a cast skeleton of deinonychus.hope you're picking up the hint of what is coming to the tyrannosaur chronicles through the last few fossils of the weekend... cause they're arriving SOON!
8.5.09
fossil of the weekend! #25
a cast skeleton of deinonychus.hope you're picking up the hint of what is coming to the tyrannosaur chronicles through the last few fossils of the weekend... cause they're arriving SOON!
7.5.09
my old home
being back in my old hometown (drumheller) has given me time to dwell on old times and memories. nothing seems to stir them quite like the specific locations of my now gone life.
none more then this seemingly unassuming part of the royal tyrrell museum, the cretaceous garden. it is one of the most missed places in the whole building, partially caused by it being tucked in such an odd corner of the building, and the fact it was a greenhouse.
not that it is an ordinary greenhouse, mind you. every single plant kept in here is a close relative of plants that grew in alberta at the end of the cretaceous. in as many cases as the museum curators could manage, these plants are as close to the prehistoric form as could be found today. in some cases this means their only a bit like the extinct forms, but in a few crazy cool cases the plant have barely changed.
this however required acquiring plant species from very obscure locations around the planet (the less changed by evolution a plant, the better an indicator it comes from some where cut off like a tiny island or remote valley). in fact the tyrrell has been heavily working on cataloguing its collection, as it is one of the few in the world like it (which wasn't realized when it originally assembled in the 1980's).
why i have such a fond attachment to the place though, is that this used to be my home.
right after i first go my job at the tyrrell, i was mean to dan and craig, who had up till then been letting me live with them. dan in particular didn't take that well (though i know it hurt my legal guardian craig... he just never let it show), and so the two of them (who also worked at the tyrrell) arranged for me to become an in house specimen at the museum... aka they kicked me out of their house for being a rude roommate (i don't entirely blame them)!
so the museum decided to put me in here.
for better or worse this was my home for over 2 years. my job back then was a "visitor experience facilitator"... which was fancy talk for a dinosaur statue. that's right, my job was to stand around in here and pretend to be inanimate!!! apparently despite my "people friendly" personality, i was a deterrent to guests experiences, and so i wasn't supposed to bug the museum's visitors...
not that i ever stuck to that job description. i'd accidentally talk to people all the time, and my boss cam never told the big cheeses.
just like everything else, the cretaceous garden has changed a lot since i was here, and yet not at all...
the obvious changes are in the vegetation. so much of it has either grown or been outright cut back since i left. very little of the green is the same... though MOST of the trunks and stems are as i remember them (i did sleep in and amongst them after all).
i walked by the garden's nursery. funny enough i lived here for 2 years straight, and yet i'd never gone in there once. seriously, not even as of today (or today) have i been in there
it was an off limits area to the public, and only the garden's manager was allowed in there. it always had this sort of sinister air about it (in that with my hyper sensitive t-rex nose i can really smell the bad chemicals used in there).
oh well there are always things about our old home that were there in plain sight that we never did, used, or saw. this is just mine.
i can't say i don't miss the old place. yet at the same time i'm not eager to move back in.
it is just nice to be able to visit my old home...
none more then this seemingly unassuming part of the royal tyrrell museum, the cretaceous garden. it is one of the most missed places in the whole building, partially caused by it being tucked in such an odd corner of the building, and the fact it was a greenhouse.
not that it is an ordinary greenhouse, mind you. every single plant kept in here is a close relative of plants that grew in alberta at the end of the cretaceous. in as many cases as the museum curators could manage, these plants are as close to the prehistoric form as could be found today. in some cases this means their only a bit like the extinct forms, but in a few crazy cool cases the plant have barely changed.this however required acquiring plant species from very obscure locations around the planet (the less changed by evolution a plant, the better an indicator it comes from some where cut off like a tiny island or remote valley). in fact the tyrrell has been heavily working on cataloguing its collection, as it is one of the few in the world like it (which wasn't realized when it originally assembled in the 1980's).
why i have such a fond attachment to the place though, is that this used to be my home.right after i first go my job at the tyrrell, i was mean to dan and craig, who had up till then been letting me live with them. dan in particular didn't take that well (though i know it hurt my legal guardian craig... he just never let it show), and so the two of them (who also worked at the tyrrell) arranged for me to become an in house specimen at the museum... aka they kicked me out of their house for being a rude roommate (i don't entirely blame them)!
