This isn't a normal scheduled blog post; instead, it concerns some announcements. Firstly, TetZooCon - the first ever Tetrapod Zoology Convention - is go. It will be held at the London Wetland Centre (UK) on Saturday 12th July and you can now book for attendance. Our schedule is pretty much sorted: we have a series on talks on such subjects as dinosaurs, pterosaurs, the role of speculative zoology, cryptozoology, herpetology and conservation biology; there's also a palaeoart workshop (led by co-organiser John Conway, Bob Nicholls and Mark Witton), a quiz, and stalls. We hope to see you there! If the event works out, this will become a regular thing... Check the website for details.
In other news, some of you might recall me saying that my monitor montage - the most recent version of which was featured in the Tet Zoo article on news from the world of monitor lizards - would get used as a t-shirt design at some stage. That day has come, and you can now buy your very own Tet Zoo 'Monitors Are The Best Animals' t-shirt at the Tet Zoo redbubble shop. More merchandise to be added to the site as and when. The t-shirt is available in lots of colours, but I think the red one looks best.
Finally, the latest issue of Science Uncovered magazine (June 2014, Issue 07) features an article of mine that might be of broad interest here: it's titled 'Rediscovering the Dinosaurs', the tag line being 'They are often depicted as huge, scaly beasts - but new discoveries are changing our beliefs about these creatures...' (Naish 2014). It features artwork by Julius Csotonyi (who has a new book out, by the way), Emily Willougby, John Conway and Mark Witton, with 'before' and 'after' images showing how life reconstructions have changed substantially over the years (and a pox on those palaeontologists who are still giving the OK to reconstructions that are objectively wrong and aesthetically offensive). I hope it's interesting and enjoyed by those intrigued by what we know about the life appearance of fossil animals.
Coming next: ratites part II!
Ref - -
Naish, D. 2014. Rediscovering the dinosaurs. Science Uncovered 7 (June 2014), 68-72.
