It's been a while...

... have a placoderm.

Bothriolepis sp., a freshwater Devonian antiarch placoderm.  Man, check out those pec(toral fin)s.

I've been working on a few other projects recently, so blogging has not been happening so much. Nothing major or life changing, but enough to keep me occupied.  Needless to say, once everything else I have going on is finished up, I should have a lot more content to share, so look forward to that.  I mean, if you want.  If not, well no more fish for you.

The Great Backyard Bird Count 2012

Are you ready for some birding?  If you love watching avian dinosaurs as much as I do, and you love citizen science, why not participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC)?  I know I'm going to.  All you have to do is sit and watch birds, record which ones you see, and send that data to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology / the Audubon Society / Bird Studies Canada so that they can compile it and see the big picture about what kinds of birds are out there, where they are hanging out for winter, and how many of them are around.  When I say participation is both fun and easy, I totally mean it.  Find out for yourself, and participate in the GBBC when it begins this Friday, February 17, 2012.

It's here!

It's the moment you've all been waiting for.  The Feathered Dinosaur Gallery has been posted to ART Evolved: Life's Time Capsule, and it is quite impressive.  People love theropods, I suppose.  Especially the feathered ones.  I can't say I blame them.  The presence of feathers in non-avian dinosaur groups provides another line of evidence to support the fact that living birds are dinosaurs.  When I was a kid growing up, I never would have imagined we'd have so many wonderfully preserved fossils showing filamentous integumentary structures on the bodies of non-avian animals. Once again, we are not only provided an example of evolution at work, but we also see that new information can be added to an existing body of knowledge, and our scientific understanding can change.  I can't imagine a more appropriate gallery for Darwin Week, so thanks to the crew over at ART Evolved for putting it together, and to everyone who submitted.  It looks great!

My humble submission to an excellent "Time Capsule".  Dave and his buddy play a dangerous game!