General Discussion

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July 08, 2017 19:22:36

FLIGHT RISING PALEO DISCUSSION

Hello everyone! I decided to make this thread because I thought it would be cool to have a group to discuss new discoveries and theories on Flight Rising. You may also share your paleoart or dinosaur themed dragons. I'll give a little introduction about myself as well as some thread rules. Introductory posts are welcome but not required!

ABOUT MYSELF

My name is Faron Nock and I was born and raised in Colorado. I've had a fascination with the Earths past since I was very little. I decided way back then that no matter the odds I was going to become a paleontologist. Long story short, here I am now. I'm 18 and about to start collage and heading towards my degrees. I'm a student and volunteer for Colorado Canyons Association and Museums of Western Colorado and Dinosaur Journey. I have a few hundred logged hours of fossil preparation and field work. I'm also a co-author on a few upcoming scientific papers on a few things I've helped discover. Hiking in 100+ degree weather with no shade and digging around in the dirt... I'm living the dream.

I'm in the tan hat looking at the ground.

THREAD RULES

All Forum Code of Conduct Rules Apply. These are set up to ensure that there aren't any malicious or illegal acts are being promoted here.

-Do NOT endorse fossil poaching or illegal fossil collection.

-Everyone must be respectful to another's religious views (or lack of).

-No baiting by posting religious comments. This is for the strict reason of keeping the evolution vs creation debate off of this thread. That debate only ever ends with personal attacks.

-Debates are VERY welcome as long as personal insults are kept out of the mix.

-Keep relevant to paleontology. If you wish to have an off topic discussion with another player please take it to PM.

this seems really interesting! i admittedly don't know too much about paleontology, but its something I am casually into. Here are a couple of sharks teeth I have... [img]http://i.imgur.com/D5rPTgO.jpg[/img] where I live you can collect as many of these as you want, no permit required. i have more lying around the house, but i think that gets the point across. Then of course I have countless fossilized invertebrates, those guys are in every parking lot but its still fun. Just normal looking sea shells, but fossilized. i don't have much to contribute here, but I think i'll sub and kinda stalk around, learn and watch

VisionThing

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July 09, 2017 14:00:26

this seems really interesting! i admittedly don't know too much about paleontology, but its something I am casually into.

Here are a couple of sharks teeth I have...

where I live you can collect as many of these as you want, no permit required. i have more lying around the house, but i think that gets the point across.

Then of course I have countless fossilized invertebrates, those guys are in every parking lot but its still fun. Just normal looking sea shells, but fossilized.

i don't have much to contribute here, but I think i'll sub and kinda stalk around, learn and watch

Cool! I love paleontology :-)

Just got out of college with a BS in general biology, and took a few paleo classes along the way.
I'm more of an invertebrate person myself, but it's hard to go wrong with prehistoric critters!

The Cambrian period is my favorite, and I actually got to visit the Burgess Shale a few years ago! I love anomalocaridids, and anomalocaris is probably my favorite extinct animal! At least of the spineless variety.

What are y'all's favorite prehistoric animals?

Strychnos

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July 09, 2017 21:30:57

Cool! I love paleontology :-)

Just got out of college with a BS in general biology, and took a few paleo classes along the way.
I'm more of an invertebrate person myself, but it's hard to go wrong with prehistoric critters!

The Cambrian period is my favorite, and I actually got to visit the Burgess Shale a few years ago! I love anomalocaridids, and anomalocaris is probably my favorite extinct animal! At least of the spineless variety.

What are y'all's favorite prehistoric animals?

•they\them•

I've always thought paleontology was interesting, its not everyday you get to find fossils, but I would never do it, seeing that I'd get bored digging in the same spot for hours, no offense.

Ceravine

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July 09, 2017 22:46:22

I've always thought paleontology was interesting, its not everyday you get to find fossils, but I would never do it, seeing that I'd get bored digging in the same spot for hours, no offense.

@Strychnos

mosasaurus, probably! i adore sea creatures (anomalocaris are pretty awesome too), and i have been obsessed with those things as a kid. the cambrian period has some crazy awesome stuff, but I am just enamored by bigger creatures. Titanoboa is another personal favorite of mine.

what did you do at the Burgess Shale? did you get like a tour and stuff? excavation maybe?

VisionThing

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July 09, 2017 23:49:00

@Strychnos

mosasaurus, probably! i adore sea creatures (anomalocaris are pretty awesome too), and i have been obsessed with those things as a kid. the cambrian period has some crazy awesome stuff, but I am just enamored by bigger creatures. Titanoboa is another personal favorite of mine.

what did you do at the Burgess Shale? did you get like a tour and stuff? excavation maybe?

@KurtSwagner

Dinosaurs! I've always liked them, though I'm a bit out of date XD Probably forgot more about them than most people ever knew, to paraphrase a book. Seriously, I've had the same dino bedspread on my bed for years (though they're are cringe-worthily inaccurate), have a poster about a few weird dinos above my bed and a bunch of toys.

