tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post6893408242032306241..comments2023-11-18T15:42:20.251-05:00Comments on DinoGoss: The Ashdown ManiraptoranMatt Martyniukhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04220900229537564466noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-40656903109760249352011-06-25T10:19:38.821-04:002011-06-25T10:19:38.821-04:00@Dave Go for it! Would be cool to see the finished...@Dave Go for it! Would be cool to see the finished product :)Matt Martyniukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220900229537564466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-77962037340380280202011-06-25T09:28:01.337-04:002011-06-25T09:28:01.337-04:00Hi Matt
Would you mind if i used your picture of t...Hi Matt<br />Would you mind if i used your picture of the maniraptor i was thinking of using it on a shirt.<br />DaveDave Brockhurstnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-10472967914304637552011-06-08T19:26:44.828-04:002011-06-08T19:26:44.828-04:00@Darren & Mickey,
Definitely agree, it would b...@Darren & Mickey,<br />Definitely agree, it would be tough, though in some cases the shape of the skull (or snout, at least) may help. Especially if you're dealing with a well-sampled ecosystem, like the lower Yixian for example, you might be reasonably certain that you're looking at say, a Beipiaosaurus, unless there are undiscovered but closely related species hanging around. But Graciliraptor vs. Sinornithosaurus, or even Caudipteryx vs. Protarchaeopteryx (let alone differentiating to the species level), would definitely be difficult without boiling a specimen or two down to bone :)<br /><br />That's why when doing reconstructions I try to develop some kind of 'theme' throughout each group (based on specimens with integument and color patterns if possible) and basically tackle it as though I were doing a family for the Spec. Dinosaur Project. It's tough to reconcile but doing realistic paleoart, IMO, means obscuring most of your research. If your audience can tell what species you painted without label or context, you're doing it wrong I'm afraid. (Minus those with prominent crests or other doodads of course).Matt Martyniukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220900229537564466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-87881207265208150402011-06-08T11:43:07.254-04:002011-06-08T11:43:07.254-04:00I totally agree with Mickey. The features we regar...I totally agree with Mickey. The features we regard as 'familiar' are (virtually) all skeletal, and they just wouldn't be obvious at all (bar the general form of cranial crests and osteoderms and whatnot) in live animals. I think we'd often be able to get a taxon to 'family', but other than that we'd have to start from scratch. It what makes that scene in Jurassic Park so annoying - as if little Timmy can look at an ornithomimid from a distance and know that it's <em>Gallimimus</em> (yeah, I know <em>Gallimimus</em> is big, but the ones in the film weren't _that_ big compared to other ornithomimid taxa). Of course, this is all part of the 'say no to shrink-wrapped dinosaurs' movement.Darren Naishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00324870234525004643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-75579107103756273652011-06-01T03:38:19.159-04:002011-06-01T03:38:19.159-04:00What this picture got me to think is that if we tr...What this picture got me to think is that if we traveled to the Mesozoic, I doubt we'd be able to identify most coelurosaurs in the wild.<br /><br />If you saw a Saurornitholestes, would you be able to tell it isn't a Troodon? The latter is ~40% bigger, but the individual could be young, and people often have a hard time judging animal size. The snout on both would look shorter if the heads were feathered and could be hidden by feathers if similar to NGMC 91. You might be able to tell Troodon has smaller teeth, but it's not like you're going to get a view of that often, and the difference isn't huge. The neck and lower legs are longer in Troodon, arms and tail longer in Saurornitholestes, but could you tell under feathers and compared to a feathered body? The foot is more slender in Troodon, but would the 60% difference in width be obvious in life? The sickle claw of Saurornitholestes is larger, but both would look larger due to the keratin covering. Proportional differences are also hard to judge when you don't have the other taxon there for comparison. The best way I can think to distinguish them would be to see if the snout tip is pointed or rounded in dorsal view, but that's pretty sad for such disparate taxa. When it comes to taxa within the same family, I think we'd be completely screwed.Mickey Mortimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08831823442911513851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-76265813547700820112011-05-27T17:57:59.544-04:002011-05-27T17:57:59.544-04:00@Brad: Yeah, it's a posture thing. I actually ...@Brad: Yeah, it's a posture thing. I actually used that skeletal directly for this recon (Darren alerted me to his TetZoo post on Twitter as I was beginning to work on this, in time to take it into account), but the neck in the skeletal is completely outstretched which doesn't seem like a very natural position for just sitting there. The neck wouldn't be able to curve as much as modern birds, probably, but we don't know for sure because this will vary due to extent cartilage etc. Either way, any amount of long neck feathers will hide the true extent of the neck pretty well. The neck feathers here are made longer than in caudipterids mainly due to the much smaller size. I did make the skull larger than the skeletal which seemed more naturalistic for a very small taxon than a scaled-down caudipterid.Matt Martyniukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220900229537564466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-11734430371764267002011-05-27T16:08:56.537-04:002011-05-27T16:08:56.537-04:00Your reconstruction looks shorter-necked than the ...Your reconstruction looks shorter-necked than the silhouette reconstruction on Tetrapod Zoology, which is kind of funny considering the only known element. Is this simply a postural difference? Could a non-avialan maniraptor curl its neck as tightly as a modern bird?Bradhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15613329277334129312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-91214136303124606512011-05-26T15:42:50.087-04:002011-05-26T15:42:50.087-04:00@Anonymous In general, it seems that most basal ma...@Anonymous In general, it seems that most basal maniraptorans could not fold their wings to the same extent as modern birds. This is a bit odd considering that they did have large wings, and obviously need to keep their long feathers from dragging on the ground. Sullivan et al. showed that in a 'normal' bird-like (or other theropod-like) posture Microraptor's wings would have collided squarely with the ground, because it could not fold its wrist enough to keep them up and back (the wrist could bend backward at an angle of about 60 degrees relative to the ulna). He suggested that they may have solved this by *not* folding at the *elbow* and sweeping back the entire arm. Diagrams are provided here: http://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/why-microraptor-should-never-be-drawn-the-same-way-again/<br /><br />The exception to this seems to have been oviraptorosaurs. In Caudipteryx, which is a fairly basal member of that group, the wrist could be folded back 76 degrees (more than the modern turkey). Given the supposed oviraptorosaur affinities of this new specimen, I gave it tightly folding wings as well.<br /><br />Relevant paper:<br />http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1690/2027.abstractMatt Martyniukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220900229537564466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-51584728126775108302011-05-26T15:13:46.766-04:002011-05-26T15:13:46.766-04:00What do we know about non-avian dinosaurs and wing...What do we know about non-avian dinosaurs and wing folding? This is the first time I've seen a non-avian dinosaur reconstructed as folding its wings the same way a modern bird does and I'm curious to learn more.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140938929136406282.post-7403282735826584252011-05-25T21:19:24.389-04:002011-05-25T21:19:24.389-04:00This is win. Goes to show that we can still make a...This is win. Goes to show that we can still make a reasonable (albeit highly speculative) reconstruction from scrappy remains.Albertonykushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00345306530772709064noreply@blogger.com