jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: Delayed Discourse on Diplodocine Discontinuation
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2015/03/delayed-discource-on-diplodocine.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. Delayed Discourse on Diplodocine Discontinuation. The Natural History Museum. It's been another cold, dark winter both literally and, as far as this blog is concerned, figuratively. I've just returned to Iowa following Cornell's Spring Break and as the snow is melting, the flowers are sprouting, and the weather is warming, I thought it was high time to wake the Mammoth Prairie from its hibernation. And architect Alfred Waterhouse. Wide Wor...
jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: Fossil (Gondwanan) Vertebrate(s) of the Month: Palorchestes & Diprotodon
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2014/07/fossil-gondwanan-vertebrates-of-month.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. Fossil (Gondwanan) Vertebrate(s) of the Month: Palorchestes. Giant Kangaroos and Wombats' by Charles R. Knight. Field Museum of Natural History. When the great paleoartist Charles R. Knight. Painted the mural at left in the 1920s, he thought he was depicting two unrelated marsupials from the Pleistocene of Australia. They were among the first fossils ever to be described from Australia - by no less a luminary than Sir Richard Owen. 1873, i...
jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: How to Make a Good Nature Documentary
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-make-good-nature-documentary.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. How to Make a Good Nature Documentary. Today, the Discovery Channel has been airing the BBC series. I had heard about the series before, but I'd been skeptical: it couldn't really be as good as everyone claimed it was, could it? Turns out that yes, it is. Here's why:. On the other hand, doesn't skimp on the carnage, whether it's a chimp cannibalizing an infant from another troop or a parasitic fungus erupting out of the head of an ant (in ...
jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: An Exhibit for the Ages: 100 Years of the Laysan Cyclorama
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-exhibit-for-ages-100-years-of-laysan.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. An Exhibit for the Ages: 100 Years of the Laysan Cyclorama. Courtesy International Panorama Council. Exactly 100 year sago, on June 15th, 1914, the University of Iowa opened a new exhibit: a cyclorama. Of the wildlife of Laysan. An atoll at the tail end of the Hawaiian Islands and, at that time, a major seabird rookery. Many other displays have come and gone at the UI Museum of Natural History. Have replaced the Laysan albatrosses. To Lays...
jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: Fossil Vertebrate of the Month: Diplodocus carnegii
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2010/11/fossil-vertebrate-of-month-diplodocus.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. Fossil Vertebrate of the Month: Diplodocus carnegii. Last month's Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Meeting was held in Pittsburgh and while animal chosen for the conference logo was the awkwardly-named tetrapod Fedexia. There is another animal that will forever be associated with vertebrate paleontology in that city's Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Was alerted to the publicity value of sauropod. As gifts to museums in capitals acro...
jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: Fossil Vertebrate of the Month - Terror Bird
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2011/10/fossil-vertebrate-of-month-terror-bird.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. Fossil Vertebrate of the Month - Terror Bird. This is the largest group of organisms I've ever featured as a FVOTM, but given that we're coming up on Halloween, it seemed appropriate to spotlight a family whose common name is based on how terrifying they were. Terror birds (or, more correctly, phorusrhacids), represented by the LA County Museum's. In the picture at left, were a group of giant. Flightless birds related to living seriemas.
jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: Heinrich Harder & the Art of the Prehistoric Landscape
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2008/02/heinrich-harder-art-of-prehistoric.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. Heinrich Harder and the Art of the Prehistoric Landscape. Though more exotic landscapes were well within his abilities as well; I particularly like his Hyaenodon. In an Everglades-like swamp. I am sure this all seems very arcane and possibly uninteresting to most of my audience (such as it is), but I confess I have always had a soft spot for prehistoric landscapes. It was, in fact, the gloomy, expansive landscapes of Czech paleoartist.
jdorcutt.blogspot.com
Kumtuks Tahlkie: I'm back and you're all brilliant!
http://jdorcutt.blogspot.com/2008/06/im-back-and-youre-all-brilliant.html
Studying the past and defining the future in the Great Northwest. I'm back and you're all brilliant! I have no idea what precisely this means; if you click on the banner above, it will take you to a website that tells you the reading level of your blog. This 'genius' rating means either that the language I use here is far too stilted or that my audience, small though it may be, is the intellectual cream of the crop. I choose to believe the latter. John D. Orcutt. 13 June, 2008 09:35. John D. Orcutt.
ammonoidea.blogspot.com
Ammonoidea: April 2012
http://ammonoidea.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html
Wednesday, April 4, 2012. Along the lines of reverting to aquatic dinosaurs as has been seen in the geoblogosphere. Of late, I give you Duria Antiquior (above), and it's lithographic byproduct (below). Floating on the surface of the water are ammonites with wings (or sails as conjectured some). Clearly showing that ammonites could fly. A lot of science has been done since the art above was first seen. Back then about the only creature known to compare the ammonites to was the Argonaut. Links to this post.
ammonoidea.blogspot.com
Ammonoidea: Basal Triassic Conglomerate
http://ammonoidea.blogspot.com/2015/05/basal-triassic-conglomerate.html
Sunday, May 17, 2015. The Permian-Triassic boundary in central and southern Utah is marked with Conglomerates. Some are probably Permian, those deep in paleo channels, and some are earliest Triassic, those mixed in with the sand and silt at the base of the Black Dragon Formation red beds. In the East, there is a nice outcrop in Black Dragon Canyon coming off the San Rafael Swell. Close-up of conglomerate in Black Dragon Canyon. Close-up of conglomerate at the Minersville section. Down in southern Utah, t...
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