Only recently got back into them after reading a book called 'Weird Dinosaurs' a few months ago. Would recommend it, it's about some of the strange dinosaurs that have been found and the people that found them, including the discovery of Cryolophosaurus, and has a couple of pages of artwork in it. Now I'm trying to get myself to re-draw my velociraptor OC with correct feathering, and see how much I've improved since I last drew her a few years ago :P

It's amazing that you're following your dream of becoming a paleontologist, it must take so much patience to dig up the fossils and put them all back together. I could never do it, I'm not that great at doing puzzles. What types of fossils do you work with? (Also I looked at your art shop and love the raptor and ceratopsid you drew. What species are they?)

@LizardKing
Wow, that's a lot of teeth. That's really cool you can find all those fossilised things everywhere. Do you live near the coast, if you don't mind me asking?

@Strychnos
My favorite is probably Velociraptor (Yeah, I know. So mainstream.) I just went through a phase where I really loved birds of prey, and that kind of extended to raptors. I don't know that much about them though. But I also love Muttaburrasaurus and Minmi because of their names.

A few random questions if anyone wants to answer them:

What do you think about feathered vs scaled T. Rex? I like the idea of them being partially feathered, given their size, but there seems to be some evidence now that they were scaled. But from what I read the scale impressions are very small, and seem to be in locations that some other feathered species of dinosaurs had scales, so I don't know. I just like hearing what other's think of this.
Has anyone else heard of Yi Qi, the 'bat winged' dinosaur? I think they're really cool little dragon-y guys. Very cute.
If you could go anywhere in the world to look at fossils, where would it be?

Violetah

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July 10, 2017 05:21:24

@KurtSwagner

Dinosaurs! I've always liked them, though I'm a bit out of date XD Probably forgot more about them than most people ever knew, to paraphrase a book. Seriously, I've had the same dino bedspread on my bed for years (though they're are cringe-worthily inaccurate), have a poster about a few weird dinos above my bed and a bunch of toys.

Only recently got back into them after reading a book called 'Weird Dinosaurs' a few months ago. Would recommend it, it's about some of the strange dinosaurs that have been found and the people that found them, including the discovery of Cryolophosaurus, and has a couple of pages of artwork in it. Now I'm trying to get myself to re-draw my velociraptor OC with correct feathering, and see how much I've improved since I last drew her a few years ago :P

It's amazing that you're following your dream of becoming a paleontologist, it must take so much patience to dig up the fossils and put them all back together. I could never do it, I'm not that great at doing puzzles. What types of fossils do you work with? (Also I looked at your art shop and love the raptor and ceratopsid you drew. What species are they?)

@LizardKing
Wow, that's a lot of teeth. That's really cool you can find all those fossilised things everywhere. Do you live near the coast, if you don't mind me asking?

@Strychnos
My favorite is probably Velociraptor (Yeah, I know. So mainstream.) I just went through a phase where I really loved birds of prey, and that kind of extended to raptors. I don't know that much about them though. But I also love Muttaburrasaurus and Minmi because of their names.

A few random questions if anyone wants to answer them:

What do you think about feathered vs scaled T. Rex? I like the idea of them being partially feathered, given their size, but there seems to be some evidence now that they were scaled. But from what I read the scale impressions are very small, and seem to be in locations that some other feathered species of dinosaurs had scales, so I don't know. I just like hearing what other's think of this.
Has anyone else heard of Yi Qi, the 'bat winged' dinosaur? I think they're really cool little dragon-y guys. Very cute.
If you could go anywhere in the world to look at fossils, where would it be?

@KurtSwagner: Paleontology has been my LIFE for as long as I can remember [s]as if my username isn't an indication[/s]. I have a ton of dinosaur books, but no real fossils except for a mosasaur tooth that I bought at a science event. It's hard for me to pick a favorite prehistoric animal, but I've always had a soft spot for Parasaurolophus. I just love their crests. I also like raptors (big cat- or wolf-birds!), Leallynasaura (super cute, even if the WWD ones are outdated) and Yutyrannus (a big feathered tyrannosaur, and how can you not love something whose name means "beautiful feathered tyrant"?) @Violetah: [list] [*]I personally love the idea of big theropods being partially feathered, which is why I was so excited about the discovery of Yutyrannus. I like to speculate that tyrannosaurs had crests or manes that they could raise for display. [*] Yi qi is the strangest and most interesting news I've heard in a long time. Whether or not it could actually fly with those [s]wyvern[/s] bat wings, it's interesting to think about how bird evolution could have gone down a very different path. [*] Although I don't want to sit in the hot sun and get dirty all day, I would work in a lab with fossils from China (so many feathered friends!) or Hell Creek (the nearest major fossil site to me, and home to the most famous Cretaceous dinosaurs).

fnich

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July 10, 2017 06:48:53

@KurtSwagner: Paleontology has been my LIFE for as long as I can remember ~~as if my username isn't an indication~~. I have a ton of dinosaur books, but no real fossils except for a mosasaur tooth that I bought at a science event. It's hard for me to pick a favorite prehistoric animal, but I've always had a soft spot for Parasaurolophus. I just love their crests. I also like raptors (big cat- or wolf-birds!), Leallynasaura (super cute, even if the WWD ones are outdated) and Yutyrannus (a big feathered tyrannosaur, and how can you not love something whose name means "beautiful feathered tyrant"?)

