Caitlín R. Kiernan

Sorry there's no real entry today. I'll play catch-up tomorrow morning.

I was thinking, though...how many dinosaur taxa were named the year that I was born? Yeah, these are the sorts of things that nag at me. Anyway, turns out, four non-avian dinosaur taxa were named in 1964: Chilantaisaurus, Eustreptospondylus, Fabrosaurus, and Metriacanthosaurus. At this point, though, only three of the taxa appear to be valid, as Fabrosaurus is a nomen dubium. So, I thought, well, which would I choose as my "birth dinosaur," from these three taxa? All are Old World theropods. All are fairly obscure taxa. I've finally settled on Metriacanthosaurus. Originally described as Megalosaurus parkeri in 1923, the holotype was referred to a new genus in 1964. It was collected from the Jurassic-aged Oxford Clay Formation of England. It is presently considered to belong within to the Family Sinraptoridae, within the Superfamily Allosauroidea:




References:

F. V. Huene. 1923. "Carnivorous Saurischia in Europe since the Triassic." Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 34:449-458.

A. D. Walker. 1964. "Triassic reptiles from the Elgin area: Ornithosuchus and the origin of carnosaurs." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences 248:53-134.

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And, while I'm in a paleo' sort of mood, here's a marvelous thing: Puijila darwini, a semi-aquatic cousin of living seals, sea lions, and walruses. The fossil skeleton was recovered from Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, from Miocene-aged sediments.

A very groggy sort of morning, though I did manage to get to bed not long after two ayem.

Yesterday, I wrote 1,218 words on the untitled prologue for Joey Lafaye, and it seems to be going well. Spooky likes it. Right now, her opinion is all I have to go on, that and my own instincts. The prologue actually happens shortly after Chapter One, and I'm trying to figure out how to make that clearer. I also made more beanie platypi (I'm calling them beanie, because "ricey" just sounds dumb). So, yes, lots of work yesterday, and working almost always helps. The auctions will begin sometime today.

I also finished reading Jim Ottaviani and Big Time Attic's Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh and the Gilded Age of Paleontology (G.T. Labs, 2005). Quite nice, all in all. I have a long-standing fascination with the "bone war" that waged between Cope and Marsh, and like me, Ottaviani's somewhat fictionalized account comes down more firmly on the side of Cope. I think it's truly very difficult to tell the story of that rivalry and not cast Cope as the "hero" and Marsh as "villian." This is, of course, something of an oversimplification, but there's only so much anyone can do in a 150 pp. graphic novel. Using Charles R. Knight as the tale's fulcrum was an interesting approach. Plus, supporting roles and cameos by the likes of P.T. Barnum, Buffalo Bill Cody, Alexander Graham Bell, and Ulysses S. Grant. It makes a nice introduction to an odd and shameful chapter of American paleontology. I was especially pleased with a bit near the end, where Marsh, at his home in New Haven, is entertaining Chief Red Cloud, and the Sioux leader makes the point that such stories as myths and history are about men, not science.

Not much else really. We had a good walk yesterday. I'm feeling less stiff, but tire far too easily. The weather here continues to be more like May than December. There were a few clouds yesterday, and the sky spat drizzle for about five minutes. I cannot imagine anything, at this point, that's going to save Atlanta from a disastrous water shortage. Spooky made a pot of chili. I spent too much time in Second Life. That sort of an evening (and my thanks to blu_muse for filling Void full of lead, then taking her to the hospital).

I wanted to write something else this morning, something about how much easier it is for Americans to sympathize with the plight of American screenwriters (because, well, you know, movies make money), as compared to the plight of working American novelists, and how this relates to my generally unfortunate experiences the last two years writing the Beowulf novelization. As in, you think screenwriters have it bad, you ought to hear how the other half lives (but yes, I do fully support the current WGA strike). But I need coffee, and I'm just not up to it right now. Maybe later, like tomorrow. Or next week.

Just an assortment of cool stuff I wanted to mention before I crawl away to bed. First, the discovery of what is apparently a new species (and perhaps genus) of sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of the Little Snowy Mountains of Montana, a hundred miles north of Billings, brought to my attention by sclerotic_rings. Just about any vertebrate palaeontologist can tell you how very rare sauropod skulls are, and during the excavation of this specimen, a gorgeous skull was uncovered at the end of an articulated series of cervical vertebrae. Here's a photo, with the specimen still partly encased in its plaster field jacket. To me, it looks like a new member of the Camarasauridae:



Right side of skull.


Second, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is now on its final approach. Read more here, and catch the Science Channel's special on the mission, Mars Revealed, tomorrow night at 9 p.m. (EST).

And finally, and also courtesy sclerotic_rings, news that the Cassini orbiter has revealed that Saturn's moon Enceladus is still tectonically active, its south polar landscape marked by evidence of cryovulcanism and fresh snowfall. Just don't tell the Republicans about any of this...