Meeting the Urvogel

Greetings from Deutschland! I've returned from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meeting in Berlin. Here's a couple of snapshots from the Museum fur Naturkunde, where the welcome reception was held last week. Giraffatitan (nee Brachiosaurus) brancai supervised the shenanigans in the main entrance hall.

The dinosaur gallery is dominated by animals from the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania, which was pretty neat. Most of us in North America are pretty familiar with the animals from the Morrison Formation, so it was neat to see some of their African doppelgangers, like Dysalotosaurus (American counterpart: Dryosaurus).

Elaphrosaurus, a ceratosaurian, was a new theropod for me.

And here's Kentrosaurus (American counterpart: Stegosaurus), with some excellent parascapular osteoderms. 

SVP is probably the only place where Archaeopteryx would have a lineup akin to someone meeting a rock star, but it IS a rock star in the palaeontological world.

It was pretty special to be able to see this famous fossil in the fossilized flesh. Archaeopteryx is sometimes called the Urvogel, or 'original bird' in German, and even though many new discoveries show that Archaeopteryx is not the only feathered dinosaur out there, it will always have an important place in the history of evolutionary study. 

Elsewhere in the museum, there were many fun treasures to be found, like this hippo skeleton.

The wet collections were spectacular and overwhelming.

Hey look, a Wall of Stuff! I love Walls of Stuff!

Walls of Stuff often reward close inspection. I learned about a new kind of large amphibian, the amphiuma! (The amphiuma's the one with the highly reduced legs; I've now forgotten what the other big salamander was!)

I was excited to see a quagga in the biodiversity gallery!

And a thylacine!!

This comparison of aquatically-adapted skeletons was a great way to show homologies and convergences in skeletons. One half of the body was a fleshed-out model, and the other was a skeleton (all were scaled to about the same length). In this photo you can see a sea turtle, seal or sea lion, dolphin, fish, and ichthyosaur, and there was also a penguin, hesperornithid, and plesiosaur in the case as well. 

That's all for Berlin for now, and I'm hoping to share some more information about Mongolian ankylsoaurs and some other exciting news in the next week or so! Until next time!

Greetings from Pittsburgh!

The trematopid amphibian Fedexia, the mascot for this year’s Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting, greeted us at the welcome reception at the Carnegie.

The Carnegie recently renovated their dinosaur hall, now called “Dinosaurs in Their Time”. It features exhibits of Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous terrestrial faunas, and a small marine exhibit. My favourite was the Jurassic Hall featuring both an Apatosaurus (in the back) and Diplodocus (in the front) having a staring contest. The Jurassic Hall also has a Stegosaurus, Allosaurus, Camptosaurus, and some great small specimens like the little crocodilian Hoplosuchus and the skull of the enigmatic theropod Marshosaurus.



The Cretaceous Hall was also quite impressive, with not one but TWO Tyrannosaurus squabbling over a poor dead hadrosaur. There were also exhibits on early mammals and feathered dinosaurs.

The Welcome Reception is always one of the highlights of the SVP meeting, and I think everyone had a great time. I'll post up some pictures of the Auction and After-Party later this week.

SVP Pseudo-Live Blogging

SVP talk accomplished! Now I can relax!

I will hopefully post some photos of the excellent welcome reception at the Carnegie Museum later this week once I have some time and sanity.

Also, I am now the proud owner of a patriotic Uncle Sam Stegosaurus. Thank you, Carnegie Museum.

Also also, why weren't there any ankylosaurs in the Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibit? *sad*

More fun at the lab.

We’ve had a couple of really nice sunny days in Hwaseong, the first properly sunny days since I arrived in Korea. So, you get some nice outside pictures today!

Construction on a boardwalk out to the egg site is moving along very quickly, and I suspect the boardwalk will be finished later this week or next. The boardwalk will provide a nice dry and non-muddy surface to walk on, and will also protect the surrounding marsh.

As an interesting aside, just beyond the egg site islands is a small creek, and beyond that is the boundary for a Universal Studios theme park that should be completed around 2014. This whole area will probably be completely unrecognizable in a few years, with the addition of the theme park, natural history museum, and other amenities going up.



Just off the patio at the visitor centre is this really cute giant dinosaur egg sitting area. Watched over by Charcharodontosaurus? Robin for scale.




The beginning of the road leading to the museum is marked by these charming fellows, a possible stegosaur and sauropod. Part of the words written on them are Kong Lyong or Kong Ryong, which means dinosaur, but we have not figured out the rest yet.

A handsome fellow indeed!