@Violetah:

I personally love the idea of big theropods being partially feathered, which is why I was so excited about the discovery of Yutyrannus. I like to speculate that tyrannosaurs had crests or manes that they could raise for display.
Yi qi is the strangest and most interesting news I've heard in a long time. Whether or not it could actually fly with those ~~wyvern~~ bat wings, it's interesting to think about how bird evolution could have gone down a very different path.
Although I don't want to sit in the hot sun and get dirty all day, I would work in a lab with fossils from China (so many feathered friends!) or Hell Creek (the nearest major fossil site to me, and home to the most famous Cretaceous dinosaurs).

Last edited on Jul 10, 2017 06:52:54 by fnich

@Violetah
The funny thing is I do live near the coast, but not one that gets good shark teeth. I got those teeth from two main places: the west coast of my state, and the center of it. The western beaches have tons of teeth, and the central parts have some awesome rivers for fossil hunting.

I would love for the t-rex to have some feathers, I just love feathered dinos.
Yi qi is so awesome! That was awesome news, such a cool looking thing. Cute too.

VisionThing

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July 10, 2017 09:43:20

@Violetah
The funny thing is I do live near the coast, but not one that gets good shark teeth. I got those teeth from two main places: the west coast of my state, and the center of it. The western beaches have tons of teeth, and the central parts have some awesome rivers for fossil hunting.

I would love for the t-rex to have some feathers, I just love feathered dinos.
Yi qi is so awesome! That was awesome news, such a cool looking thing. Cute too.

@LizardKing Thats super cool! Do you know what formation they come from?

@Strychnos I've always had a special place in my heart for Coelophysis

@Violetah I work mostly with the late Triassic Chinle formation. We get a lot of phytosaur material and we seem to have an articulated Poposaur. We aren't sure though. We have to get the rest of him out of the ground before we can really tell. So far we have 9 vertebra, ribs and gastralia, and pelvis in the articulated specimen. We have random bits we found float though. At our Hills Have Teeth site we have a new species only known by teeth (crosbysaurus). We aren't sure what it is, other than its a herbivore. I also work in the Mygatt-Moore quarry which is Jurassic. We get Allosaurus, Camerasaurus, Apatosaurus, as well as some Mymoorapelta material there.
The species I drew are Velociraptor mongoliensis and Nasutoceratops titusi. I actually was able to get the Nasuto critiqued by Rob Gaston. The only error on my part is the horns need to be a bit more upward-facing.
Baby and juvi rex's were probably feathered. As they grew older they probably lost their feathering. There's skin impressions that let us know its stomach, legs, and tail weren't feathered. It may have had some feathers for display purposes.
I also drew a Yi qi! Should be on my art page.
And I would LOVE to go to china to see all the beautiful feathered specimens they're getting. I'd also love to go to Alaska to see those awesome arctic dinosaurs. Also Australia..... I want to go to a lot of places haha.

BorealBones

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July 10, 2017 09:56:27

@LizardKing Thats super cool! Do you know what formation they come from?

@Strychnos I've always had a special place in my heart for Coelophysis

@Violetah I work mostly with the late Triassic Chinle formation. We get a lot of phytosaur material and we seem to have an articulated Poposaur. We aren't sure though. We have to get the rest of him out of the ground before we can really tell. So far we have 9 vertebra, ribs and gastralia, and pelvis in the articulated specimen. We have random bits we found float though. At our Hills Have Teeth site we have a new species only known by teeth (crosbysaurus). We aren't sure what it is, other than its a herbivore. I also work in the Mygatt-Moore quarry which is Jurassic. We get Allosaurus, Camerasaurus, Apatosaurus, as well as some Mymoorapelta material there.
The species I drew are Velociraptor mongoliensis and Nasutoceratops titusi. I actually was able to get the Nasuto critiqued by Rob Gaston. The only error on my part is the horns need to be a bit more upward-facing.
Baby and juvi rex's were probably feathered. As they grew older they probably lost their feathering. There's skin impressions that let us know its stomach, legs, and tail weren't feathered. It may have had some feathers for display purposes.
I also drew a Yi qi! Should be on my art page.
And I would LOVE to go to china to see all the beautiful feathered specimens they're getting. I'd also love to go to Alaska to see those awesome arctic dinosaurs. Also Australia..... I want to go to a lot of places haha.

@KurtSwagner

In short, no, not at all.

But I am super curious. I never thought about it belonging a specific formation before, but after some research I think its considered the Peace River Formation? At least that's definitely where the fossils come from in the central parts. Though it is also looking like "Florida" itself counts (it does at least for why we have little fossil shells everywhere), or "the ocean". The whole Gulf of Mexico contributes to teeth there, not sure there is a specific formation? If I figure it out I'll be back

VisionThing