Interview with Luis Rey over at Archosaur Musings!

Be sure to check out the great interview with Luis Rey at Dave Hone's blog Archosaur Musings!

(I especially like the accompanying photos, showing some of Rey's fossil and dinosaur toy collection, along with a few of his feathered friends!)

Luis Rey's wonderful cover illustration of Thomas Holtz' Dinosaurs

Did you catch his three rules for Palaeo-art?!...

Sponsors as contributors - what would you do?

A bit of a different Going Pro article:  a situation online has provided us with an interesting thought experiment.
The past week, a large portion of the science blogosphere has been shifting.  I won't re-hash all the many posts and positions, but here's a brief summary as I understand it.

The ScienceBlogs.com network run by SEED Media has over 70 bloggers running their independent blogs (no editors, just bloggers) talking about science, and whatever other issues they like (atheism, gender issues, movies, shoes, politics and much more).  Scienceblogs.com put up a new blog, one paid for and run by Pepsico, to discuss advances in nutrition science.

Some bloggers felt betrayed: like Pepsico was buying credibility on the reputation the network had built up (it's indexed on Google News).  Others thought it was no big deal, they hadn't posted yet; wait for them to get out of line and address it.  Some complained about "Pepsi" and "nutrition".  Others cited this being the last straw in a number of complaints, some behind-the-scenes, and some public. A significant number of popular bloggers have left the network, including Laelaps by paleo-writer Brian Switek.

A Blog Around the Clock has a great list of posts on all sides of the issue.  Personally I'd recommend erv, Greg Laden, Living the Scientific Life (Scientist Interrupted) and Neuron Culture for a quick overview of some of the stances adopted.

* * * *

Now, here's the sauropod-meat of this article.  What would the various fans, contributors and artists here in the ART Evolved community do in a similar situation?

We're a smaller operation.  A large number of artists and illustrators and occasional posters but all on one blog.  We've all invested some of our online identity into this group, and most regular contributors have their own blogs. It's a loose network, but one I am proud to be a part of.

So, what if Peter, Craig and I announced one day, we were going to have one post a month from a corporate blogger, and they were giving money to us to maintain and keep AE afloat?  What if, the science-artsy street-cred of the corporate blogger seemed questionable:  a new Flintstones-type of unscientific t.v. series that popularized misconceptions about the prehistoric past,  (we could call it "Man & Dino", both sexist and inaccurate) and the articles seemed cobbled together by out of touch marketers?

What would you do?  As a reader, ignore those posts?  Ask for "paid advertisement" on the "Man & Dino" posts?  Not care, so long as it helped keep ART Evolved going?

There's not a right answer in my mind:  I have respect and see the points of people on both sides of the Pepsi divide. But here at ART Evolved, what would you do?

-Glendon

Show Your Support!

Professional Hollywood production artist Peter Von Sholly has for the past couple of months been featuring a fun series of prehistoric themed adventures of Tuxford Noodlefactor and his faithful dog Hounduu.

However despite all the effort poor Peter has put into both the art and the sharing of it with us online, few have given him any support or kind words in his comment section. Which has caused him to feel no one wishes to see this work, which I think is a shame as they are really cute and well done.

Please pop over to his blog and immediately check out:

The Dinosaur Hunter posted in its entirety (This link is just to the front cover. He doesn't have a label up I can link to. If you hit "Newer Post" on all these posts you'll be taken to all the new pages in order)

and Dinosaur Circus only half posted (This link again is only just to the front cover, so likewise hit "Newer Post" on all these posts to be taken to the next page)

So do please pop over, check these out, and most important let Peter know if you like his work or not!

Stop-Motion Video: "Big Bang Big Boom"

Watch this 10 minute stop-motion animation video.  Simply amazing!

"BIG BANG BIG BOOM:
an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life ... and how it could probably end."

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Palaeo-art abounds!  Watch for the Triceratops sharpening his horns!

Check out the artist at ARTSH.it

New Additions to the Trilobite Gallery!

Wow!  The Trilobites just keep on coming!

Look back into 

the Trilobite Time Capsule 

and see new work from:

John Meszargos

Matt Harpold
Sydney Veltkamp
Leslie Gordon
Sarah Snell-Pym
Craig Dylke   

It's never too late to enter your work into the Galleries, so send them in to artevolved@gmail.com!

Email Mix Up!

The AE administrators are embarrassed to alert everyone of an error on their part with regards to the email address submissions get sent to.

