working on particular aspects of artwork that I need to improve). But I feel like I will work that much harder if i plan to share them, so I've started a sp

Happy Darwin Day!It's that time again.

Dinosaur News #37New dinosaurs include Nyasasaurus parringtoni (a fragmentary but very old Triassic dinosaur or dinosaur relative), sauropod Kaatedocus siberi, and iguanodontians Lapampasaurus cholinoi and Proa valdearinnoensis.
New studies were published on the brains of charadriiforms and therizinosaurs, the implications of claw curvature on behavior in theropods, and theory of mind in Garrulus glandarius. Piksi barbarulna, Palaeocursornis corneti, and Eurolimnornis corneti are found to be pterosaurs instead of birds.

Dinosaur News #36New dinosaurs include sauropods Comahuesaurus windhauseni and Astrophocaudia slaughteri, hadrosaur Latirhinus uitstlani, and ceratopsids Xenoceratops foremostensis and Coronosaurus brinkmani (formerly a species of Centrosaurus).
New studies were published on avian diversity through time, the benefits of bright blue coloration in malurids, the preservation of hadrosaur skin, large Eocene bird footprints, how Columba livia learn new flight paths, forelimb posture in hadrosaurs (they didn't have pronated hands), the wing structure of Archaeopteryx lithographica and Anchiornis huxleyi (revealing that they had more covert layers than modern birds), the evolution of vocal mimicry in psittaciforms, the evolution of size in herbivorous theropods, and the anatomies of Jeholosaurus shangyuanensis and Coloradisaurus brevis, as is a monograph on Tenontosaurus tilletii. Cacatua goffiniana was observed making

Could Alvarezsaurs Be Nectar-Eating Dinosaurs?The "What I Want for 2013" Wishlist (link: http://smnt2000.deviantart.com/#/d5mpmlh) opened up an interesting question. Among the various species that I'd like to see there is a small member of Alvarezsauridae that feeds on nectar. Pondering and pondering, I have been talking a lot about these critters and their diets. Could it be that these small coelurosaurs, with unclear eating habits, OCCASIONALLY fed on nectar? Excluding taxa like Haplocheirus (the most basal member and that probably hunted smaller animals) and Kol (possibly an oviraptorosaur), have these animals necessary features to feed on an apparently bizarre food source?
If you want to read more, go here: http://ktboundary-smnt2000.blogspot.it/#!/2012/12/could-alvarezsaurs-be-nectar-eating.html

Happy World Penguin Day!Go and show your appreciation for the most specialized of marine theropods today! (Okay, extant marine theropods, for any hesperornithine fans out there. Also, I realize that linked video only covers Antarctic penguins.)

Toothed Birds
Meet the Common Merganser and it's toothed beak.
Granted, these are not real teeth but serrations on the rhamphotheca. But by all means, they work as well as teeth in helping the merganser to catch slippery prey, and surely could cause a lot of danger when biting your hand.
They also serve to give us a nice glimpse on how most enantiornithes and even deinonychosaurs could have looked like, all birdy and feathery but with nasty teeth on their mouths. Oh, nature!
Image source: http://www.vancouverislandbirds.com/Journal340.html

Crowning Moment of Awesome #17Those who keep up with paleontology-related news are probably aware of a newly-published phylogenetic analysis of placental mammals, often accompanied by a hypothetical life restoration of the last common ancestor of all placentals in news reports.
But did you know how much detail was put into said restoration?

Dinosaur News #38New dinosaurs include ornithopod Trinisaura santamartaensis, oviraptorosaur Yulong mini, deinonychosaur Eosinopteryx brevipenna, and bird Sulcavis geeorum. Scolosaurus cutleri is resurrected as a valid taxon.
Oviraptorosaurs are shown to have had very muscular tails, probably for use in visual display. Studies on the osteology of Khaan mckennai, convergence between the tails of dromaeosaurids and rhamphorhynchid pterosaurs, an injured sauropodomorph tail, hunting methods of Pygoscelis adeliae, neuroanatomy of Ampelosaurus, the benefits of pheomelanin in birds, genomic diversity in Columba livia, and new specimens of Archaeorhynchus spathula are published. Confuciusornis sanctus specimens without retrices are confirmed to be female. Parts of the long-lost Titanosaurus indicus holotype have been rediscovered. Detailed analysis is done on theropod teeth from the Late Cretaceous of North America, allowing f

