Greetings!

Welcome to Superoceras, a blog about science and natural history, slightly biased towards paleontology and zoology, but inclusive of all sciences. Started in October of 2009, my goal is to communicate scientific knowledge (and the occasional piece of nonsense) in an informative and entertaining manner. Feel free to contact me with questions, comments, concerns, or criticism at superoceras(at)gmail(dot)com, and follow me on Twitter @Superoceras for all that and more in 140 characters or less!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

DRAW A DINOSAUR DAY!

Alright ladies and gentlemen, the big day is here, and as promised, I present my (joint) submission for the 4th annual "Draw A Dinosaur Day!"


An adolescent male Corythosaurus casuarius, left lateral view.

I imagine this lanky fellow as a sexually mature, yet highly inexperienced and headstrong young buck on his way into his first breeding season. He still has to grow into his legs and tail, and he doesn't have a lot of meat on his bones, but one day he'll fill out, his crest will flush with color, and the ladies will be all over him.

Thanks to Barnum Brown for discovering and naming the species, and Christina for her imaginative color scheme!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Don't forget: Draw A Dinosaur Day!

I'm not going to lie to any of you. I'm kinda excited about this. Can you tell?

"Look ma, no trunk!"

Tomorrow is the BIG day, so get out your pencils, brushes, (Post-It Notes), whatever, and exercise your art muscles. Then submit your masterpiece here. The submissions are already rolling in, so take a peek, and then have fun drawing a dinosaur!

Happy Friday everyone!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Gotta clade 'em all!

My friend Peter has started his own blog (The Nameless Blog) about video games, and has published more posts in his first week than I did in my first month. If you're a gamer I highly recommend you check it out. But his writing has inspired me to write about one of my gaming experiences that, surprisingly, I can tie into the science/nature/education content I like to write about here at Superoceras.

I'm not going to lie to any of you. Back in the fall of 1998, my interests in speculative biology, video games, and collecting things all merged together in what I considered to be the coolest trend of the day: Pokémon. I probably shouldn't admit it, but I spent a great deal of time capturing, training, and battling those little "pocket monsters". I even did a phylogeny of the first 151 creatures as a gag with a friend of mine. I wish I could find it. Don't lie, you want to see it too.