so the museum decided to put me in here.
for better or worse this was my home for over 2 years. my job back then was a "visitor experience facilitator"... which was fancy talk for a dinosaur statue. that's right, my job was to stand around in here and pretend to be inanimate!!! apparently despite my "people friendly" personality, i was a deterrent to guests experiences, and so i wasn't supposed to bug the museum's visitors...
not that i ever stuck to that job description. i'd accidentally talk to people all the time, and my boss cam never told the big cheeses.
just like everything else, the cretaceous garden has changed a lot since i was here, and yet not at all...
the obvious changes are in the vegetation. so much of it has either grown or been outright cut back since i left. very little of the green is the same... though MOST of the trunks and stems are as i remember them (i did sleep in and amongst them after all).
yet so much of it is the same as when i lived here. like my chilling bench is still here. i used to slump down there after a days hard work greeting and talking to guests (or uh, i mean pretending to be a statue...).
i received a lovely reminder of times long gone from above. my visit corresponded with the cretaceous garden's misting. this is of course to keep the humidity up for these mostly tropical plants (the badlands are quite arid afterall).
back in the day this was my version of a shower. i used to pretend i was just like a human, and would sometimes ever use a scrub brush while this was going on... which is embarrassing to admit, as back then in my youth i didn't realize you need soup for that to work!
my walking about startled this little stray garter snake. it clearly had snuck in from outside as they often did (through cracks in the emergency exit doors), and it reminded me of all the other life i shared this place with when i lived here.
during my days not only were intruding snakes my roommates, but so were frogs, turtles, fire belly salamanders, gold fish, gar, and infiltrating sparrows. sadly i only saw this snake today (the turtles had long been removed due to health concerns of children handling them)
i walked by the garden's nursery. funny enough i lived here for 2 years straight, and yet i'd never gone in there once. seriously, not even as of today (or today) have i been in thereit was an off limits area to the public, and only the garden's manager was allowed in there. it always had this sort of sinister air about it (in that with my hyper sensitive t-rex nose i can really smell the bad chemicals used in there).
oh well there are always things about our old home that were there in plain sight that we never did, used, or saw. this is just mine.
i can't say i don't miss the old place. yet at the same time i'm not eager to move back in.
it is just nice to be able to visit my old home...
5.5.09
fin backs, sabre teeth, and more!
the great artists at ART Evolved have just put up their latest "time capsule" full of great palaeo reconstructions, this time permian synapsids. check them out!4.5.09
the dinosaur infestation
during this whole trip back to drumheller (my old hometown) there is one thing i'm being constantly reminded of...
i'm not talking about "true" fossil ones either. i'm talking about us living vivus ones (vivus-fossil is the scientific name for us dinosaurs that somehow survived extinction and fossilization...). there are few places on earth where this many of us exist.
drumheller is the dinosaur capital of canada, and as of such all of us in the country (whether from drumheller or elsewhere in the nation) all flock here hoping to thrive. there aren't too many other places in the world as welcoming of our kind as drumheller, and it is one of the few where we can attain "fame" and "fortune".
yet that isn't saying too much. due to the human insistence that dinosaurs have to live in a museum, whether a normal inert fossil or a living vivus-fossils, has lead to our version of success being a lot more limited then the normal human definition of it.
just to be a center of attention is a big accomplishment. this sauropod, showing off for tourists in town, is considered a real big shot in the living dinosaur community. yet it doesn't have a home or a steady source of income (in dinosaurian terms income just=food). its only claim to success is it is so large and impressive that humans think it is awesome. yet besides this, this sauropod just wanders around town trying to entertain people till it gives it food.
the problem is that the welcome that exists for us here, is a limited welcome.
sure, there are some museums, theme parks, and resorts where our kind can find a home and job, but for every spot such a place might offer there are 5 dinosaurs trying to occupy it! meaning that most of us aren't even as "lucky" as this homeless jobless long neck (as it at least garners attention), and are we are reduced to aimlessly wandering the streets struggling to survive.
