Notes from the drawing table

Reconstruction notes

Check the expiration date on that skeletal drawing?

It's been a couple of weeks since the launch, and while feedback has been good there's also been a feature request - returning the year of the most recent update to the skeletals. Let's take a look at the issue, and how I've gone about implementing it...

Welcome to Skeletal Drawing 4.0!

Welcome to the completely overhauled SkeletalDrawing.com. For the last month and a half I've been working on a ground-up overhaul of the website. I'd like to explain a bit of what's changed and why, how it benefits you, the visitor, and what to expect in the future...

An unexpected synapsid

This wasn’t the pelycosaur you were searching for? I know after my prior post many of you are looking forward to Edaphosaurus, and it’s coming, I swear! But first I had cause to tackle Sphenacodon, so I figured why not push it out to the world first...

You're doing it wrong

I did it wrong: Dimetrodon had a longer neck

A bunch of years ago I carefully planned out how to do more short-form content for this blog, and one of those ideas was for a series of You’re Doing it Wrong… posts highlighting common errors in documentaries, art and museum mounts. But sometimes I'm the one doing it wrong!

Just a quick update

Hello world!I will be resuscitating the Skeletal Drawing blog again in the coming days (and hopefully weeks and months). Part of that will be trying to post short-form content more often, like small anatomical details that get overlooked…

Road to Spinosaurus IV: Not your father's JP3-osaurus

Without further ado, here is my updated Spinosaurus skeletal. It does not look much like the popularized Spinosaurus from Jurassic Park 3, nor does it much resemble my prior version from 2012. While I am not following the proportions of FSA

The road to Spinosaurus III: Of chimeras and leg proportions

In order to produce an updated skeletal reconstruction of Spinosaurus you have to be able to settle on its proportions. I have previously mentioned that FSAC-KK 11888 is the proverbial elephant in the room when it comes to this challenge, a

The road to Spinosaurus II: Known unknowns

When trying to restore the proportions of Spinosaurus, the elephant in the room is obviously FSAC-KK 11888, the proposed neotype specimen. When described in 2014 it was purported to resolve most of the mysteries in understanding the proport

The road to Spinosaurus I: Megalosaur skulls

A few years back I wrote a couple of essays about Spinosaurus, on what could be said about the proportions and habitat of Spinosaurus. Ultimately I decided I would have to work from the ground up to create a new skeletal. Today I want to st

Dinosaurs didn't twerk, err....Part 2?

No, you didn’t miss Part 1 of this series. Nor did you miss a follow-up to The Lip Post (it’s coming eventually!). Going back to the end of 2018 I had intended to do a two-part post about tails, limb-retractor muscle function, and posture.

Hesperornithoides: Frequently Asked Questions

I’ve seen many questions raised about our recent publication of the Lori specimen, so here are some responses to the most common queries:What is this about?It is my pleasure to introduce Hesperornithoides miessleri, a small paravian theropo

Introducing Hesperornithoides miessleri

It’s been a long time coming, but on behalf of my coauthors it is my pleasure to introduce the world to a new dinosaur, Hesperornithoides miessleri…

The lip post

Well here we go. If you follow me on social media you’ve seen this teased, but I’m putting lips on all my non-beaked non-avian theropod skeletal reconstructions. So much for burying the lede, eh? Ah, but some of you may be wondering why I t

Permia sponsorship, removal of ads, and other goodies

This isn’t my upcoming theropod lip post(s), but it is good news for those of you who have asked for more content on the Skeletal Drawing Blog. It’s also good news for general usability of the website, and I’m taking a stand against ads tha

The lines that divide us

No, this isn’t about the ethics of skeletal reconstructions. Instead it’s a look at the hazards of drawing lines in scientific illustration, and something of a justification for the silhouette-bound skeletal drawing. There are some snippets

The hadrosaur repose of 2018

Long-time dinosaur skeletal fans may recall that I undertook a long-term project of reposing all of my skeletals back in 2011. That year I managed to update all of my bipedal skeletals (theropods, “prosauropods” and some of the runtier orni

Return of the Rockette 'rex

I realize that talking about Tyrannosaurus rex needs no further justification for most people (and what the heck is wrong with the rest of you, anyways?), but I just so happen to have such justification…

At long last... Utahraptor

As some of you know, since summer of 2012 I have been sitting on an updated Utahraptor skeletal reconstruction I couldn't share. Since then the question I have probably been asked more than any other was "when I would be able to share the n

Anchiornis: Putting skin on the bones...with science!

For paleoartists (and the scientists who work with them), properly restoring the skeleton is merely the beginning of the process, since the various muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues can make the final shape of an animal quite differe

Taking a 21st century look at Dimetrodon

Today I have something I’m excited to share with you: my skeletal reconstruction of Dimetrodon grandis. It looks quite a bit different from existing skeletal reconstructions, so I’m also going to take a more in-depth look at the underlying

You should be reading The Tyrannosaur Chronicles

I wanted to make sure you are know about Dave Hone’s excellent new book, The Tyrannosaur Chronicles. I’d hoped to blog about it several weeks ago, but I had a slew of end-of-semester grading and sundry other deadlines. The upshot of that de

Deinocheirus - Therizinosaur or hadrosaur mimic?

