More Eggs, An Owl Dinosaur and #SquadGoals

This week has been awesome. Since starting this awesome adventure of helping out with a dinosaur related non-profit organization, I've stumbled on some really kick ass dinosaur art and a neat dinosaur article.

I'll start with the article, which I found at Science Daily, about the study to find out how long it took dinosaur eggs to hatch.
According to the research done, they examined jaws of fossilized dinosaur embryos to look at the "growth lines" in their bones. Growth lines are formed in the bones of animals during their lives and are sort of like lines in a tree. You can count the rings to determine how old an animal is by the growth lines in their bones. From these lines, research has shown that it took 3-6 months for the sample species to hatch, which is an insane amount of time in the animal world. Can you imagine having to guard a clutch of eggs that long?

To give you perspective, I did a brief Google search on how long it takes a couple different reptile and bird species to hatch their eggs:

Crocodiles: 80 days
Snakes: 45-60 days (depending on the species it seems)
Turtles: 70 days
Crows: 18 days
Finches: 12-14 days
Eagles: 35 days

Looks like on a reptile scale, 3 months is about average, but anything longer than that seems crazy. I looked into what's known about dinosaur egg incubation, since I remember there being an article about egg pores being studied last year.
I ran across this on Earth Sky, which talks about how certain species of sauropods and earlier therapods probably buried their eggs like crocodiles, while later raptor species of therapods probably left their nests open like birds.
Which makes sense.
The dinosaur embryos in the Science Daily study was that of Protoceratops and Hypacrosaurus, a ceratopcian and a hadrosaur respectively.

• Favorite Paleo-Art of the week:

Cryolophosaurus from prepetualartistblock 

Probably not what this handsome devil looked like, but holy crap I still love it. Cause he's an owl dinosaur. :3


Badass dinosaur art that's now my phone background by lioninthetrees

Citipati covering her nest by Julio Lacerda

This is especially cool because the holotype fossils for this dinosaur was found covering its eggs during death. It's pressumed that she was guarding her eggs when she and her babies died. She's been dubbed "big mama" because of this.
Sad story, but great picture.

Sleepy Alioramus by prepetualartistblock 

I really love the color scheme of this dude, plus he's adorable sleeping in the shade. Look at his little arms. SO CUTE.

Chris Pratt with accurate raptors by Lexicon Megatherium.

#SquadGoals

Toys, comics and dinosaur stuff

But first, lets talk about feathers

I wish all dinosaurs had feathers...
This is just too glorious.

     I love feathers on my dinosaurs. Not only because it makes them look fabulous, but it's also scientifically accurate and that needs to be more widely embraced.

     Alright, side-stepping the original reason why I started this post, which is to talk about awesome raptor toys and a trex comic that looks amazing, lets talk about feathers on dinosaurs. What's the deal? Why all of a sudden to raptors actually look like "a 6 foot turkey"?

     HERE'S SOME PALEONTOLOGY, MY FRIENDS.

     Let's start with the raptors, since that's a lot of people's favorite dinosaur, with good reason. They're fast, sleek, smart, and have sick as hell hook claws on their feet. They're like the deadly ninjas of the dinosaur kingdom, and who the hell doesn't like ninjas?

     Pirates, I guess.

     Anyway, one of the best evidence we have for certain dinosaurs, namely theropod dinosaurs, having feathers is this amazing fossil of Microraptor. The feather imprints are so perfect and clear, down to the tiny little fluffy feathers on it's face! How amazing is that? The fossilization of some feathers has been so fantastic, that a team from Yale discovered fossilized Melanosomes in the feathers which basically is what determines the pigment of the feathers. WHAAT.

Art by Jonathan Kuo

     So far they have been able to lock down darker colors, like browns and blacks, and the unique one for red. It's a growing theory that the feathered raptors were probably vibrant like that of modern birds, which just makes me very happy.

     As far as Tyrannosaurs go, let me introduce you to Yutryannus huali, an amazing feathered tyrannosaurus with an amazing fossil with feather imprints. I don't think it's widely accepted that they had long, luscious feathers like raptors did, but more fluffy, downy feathers. It's because of this find that the iconic T .rex is now suspected to have had feathers as well.

     Since feathers are evident in the fossil record with theropod dinosaurs, there's been some speculation that dinosaurs probably used them in the same ways as modern birds, or at least similar. Most likely these feathers were used for insulation, protection from the sun and probably mating and defense.
     Think about it. If you were a strapping tyrannosaur and needed to entice the ladies, don't you think a bright, vibrant coat of amazing, shiny feathers would show off how healthy and handsome you were? On the same note, if you came up to another fellow buck who needed to be put in his place, you could roar and fluff up to look bigger and scarier.

     Yeah, that sent the mouth breather running, huh?

     Now on to my original crap I wanted to post about....toys and comics!!

• What the post is actually about

     HOLD ON A DAMN SECOND
     Ok, before I get into the comic and toyline, I just did a search for "Feathered Raptors" to add more pictures into the blog post when I found this:

     Yeah, it's a fucking fully movable, feathered raptor mask. OH MY GOD. I can't find how to buy, but if it's anything like the other amazing masks I've seen like this on Etsy, it's probably like $600.
     BUT LOOK AT IT. HOLY SHIT.

     Ahem....anyway....

     Touching back on the topic of brightly colored raptors, the Beasts of the Mesozoic line from Creative Beast Studios is all about embracing the multicolored feather spectrum of their raptors. In a recent Facebook post, one of the lead designers talked about how they pulled inspiriting for the raptor's many different pallets from birds living today. I'll post that picture they put up, because it's amazing:

     Creative Beast Studios had an awesomely successful kickstarter back in May, and they were able to get fully funded! They're posable and painfully scientifically accurate, which makes me warm and tingly inside. These badboys are about $35-40 a piece, and are available for pre-order.
     I seriously don't know which one I like the best. They're all freaking amazing. I think they go up for grabs in...November? Someone give Alex a hint for me, please. XD

     Next up is a cool comic I found on the Twitter machine by Rextooth Studios. You can read the first part of the comic online at their site, and it looks like the first comic is available to get online for $16.95. The art is very good, but a little cartoony in it's style. The trex has feathers, which is awesome, and I love how Cobalt's eyes shine in the darkness when he hunts at night. While really cool, I'm not a huge fan of the style. I'm not really big into the aesthetics of American style comics, so I'm not jumping to get this one as much as I was Age of Reptiles.
     Still looks cool for any dinosaur fan. Not sure how bloody it gets, so maybe not for kids?

     I think I'm going to go crawl back into bed since I feel like crap today. Until then!

      - M