i say homeless as there are no proper forests, swamps, or wetlands for us to live in here... human authorities won't let us live in the wild... not that the 65 million year gap in evolution would allow most of us to survive there anyway! the climate, plants, environments, and even continents have all drastically changed since our kind was wiped out...
all around drumheller's less touristy areas are scenes just like this. places jam packed with vivus refugees trying to stake out their claim against all the rest.
it was bad when i lived in town, but since i left things have gotten worse. the pack of the primordial feather went to a great effort to carve out the royal tyrrell as one of its own venues. meaning any dinosaurs who weren't coelurosaurs were all kicked out (as was i funny enough).
resulting in even more displaced dinosaurs. especially hadrosaurs (like the parasaurolophus, corythosaurus, and edmontosaurus you see here).
just how overrun with dinosaurs it is around here!!!
i'm not talking about "true" fossil ones either. i'm talking about us living vivus ones (vivus-fossil is the scientific name for us dinosaurs that somehow survived extinction and fossilization...). there are few places on earth where this many of us exist.drumheller is the dinosaur capital of canada, and as of such all of us in the country (whether from drumheller or elsewhere in the nation) all flock here hoping to thrive. there aren't too many other places in the world as welcoming of our kind as drumheller, and it is one of the few where we can attain "fame" and "fortune".
yet that isn't saying too much. due to the human insistence that dinosaurs have to live in a museum, whether a normal inert fossil or a living vivus-fossils, has lead to our version of success being a lot more limited then the normal human definition of it.
just to be a center of attention is a big accomplishment. this sauropod, showing off for tourists in town, is considered a real big shot in the living dinosaur community. yet it doesn't have a home or a steady source of income (in dinosaurian terms income just=food). its only claim to success is it is so large and impressive that humans think it is awesome. yet besides this, this sauropod just wanders around town trying to entertain people till it gives it food.
the problem is that the welcome that exists for us here, is a limited welcome.
sure, there are some museums, theme parks, and resorts where our kind can find a home and job, but for every spot such a place might offer there are 5 dinosaurs trying to occupy it! meaning that most of us aren't even as "lucky" as this homeless jobless long neck (as it at least garners attention), and are we are reduced to aimlessly wandering the streets struggling to survive.
i say homeless as there are no proper forests, swamps, or wetlands for us to live in here... human authorities won't let us live in the wild... not that the 65 million year gap in evolution would allow most of us to survive there anyway! the climate, plants, environments, and even continents have all drastically changed since our kind was wiped out...
due to these circumstances, the dinosaurs of drumheller are all furiously competitive with each other!
fights over just attention from tourists can be epic.
like this very typical scrum i watched today. the woman on the left wanted to take a photograph of some vivus-dinosaurs, while a human couple stopped to admire the "cute" smaller dinosaurs gathering around them. however these humans inadvertantely tiggered a confrontation. the two larger dinosaurs (a pachyrhinosaurus and that sauropod... you know i'm not sure what kind of sauropod?) fought for the centre position in the woman's picture, where the tiny dinosaurs all scrambled over harassing the couple for any possible food hand outs...
fun drumheller visitor tip for humans- if you want a none confrontational visit in drum, the first step is NEVER feed the dinosaurs!!!
this competition is just an example of squabbles over "networking" (the hope that tourists will say how much they liked a certain dinosaur around town and thus prompting one of the tourist operators to hire that dinosaur on... it rarely ever happens, but yet they still have to try).
the real struggles those are over survival, and they take place well off the normal visitor's path around town...
all around drumheller's less touristy areas are scenes just like this. places jam packed with vivus refugees trying to stake out their claim against all the rest.it was bad when i lived in town, but since i left things have gotten worse. the pack of the primordial feather went to a great effort to carve out the royal tyrrell as one of its own venues. meaning any dinosaurs who weren't coelurosaurs were all kicked out (as was i funny enough).
resulting in even more displaced dinosaurs. especially hadrosaurs (like the parasaurolophus, corythosaurus, and edmontosaurus you see here).
with all these roaming dinosaurs, space for them to live in and claim is limited, especially if their genus requires large unoccupied territories!
there is a lot of resentment and jealousy among the vivus community.