For the record that address is artevolved@gmail.com

However in a recent post it was mistakenly typed as artevoled @blogspot.com. This is not a real address and emails sent there will just vanish into the ether of cyberspace.

If you sent in a piece to our recent Trilobite Gallery but it hasn't been posted, you probably followed our false instructions. Again our apologies.

In fairness to the poor administrators, in their efforts to advertise and promote this site they type both the email address artevolved@gmail.com and the website address www.blogevolved.blogspot.com an awful lot. There was bound to be a slight mix up/blending eventually. At the same time we know it may cause a couple people a slight pain.

Hopefully we'll learn from this mistake and it won't happen again!

Also be sure to recheck out the Trilobite Gallery, as a few new "misplaced" pieces have finally made their way into the Gallery.

The Trilobite Gallery

Here we go! July 1st brings us...

The Trilobite Gallery

A classic fossil from around the world, the trilobite are a group of extinct arthropod, which survived from the earliest Cambrian to the Permian mass extinction, with most groups going extinct in the Devonian. Where they come from is a mystery; Trilobites were already widely diverse and geographically dispersed when they first show up in the Cambrian Explosion.

Having a hard exoskeleton allowed them to leave a vast and extensive fossil record, allowing scientists to use trilobites as fossil markers in determining the stratigraphic of the Cambrian, as evidence for continental drift, and data for testing the Punctuated Equilibrium mechanism for evolution.

And if you live in Ohio, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania, then trilobites are your state fossil! But as this is the July 1st Gallery, then a Happy Canada Day to you all too!

Continue down to open the Trilobite Time Capsule, and marvel at the treasures inside...

(Click on the picture to enlarge it, and click on the names to view the artist's site!)

Trilobite Deco by Sean Craven

CRYPTOLITHUS by John Meszargos

 As pointed out by Sam Gon II on his excellent Trilobite website,
there are several species of trilobite with huge dome-like cephalic
chambers.  In addition, the bodies of these animals, if extended
straight back, would hang significantly far above the sediment.  Both
features suggest that these trilobites may have been filter feeders
that used the gills on their elevated thorax and pygidium to sweep
plankton into the cephalic chamber for processing.  Here I have
depicted one such trilobite based on a drawing from Gon's website.

OLENIMORPH by John Meszargos

The Olenina includes several species from rock layers that were
formerly sulfur-rich deep sea habitats.  Modern-day animals living in
these kinds of habitats often form symbiotic relationships with
sulfur-fixing bacteria, so it's not unreasonable to hypothesize that
deep-dwelling Olenids had similar relationships.  Evidence for this
symbiosis can be found in the large gills found in some well-preserved
fossils, since gills are often where the sulfur-eating bacteria live
in modern organisms.  These fossils also frequently possess an
increased number of body segments (and thus an increased number of
gills) as well as highly-reduced mouthparts (since most of their
nutrition would come from the bacteria).
 Here I've depicted one such symbiotic trilobite crawling over the
sea floor near a colony of prehistoric tube-worms.  The brown
clam-like creatures in the foreground are deep-sea brachiopods, while
the blue fish swimming overhead are Ctenurella, a species of
placoderms that convergently evolved to resemble modern-day chimeras.

Trilobite Dragon by Matt Harpold

Cambrian Portraits by Sydney Veltkamp

Trilobite Tattoo by Sydney Veltkamp

Fossil Necklace by Leslie Gordon

Leslie Gordon Designs
Jewelry, metal arts, lapidary

Tilobite! by Sarah Snell-Pym

This is a diagramatic representation of Radiaspis which I first came across in Richard Fortey's book TRILOBITE! of which I have a prized signed copy!

Dark Trilobite by Sarah Snell-Pym

This is a pen drawing I wanted to get a sort of sci-fi alien look, so I heavily textured the picture, adding the sort of detail a paleo-teacher would go mad about, marking you down heavily for obscuring the structure!

Fimo Trilobite by Sarah Snell-Pym

I love making things out of polymer clays, little sculptures out of things like fimo, this trilobite is 2 inches or 5 cm long, I made each segment and constructed it from the bits thinking about how trilobites are actually structured.  I have photographed it on a weathered concrete base to give it a bottom of the sea look.

