the month in snapshots

our three youngest watching the incoming storm

dinner by candlelight and a beloved line truck 

snapshots of the storm's approach

half-naked popcorn night in the stifling heat; there's nothing like a
historic heatwave when your AC unit is out!

Chloe painted me an excellent Star Wars canvas for Father's Day:
Chloe's hand is Chewbacca; Maggie's foot is the porg; Naomi's foot is Yoda;
and Zoey's foot is Chewbacca

spending a hot day at Liberty Center while wife has appointments

a few pre-nap snapshots

the year in books [X]

This month I finished two more 'collections' in my 2022 Reading Queue. The first collection is a mixture of science fiction and fantasy. Top contenders for first-rank is James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Falls, the final installment of the nine-book Expanse Series; David Weber's Off Armageddon Reef, the first in his Safehold Series; and George R.R. Martin's space-faring epic Tuf Voyaging. In the second collection, the first-rank spot is claimed by Bernard Cornwell's The Fort and followed swiftly by John Cribb's Old Abe. 

collection A: science fiction and fantasy

collection B: historical fiction

Dino of the Week: Megalosaurus

Type Species: Megalosaurus bucklandii
Classification: Dinosauria - Saurischia - Theropoda - Carnosauria - Megalosauroidea - Megalosauria - Megalosauridae - Megalosaurinae
Time Period: Middle Jurassic
Location: Europe (England)
Diet: Carnivore

The remains of Megalosaurus were first documented in the 17th century, and the bone discovered was described by Robert Plot as the thighbone of a Roman war elephant; it was later attributed to one of the giants of biblical lore. In the 18th century, the first name given to it was Scrotum humanum; in the next century, scientists began realizing they'd stumbled upon something extraordinary. In 1824, realizing that the bones probably belonged to a giant reptile, its name was changed to Megalosaurus, and in 1827 it became Megalosaurus bucklandii. Its name literally means 'Great Lizard.' Sir Richard Owen, who coined the name Dinosauria, included reproductions of Megalosaurus in the Crystal Palace. His depiction of Megalosaurus looks nothing like what modern paleontologists believe it to have looked like. Owen's recreations were founded on the assumption that dinosaurs were nothing more than big lizards, and the recreations muddled discoveries from different dinosaurs into a somewhat-coherent picture:

As dinosaur discoveries have intensified, more remains of Megalosaurus have been discovered, offering a more complete picture of this theropod. Megalosaurus reached up to twenty feet long snout-to-tail, and it weighed around 1500 pounds. It was bipedal, walking on stout hind legs and balanced by a tail held horizontal from the body. Its arms were robust but short. It had a large head filled with curved teeth. While many of the early theropods were lithe and agile, or at least stream-lined, Megalosaurus was robust and heavily-muscled.

This Jurassic theropod was smaller than its Cretaceous descendants, but that didn't make it any less ferocious. For many years, any theropod fossils discovered were deemed as Megalosaurus. Famous dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus, and Dilophosaurus were thrown into the Megalosauridae family, making it the "waste-basket" of theropod dinosaurs. Nowadays, however, paleontologists have distinguished Megalosaurus from its ancestors and descendants, and Megalosaurus stands in a category all its own.

Dino of the Week: Cetiosaurus

Type Species: Cetiosaurus oxoniensis

Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Sauropoda – Gravisauria - Eusauropoda - Cetiosauridae - Cetiosaurinae 

Time Period: Middle Jurassic

Location: Europe (England) 

Diet: Herbivore 

Cetiosaurus was the first sauropod to be named. In 1841 Sir Richard Owen named it the ‘whale lizard’, as the fossils were thought to belong to a marine organism something along the lines of an extremely large crocodile. We now know that Cetiosaurus was a land-dwelling sauropod who lived in a floodplain environment with open woodlands. It was a contemporary of the theropod hunter Megalosaurus, which may have preyed upon Cetiosaurus. This sauropod had a shorter tail and neck than most sauropods, and the forelimbs were roughly the same size as its hind limbs. It could grow to about fifty-two feet long and weighed around eleven tons. Its dorsal vertebrae – the bones along the back – had the original heavy build with limited air chambers, unlike the hollowed-out bones of later sauropods. 

Dino of the Week: Dubreuillosaurus

Type Species: Dubreuillosaurus valesdunensis

Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Theropoda – Carnosauria - Megalosauroidea -  Megalosauria - Megalosauridae - Megalosaurinae

Time Period: Middle Jurassic

Location: Europe (France) 

Diet: Carnivore 

Dubreuillosaurus was a large theropod that prowled the beaches of prehistoric France. The remains of a juvenile have been discovered, and in life this theropod would’ve reached about sixteen feet in length and weighed a quarter ton; however, a full grown adult may have grown up to thirty feet in length. Its remains were found in sedimentary rocks that had been laid down in coastal, mangrove swamps in what is now France. This has led scientists to speculate that it may have been piscivorous (a fish-eater). It may have caught fish in tidal pools or combed the beaches looking for tidally-stranded fish or dead marine reptiles washed ashore. It may have used its oddly long head to stand still in bays, lagoons, or inlets, waiting for fish to come near before darting its jaws under the water. This theory is supported by the fact that it had an unusually low and long skull with a length three times its height; the head shape would give Dubreuillosaurus the ability to plunge its long head into the water to catch swimming fish. Though the arms and hands of this theropod haven’t been discovered, scientists assume it had short, powerful arms with three-fingered hands like its closest relatives. 

Dino of the Week: Lexivosaurus

Type Species: Lexivosaurus durobrivensis

Classification: Dinosauria – Ornithischia – Thyreophora – Stegosauria

Time Period: Middle Jurassic

Location: Europe (England, France)

Diet: Herbivore

Lexivosaurus is the first of the ‘standard-looking’ stegosaurs that would rise to prominence in the Late Jurassic. It’s been found in England and France, though it’s more common in England. The first discoveries were made near Lyons, France, and the fossil remains belonged to three individuals and included isolated bits of bones, plates, and spikes. The three individuals were a range of ages, from juvenile to adult, indicating a family group. Lexivosaurus’ name comes from the Lexovix people, one of the ancient Gallic tribal groups from what is now Lyons, France. 

Lexivosaurus was smaller than later stegosaurs, but it was ‘small’ only in comparison: it reached sixteen and a half feet long and weighed around two tons. It was a low-browsing herbivore that roamed the wooded islands that were scattered throughout the shallow seas of prehistoric Europe. Lexivosaurus has back plates that run from its neck to its tail; these plates are narrow and short rather than broad and angular, and it had several pairs of long spikes on the tail. These were likely defensive weapons used against attacking predators such as Magnosaurus, Poekipleuron, and Megalosaurus. Another defensive weapon was the meter-long shoulder spikes that projected from the upper rear part of the front limbs, below the characteristic twin rows of bony plates along the top of its neck and back. While older reconstructions of Lexivosaurus place the spines on the hips, modern paleontologists tend to put them on the shoulders. These spikes may have been used as visual displays – for courtship, fighting rival mates, or species identification – or they may have been defensive weapons, like the tail spikes. If a predator were attacking from the front, Lexivosaurus could thrust itself forward, driving the spikes into the flesh of its assailant.