At last, the Hell Creek Archosaur Calendar!We went through a bit of a rough patch, but the Hell Creek 2013 Archosaur Calendar is finally available! It features artwork by :iconDracontes:, :iconTomozaurus:, :iconDurbed:, :iconPilsator:, :iconshinreddear:, :iconEWilloughby:, :iconyoult:, :iconagathaumas:, :iconT-PEKC:, :iconChrisMasna:, and :iconSmnt2000:, most featuring an archosaur discovery from 2012, and was organized by :iconTomozaurus:, :iconEWilloughby:, and myself. Due to the limited functionality of most online calendar creators, the doodles I shared a while back were scrapped, but who needs them

So... Fish-eating Microraptor, huh?Xing et al. have just published an interesting paper about a specimen of Microraptor with preserved gut contents and, shock, there are fish scales. Well, here is where it gets weird. I don't think that Microraptor was a specialized fish-eating dinosaur but that, like modern tree kingfishers, it ate almost every little vertebrate. Read my blog post if you want to know more.
Real article: http://ktboundary-smnt2000.blogspot.it/#!/2013/04/piscivory-in-feathered-dinosaur.html
Personal considerations: http://ktboundary-smnt2000.blogspot.it/#!/2013/04/some-considerations-about-fish-eating.html

Releasing my ModelsAs per many people's request, I'm thinking about releasing by models for download so people can use it as reference for their work, or even for texturing and rigging and whatever (although I have to warn you that I'm far from a professional, so if you want to use them for games or animations, you may have to edit them heavily to fit your needs. I'm preetty sure they're messy in this regard, since I make them solely for the looks).
They're blender files, although if there's any way to convert them for sculptris, zbrush and other 3d editing software without messing them up please tell me so more people can make use of them.
As I've stated above, you can feel free to use them for anything as long as I'm being properly credited. I know some people that would like to use them for Zoo Tycoon 2, so that'll be fun.
Along with that, I'm thinking of doing a contest: I'll release a model of some kind of dinosaur in a specific position, and the challenge is to send me pictures that you've made usi

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Preening Feet

Journal Entry: Mon Feb 18, 2013, 3:11 PM

So, apparently Some species of hummingbird (sword-billed hummingbird in the pictures) use their feet for preening since their bills are so long and awkwardly-shaped. That makes me think of how deinonychosaurs might have used their toe claws to preen, almost like a dog. Perhaps therizinosaurs used their hand claws as well? That must've looked funny.

Images from BBC's Life of Birds, The Mastery of Flight.

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Preening Feetby *Julio-Lacerda

Journals / Personal

~Albertonykus Mar 2, 2013

Some birds, such as nightjars and herons, even have specialized claws for preening.

~MorTalWawmbaht Feb 22, 2013

Well, given that Deinonychosaurs didn't really have the same kind of tool set up that forces Hummingbirds to use their feet I'd prefer to imagine them using both their mouth and their feet and claws to preen where they could reach.

Same goes for Theri as I don't quite know how limber they were. Unsure if they could reach everywhere with the claws. They COULD be social animals like Finches and preen each other where they couldn't reach though like how CJ suggested.

Interesting idea. Another thing birds do that I would like to imagine Dinosaurs doing is jumping into some water, ruffling their feathers and then jumping out to preen as what my Budgerigar and Zebra finches do. Perhaps flapping the feathers to dry them afterwards as does the finches.

~MaxterandKiwiKing Feb 19, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

That is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

~Lamastok Feb 19, 2013

Lol Gorsh, you here ? Good fellow members of Gaia xd (I'm CJ)
I fully agree to Deinonychosaurs using claws to preen and sratch (For some weird reason, the ZT2 Velociraptor has that behaviour). I can almost them imagine sitting in a group and making social preening like primates.

~MrGorsh Feb 18, 2013 Hobbyist Digital Artist

The second one is waaay too cute

The best thing about this is that we have no idea about actual behavior of the extinct dinosaurs, but many people are assuming they were pretty much incapable of being more inventive during their evolution than their portrayals from before a century.

~Hyrotrioskjan Feb 18, 2013 Professional General Artist

I could imagine that therizinosaurs sitting together and preen each other like primates

~DinoBirdMan Feb 18, 2013 Student Artist

That's awesome!

~TheMorlock Feb 18, 2013 Student General Artist

Cute. I've actually seen them do this out my window.

~SchweinGoth Feb 18, 2013

definitively plausible.

~KitWhitham Feb 18, 2013

Makes sense. I have comparatively long fingernails, and I use them for brushing my hair more often than a comb. Therizinosaurs and raptors could have easily used their claws to do the same. Since thy could have been partly social they might have even helped each other with preening!

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