Eco-Bites by Sarah Snell-Pym

Trilobites are amazingly diverse so I wanted to capture the idea of a trilobite lead eco-system with them as the grazers, scavengers, filter feeders, hunters, burrowers etc... covering the different sections of the water column and the different habitat niches.  The trilobites I have drawn probably did not all exist together as represented here.

Scavenging Bounty by Craig Dylke

The carcass of the large (for its time) Odaraia falls to the Cambrian ocean floor relatively intact. Attracting many of the large (again for their time) trilobite Olenoides to feast on the remains. Dinomischus filter feed in the distance, while a swarm of Marrella swim overhead.

Note from the artist- This piece really has turned out to be a disappointment. I might revisit it when I have the time. I have just started a very full on 6 day a week job, and have spent the whole month of June moving on top of that... So hopefully one day when I'm not so busy I'll be able to do this concept justice.

Cambrian Awe by Craig Dylke

A unintentional but neat mistake on the piece above. It makes me wonder how many of the great works of art created throughout the ages were accidents that looked cool. Yet were never intended by the artist...

Triarthrus. by Rachael Revelle

An A4 collage in green paper.

The Last Refuge by Glendon Mellow

Oil on canvas, 2010. Commissioned by Kevin Zelnio of Deep Sea News.

Available as a print or poster.

Flying Trilobite Obelisk by Glendon Mellow

Oil on slate & Photoshop, 2010.

Trilobites had no Aries by Glendon Mellow

Trilobites had no Cancer by Glendon Mellow

Trilobites had no Gemini by Glendon Mellow

Trilobites had no Taurus by Glendon Mellow

Cheriurus, stippled drawing by Jacqueline Dillard

Unfinished Guava, digital painting by Jacqueline Dillard

Woman with Trilobites, drawing by Jacqueline Dillard

Based on a dream the artist had.

Atlantis, drawing by Jacqueline Dillard

Acadoparadoxides sp., a Moroccan Cambrian trilobite by Mo Hassan

Colour pencil illustration

Cnemidopyge nuda, a Welsh Ordovician trilobite by Mo Hassan

Graphite pencil sketch

Flexicalymene caractaci, a British Ordovician trilobite by Mo Hassan

Colour pencil illustration

Quinquecosta williamsi, a British Palaeozoic trilobite by Mo Hassan

Colour pencil illustration

Post-Impressionist Trilobites by Peter Bond

One of a series of six prehistoric-themed post-impressionism paintings.

You can see them all here.

Happy Canadian Trilobite Day by Peter Bond

Dicranurus: One Spiky Trilobite! by Peter Bond

Pen illustration. Coloured version coming soon.

Man with blue trilobite helmet. by Christopher Hutson

Graphite, monotype, spray paint, colored pencil, and transfer letters. 2008.

I was looking at trilobites, Aztec officers' helmets, and Rembrandt's Man in a Golden Helmet.

Angry Trilobite by Jenshin

I'm a big fan of prehistoric invertebrates and I wanted to share their wonder with other people by personifying them. Trilobites are more than just fossils, they were once living things making their way in the world just like anyone else.

Girly Trilobite by Jenshin

The Zenith of the Devonian Trilobites by Nima Sassani

The teeming trilobite sea floor in the Devonian period, time of some of the weirdest and most extreme trilobite species that ever evolved. Location is a continental shelf in Morocco, around 400 million years ago.

See if you can locate the exotic trilobites Dicranurus monstrosus, Dicranurus hamatus, Erbenochile Erbeni, Koneprussia sp., Droptops armatus, Paralejurus sp., Ceratarges sp., Scabriscutellum sp., Walliserops trifurcatus, the gigantic Terataspis grandis, and of course the worldwide favorite, Phacops!

The two giant fish in the background are Titanichthys, a far less vicious (though equally large) cousin of Dunkleosteus.

Phacops rana by David Tana

Phacops rana, a middle Devonian phacopid with large eyes and an uncanny ability to roll into a defensive curl and become buried in sediment. Pencil on paper

Hope we've all molted successfully! If you have a trilobite you'd like to include in this Time Capsule, these galleries accept pieces anytime - just send them in to artevolved@gmail.com!

BUT THERE'S MORE!

Must go faster!!!

The next gallery defies strict science and lets the imagination soar!

This summer brings you our first Pop Culture Gallery!!! Use your pencils and pixels to pay homage to your favorite famous monsters or create your own! Send them in to ART Evolved and we'll open the Time Capsule on September 1st 2010!

Spared no expense!