those who are thought to be more "attractive" (that is attractive to human interst... due to things like horns, crests, or sharp teeth), or those who used to work at the museum (or other tourist attraction), or are of a none cretaceous time period (as the local albertan dinosaurs are all cretaceous) tend to get picked on (or worse!).
i myself have to be very cautious when in these parts of town. as a tyrannosaur i am not only among the most "attractive" (despite the plant eaters repeatedly telling me how ugly and repulsive they think i look! but humans think i'm the coolest... in your face bill mouths!), but i also used to work at the tyrrell (the most sought after gig).
worse still i'm a theropod, and meat eaters aren't tolerated around these plant eater jounts. compounding it i'm a coelurosaur, and despite not having joined larry's pack, makes me very unpopular due to the exploits of my relatives.
it is kind of sad. a real statement to how humans overlooking our plight has lead to some unhappy times for dinosaurs everywhere (at least alive today!).
i'm just glad i have a home back in new zealand (which i picked due to its lack of dinosaurs). if i had to eke out a living here i won't fair too well.
even those who "belong" here find it unbelievable hard...
2.5.09
fossil of the weekend! #24
a cast (chimera) skeleton of dromaesaurus.another hint of something big about to enter the tyrannosaur chronicles...
30.4.09
shouldn't be here (poachers part 2)
i'd made my huge find. an actual lost quarry of francis slate's! yet there wasn't anything saying i couldn't make some more!!!
common sense says we should each only be entitled to one major discovery each, but that's not how it works in real life. usually the big finds get made by the same people over and over again... so why not add me to that list?
as i knew that many of slate's operations centered around coal mines, today i set out for the site of the old newcastle mine.
i did find something after a day of looking, but it certainly wasn't not what i'd been hoping for!
a disturbed and churned section of mudstone shale...
for which there is no good reason. it can only mean someone is trying to essentially steal the fossils their digging up. steal them from scientific and public knowledge, and in the case of alberta the public altogether. alberta has laws protecting fossils, and you are only allowed to dig them with a special permit...
`
which based on yumi's inquiring with the people in charge of alberta digs, neither last week's or this new dig site should exist. no excavations had been authorized in the drumheller region this year at all!
`
yet i'd just this one in less then a week then the last, and both were fresh... in fact this dig probably had only been done in the last couple days! meaning someone was out here in the badlands with me, and they weren't just looking for fossils...
`
who could it be? why won't they be trying to go through official channels? more to the point what are they digging up? this quarry isn't very big...
`
common sense says we should each only be entitled to one major discovery each, but that's not how it works in real life. usually the big finds get made by the same people over and over again... so why not add me to that list?
as i knew that many of slate's operations centered around coal mines, today i set out for the site of the old newcastle mine.
i did find something after a day of looking, but it certainly wasn't not what i'd been hoping for!
a disturbed and churned section of mudstone shale...
i immediately recognized it as a sign of excavation... someone had been digging here, and recently!
which had me a little ticked off, and worried...
`we'd found a similar modern mystery quarry last week! the point of a mystery quarry is that it shouldn't be anywhere near recent or modern, but rather an dig that has been lost due to the passage of time... a mystery quarry from today means that someone wants to keep the dig hidden!
`for which there is no good reason. it can only mean someone is trying to essentially steal the fossils their digging up. steal them from scientific and public knowledge, and in the case of alberta the public altogether. alberta has laws protecting fossils, and you are only allowed to dig them with a special permit...
`
which based on yumi's inquiring with the people in charge of alberta digs, neither last week's or this new dig site should exist. no excavations had been authorized in the drumheller region this year at all!
`
yet i'd just this one in less then a week then the last, and both were fresh... in fact this dig probably had only been done in the last couple days! meaning someone was out here in the badlands with me, and they weren't just looking for fossils...
`
who could it be? why won't they be trying to go through official channels? more to the point what are they digging up? this quarry isn't very big...
`
only the beginning of this misadventure...
28.4.09
25.4.09
fossil of the weekend! #23
a cast skeleton of the dromaeosaurid saurornitholestes.a clue of things coming to the tyrannosaur chronicles soon! wonder what it could be?
23.4.09
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