Boneyard Carnival #10!

Welcome to the 10th edition of the Boneyard Carnival, a blog carnival to satisfy all of your paleo needs! It's been an exciting few weeks for the world of paleontology and especially for paleo-bloggers!

The big news this past week centered around sauropods and rightly so, as they are certainly some of the most intriguing creatures to ever have walked this planet. Not one or two, but three sauropods graced the media last week!

First, we had the exciting discovery of an amazingly complete Barosaurus skeleton, scattered about in The Royal Ontario Museum. You can read more about the discovery by David Evans in Brian's post, "Bully for Barosaurus" over at Laelaps.

Second was Paul Sereno's fascinating Nigersaurus taqueti, a small sauropod with an unusual mouth and incredibly light skull. You can read more about this strange dinosaur in "Nigersaurus: just when you thought you'd seen everything..." by Anne-Marie at Pondering Pikaia. Also, Brian has a wonderful post, "Nigersaurus Taqueti!," at Laelaps that uses Nigersaurus as a vehicle to explore the history of sauropods in popular culture, their reconstruction and their anatomy.

Photo from SV-POW!

And of course, we can't forget Mike Taylor's baby, Xenoposeidon proneneukus! It's strange, it's awesome and it's based on a single vertebra! You can find posts about Xeno at the following:

• "Hail Xenoposeidon!" by Matt Wedel at Ask Dr. Vector. A VERY funny post about Xeno with some great photos of Mike and Darren and a whole lot of sauropod love.
• "Forward-Sloping Alein Earthquake God" by Julia Heathcote-Anderson at The Ethical Palaeontologist. Julia gives a great summary of Xenoposeidon's weirdness and then moves on to rip on Glen Dixon and the rest of the world for their ignorance and lack of scientific literacy. It's well worth a read and will really get your blood flowing! Go Julia!

If you want the detailed dirt on Xeno, you should head over to Tetrapod Zoology where Darren, co-author on the Xeno paper, has written the aptly-named "The World's Most Amazing Sauropod" post. And for even more on Xenoposeidon, you can always go to the famous SV-POW, where Mike Taylor, Darren and Matt take on the difficult job of explaining the ins and outs of sauropod vertebrae. Posts include the following:

• Xenoposeidon week, day 1: Introducing Xeno
• Xenoposeidon week, day 1-and-a-half: the media
• Xenoposeidon week, day 2: imagining the whole thing
• Xenoposeidon week, day 3: the basic beast inside
• Xenoposeidon week, day 4: the question everyone is asking … how big was it?
• Xenoposeidon week, day 5: the quest for glory
• Xenoposeidon week, day 6: so what is a “family” anyway?
• Xenoposeidon week, day 7: school’s out

Of course, not all things paleo are things sauropod! There's a great post about "The Camel that Walked on Two Legs" at Christopher's Catalogue of Organisms.

In the paleoart corner, Manubu and Zach are shaking things up with some great original illustrations. Head over to Manubu’s Raptor’s Nest to see Albertaceratops nesmoi. Zach (When Pigs Fly Returns) has posted some great drawings of strange sauropods and descriptions of them. There’re three in all, so again, a bulleted list:

• “Stegosauropod?” featuring Brachytrachelopan!
• “The Littlest Sauropod” featuring Europasaurus holgeri!
• “Lawnmowers of the Early Cretaceous” featuring Nigersaurus Taqueti!

Hmmmm. Somehow we've arrived at sauropods again! Moving away, there’s been a great surge in Creationism mockery! You can check out some hilarious photos in this thread, where contestants in John Scalzi’s LOL Creashun Contest have posted their entries. Also, you can head over to John Hawks Weblog to read “Judgment on Judgment Day” a critique of the Nova documentary, “Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial.”

On the subject of evolution, some important news regarding the evolution of animals on islands has come out. Archaeozoology has a great post, “Island Rule Refuted” that discusses the recent study.

photo from http://www.msnbc.msn.com

And if you’re in the mood for some mammal-related palaeontology, mosey on over to Vertebrate Paleontology Blog where Benjamin has posted “On the Origin of Bats.” It’s a list of facts for those who might be interested in studying the ancestry of bats and a sub-list of possible ancestors.

And now on to the social stuff!

National Geographic has an interesting article by John Updike in the most recent issue. Brian takes a good look at the article and also takes some offense to the word “losers.” Read more in “Gah, not the “Buffalo-Backs” again!” at Laelaps. And while you’re there, also check out his post, “PBS’ March of Progress” and explore the common appearance of the March of Progress, from F. Clark Howell’s Early Man, and its effect on our view of evolution.

In the spirit of strange creatures, Matt, Museum Instigator at HMNH Hairy Museum of Natural History, has written “Extreme, Bizarre, Goofy, and Strange: A Brief Review of Offbeat Prehistory in Popular Culture.” I’d summarize it, but the title says it all. It’s fantastic.

photo from http://www.maisonsijilmassa.com/

And last, but not least, Neil sends us off with some words of wisdom about the overlooked abundance of fossils all around us. Take a trip to Microecos to read “Tu es Petrus,” and then keep your eyes open wide!

That about wraps up this edition of The Boneyard. I hope you enjoyed your stay and I hope that you’ll come again! Stay tuned to Laelaps for more information about the next edition!