When the skull and body of Deinocheirus were revealed there was a lot of talk about how much it looked like a hadrosaur. I did not really agree with this analogy, as the upright posture and large, clawed hands seemed to indicate that it was

Mosasaur Tails - "Teaching the Controversy"

Mosasaurs have become all the rage lately with the release (and immense popularity) of Jurassic World. Purely by coincidence I had a commission for a mosasaur, Tylosaurus pembinensis. I hadn't done a mosasaur before (or any lizards), but I'

Catching up: Books, plushies, and a welcome to Gizmodo readers

It's been a very busy year, and as a result it's awhile since I updated the blog, There are several smaller items I want to cover before I get to meatier topics, including a book I contributed to, an adorable Velociraptor plushie, and the #

Aquatic Spinosaurus - The authors respond

As most of you reading this will know, I've written two posts on Spinosaurus - the first one questioned the proportions of the composite skeleton that recently gained fame through a paper in Science, the second one discussing a photo that h

Size estimates

Spinosaurus fishiness part deux

In my previous post on the proportions of the new Spinosaurus material I argued that the pelvis and legs are not nearly as reduced in size as the composite skeletal in Ibrahim, et al., (2014) implies. Theropod-worker-extraordinaire and all-

There's something fishy about the new Spinosaurus

Today, after weeks of rampant internet speculation the new-look Spinosaurus was revealed. And it certainly didn't disappoint: the paper by Ibrahim et al. musters a range of evidence from bone density, bone isotope data, facial innervation,

Guanlong time!

It's been a long time coming, but here at last is the promised skeletal of Guanlong wucaii, as selected by you the readers in the first ever "Choose my next skeletal" poll. You may be wondering what took me so long; several things conspired

Size estimates

Smackdown: Supersaurus vs. Giraffatitan and Diplodocus

This entry was inspired by a post at the always-excellent SV-POW. They compared the size (and neck length) of Supersaurus, Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. In a stroke of serendipity I read their post as I was reworking my skeletal of the larg

And the winner is...

First off, I want to thank everyone who participated, we ended up with over 1000 votes (though not necessarily 1000 voters, as we'll see below). There were several lead changes, but in the end a suspiciously strong showing for one dinosaur

Update on skeletal drawing votes

Choose my next skeletal drawing!

Europe's Shield: The most complete European ankylosaur

Late last year Europe got a brand-spankin' new ankylosaur, Europelta carbonensis. It's the most complete ankylosaur yet known from Europe (unless you consider Scelidosaurus to be a basal ankylosaur rather than a basal armored dinosaur). Let

Sauropod Gallery Overhauled!

Let's start out 2014 right, with a bunch of new and overhauled sauropod skeletal reconstructions. All of the reconstructions of your favorite four-legged dinosaur behemoths (and some of their smallish ancestors) have been brought up to date

Lythronax: Tyrannosaur troubles

This was an exciting week for tyrannosaur fans, as a new tyrannosaurine was named (Lythronax) and new fossils of Teratophoneus were revealed. Eagle-eyed visitors to the Skeletal Drawing theropod gallery probably realize that they've seen tw

New and improved galleries!

For those of you wondering why the pace of content has slowed down, it's because I entered a PhD program in paleontology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this fall, and I lost what was left of my free time. But that's not to say that

Mass estimates: North vs South redux

I have good news and bad news - the bad news is today is not the day you get a general estimate of the mass of Spinosaurus. I know, I know, and I'm sorry. Here's the good news - in preparation for a deeper look at the challenges of estimati

Scaling issues - a minor irritation?

The Super Spinosaurus? post produced some interesting conversation; in particular Marco asked a good question about whether using the skull of the South American spinosaurid Irritator would have a material impact on the size of the animal.

Super Spinosaurus?

Transitional series

I'm often asked about what I think of "transitional fossils". Here's the thing: it's a red herring. Not because we can't see important transitions everywhere in the fossil record, but because a single fossil can't show a transition by defin

Assessing Alamosaurus

Today let's look at another one of our thundering giants, Alamosaurus sanjuanensis. Alamosaurus is known from quite good remains (for a titanosaur), and some fragmentary remains may be close to the largest known dinosaur. How certain is thi

The problem with Puertasaurus

Welcome to the redesigned SkeletalDrawing.com!

If this isn't your first time to my website, you're probably noticing that things look quite a bit different around here. That's because after numerous fits and false starts, I finally got around to redesigning the site. I think the site is

The biggest of the big

Massive changes incoming to diplodocid sauropod stance

Giant theropods: North vs South

Ornithomimus had wings...as an adult

Terrible Claw!

I'm teaching an online course on anatomy

Yup, the OK Apatosaurus is freakin' huge!

Fishing at Dawn

I.O.Yutyrannus

When journalists attack!

Carnotaurus - delving into self-parody?

The evolution of (my) Acrocanthosaurus

Dawn Thief

Skeletal drawing topics

The Great Skeletal Repose of 2011: A Retrospective

Skeletals

Revisiting the Fisher King

Theropods

Falcarius: bizarre sickle-cutter

Sauropods

Gauging stance in "wide-gauge" sauropods

Theropods

Um hey, Scientific American? Bird knees bend the same way as everyone else.

Theropods

Talos: A troodontid with a leg up on the competition

Theropods

Running around like an Ornitholestes with it's head cut off!

Dinosaur Revolution Episodes III & IV on tonight on Discovery Science

Reign of the Dinosaur Revolution

Skeletal drawing topics

Mike Habib's Great Flying Skeletals: Perspectives from Pterosaurs

Skeletal drawing topics

John Conway's Note from Pterosaur-land: End the Lateral Tyranny!

Skeletal drawing topics

Neutral Poses & Elmerfuddasaurus

Skeletal drawing topics

Skeletal Poses: Do they matter?

Skeletal drawing topics

The Great Skeletal Repose of 2011

Skeletal drawing topics

Skeletal reconstructions: Schematic vs Realistic

Theropods

Tails of Woe

Theropods

T. rex: "Baby got back"