While perusing the e-shelves on the Libby app I stumbled upon this little gem called Geo Lino Extra. It’s a German Language magazine for kids 8-14, or at least the main GeoLino is, I am not sure about the Extra one. Always interested in how dinosaurs and paleontology are portrayed for kids I took a dive into Die welt für junge Entdeckerinnen und Entdecker (“The World for Young Explorers”) to see what it had to say about Die erste Saurier-Expertin de Welt (“the World’s first dinosaur expert.”) Even though none of Mary Anning’s finds–marine reptiles, pterosaurs, and invertebrates–were technically dinosaurs.
Continue reading Mary Anning Die erste Sauier-Expertin der Welt.Tag Archives: paleontology
Red (Long) Dead Redemption 2
This was one of the lost posts that still had text crawled on wayback. I tracked down the images and the video to recreate it on April 23, 2025. It was originally published November 23, 2018, and I’m backdating it to keep it in order.
Dinosaurs, or at least paleontology, makes an appearance in the newest and hottest video game out by RockStar games. There are a gazillion things to do and move through in it but I want to uncover a tiny piece of the fun. SPOILER warning for anyone who wants to play blind, there are video walkthroughs and maps ahead.
The 12+ labors of Ralph B. Shead
For me, History is filled with people and things. I have never really indulged in the movements and theories and isms that seem to infect the past presently. For a historian this is a professional character defect, for me it is what brings history alive and allows us to find our connections to it. It is likely why I spent so much time learning archaeology and paleontology. I believe it is ultimately what lead me to the history of science so I could talk about all of that at once.
When I first came to OU and was getting settled across campus with the few people I had some connection with I was shown around the Sam Noble Natural History Museum. On the second floor back in the hallway to the VP lab and collections there are these two enormous paintings (13.5 feet long by 3.5 feet high). After taking in the scale and content of these behemoths I immediately looked for the signature. “Ralph B. Shead ’42” and “Ralph B. Shead ’34 (or 39 it is obscured by the frame I believe it is 34).
Scooby Doo & the Missing Paleontology Murals
This all started with a mammoth butt.
Some time back (2 years!) I began a project at our natural history museum to scan, digitize, archive, collect all of the images and negatives that were in our Vertebrate Paleontology collection. Thousands of images later a couple things really stand out: The importance of the WPA in the growth of out collections (see WPAleontology) and a couple of large paintings had disappeared since the late 30s and early 40s.
Continue reading Scooby Doo & the Missing Paleontology Murals
Science Comics
They exist, and the one I am going to tell you about here is positively amazing on both counts.
Prehistory and Paleolithic Pop Culture
Turns out Hugh Hudson has a new film out that focuses on the discovery of the prehistoric cave paintings in Altamira. If you aren’t familiar with the discovery, the Cliff Notes version is an 8 year old girl named Maria led her father Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola to a cave which held amazing paleolithic paintings of bison among other wonders; scientific debates ensue.
Continue reading Prehistory and Paleolithic Pop Culture
Glyptodos and Glyptodonts*
*Thanks and/or blame for this goes to Tom Luczycki
Hey look! A paleo entry on an supposedly paleontologically themed page! How novel.
Continue reading Glyptodos and Glyptodonts*
Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley
The year is 1851, you make your way through the streets of Philadelphia to a small theatre where scores of other interested parties are milling around waiting to be allowed in. You deposit your 25 cents for admission (12.5 cents for any children you have in tow) and make your way inside. The din of attendees drown out any discernible conversation as everyone finds their place before the show starts. For weeks printed advertisements have been calling this something you did not want to miss. Not only will they be displaying a full moving of the Mississippi River but it will be accompanied by the eminent Dr. Dickerson’s lectures which were “by themselves worth twice the price of admission.”
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| Advertisement for Dickeson’s Scientific Lectures. Source. |
Dino Dynasties
The title, borrowed from Katherine Rogers’ book, is a segue into a bit of rewritten familial ahistory on my part. The Sternberg family began collecting fossils with Edward Drinker Cope, and led to a family of vertebrate paleontologists. A son found the famous “fish within a fish” fossil. Many of the sternbergs finds were near where they lived.
