Teacup tricerotops 🌸✨️ the first in a fun series of porcelain themed dinosaur merch im going to be working on! This will eventually be a cute keychain and clear sticker 💖

I plan on doing all kinds of dinosaurs in this style, t rex, spino, dilo, iguanodon, para, etc etc , because I want more dino merch that is soft and not neon or edgy 🌸✨️

Dinofact #60

There has been debate over the function of the frills and horns on Triceratops and other similar species. Most recent interpretations find that they would have been used in species identification and courtship, similar to modern ungulates, as opposed to fending off predators.

Source: Wikipedia

Specualtive carnivorous cerotopsian

AWWWWWWWWWW the vivosaur and fighter being buried together is so sweet id imagine itd be like taboo to separate a vivosaur from its fighter even YEARS in the future no matter the circumstances man theres some kind of symbolism in the vivosaur and fighter burials that just wont leave my head like the fighter found this creature who roamed(likely alone) the earth thousands of years ago buried and forgotten in the ground and brought it to the present day with open arms and hearts and gave it a name and a home and enough love that the vivosaur is fully ready to join their fighter even in death once more its a little easy to forget how strong the bond is between fighter and vivosaur but its so important little off topic but id imagine the rust of a medal can be a sign of illness/stress/bad ownership and needs to be dealt with right away! either by cleaning the medal themselves or even contact medics if it gets serious enough it would be a major bonding exercise between fighter and vivosaur to build trust and id imagine the dinos like being groomed and such (unless you have a dino that screeched like a banshee when in contact with water)

VIVOSAURS AND FIGHTERS BURIED TOGETHER MUST STAY TOGETHER. Disturbing a grave in general is just bad, but for fossil fighters, disturbing the graves of deceased fighters and vivosaurs, separating their bodies even, is extremely disrespectful, horrible, and you WILL be shunned by everyone who knows what you've done. You could even be cursed by the ghosts of the dead fighters and vivosaurs themselves, enraged by the disturbance of their bodies and will make your life hell if you do not put things back the way they were.

BUT YEAH THE BOND BETWEEN VIVOSAURS AND FIGHTERS IS SUPER IMPORTANT! Extinct creatures brought to modern day... given far kinder lives than the ones they had before, being LOVED in a way they had never experienced. Sure, they will die again someday, but this time? It will likely be a more peaceful death, and they will not be alone.

Rust WOULD be a big issue, wouldn't it? Also vivosaurs being groomed, I imagine they like or tolerate it. Fire types usually HATE water (some are weirdos and love it though). Good luck getting any of them to take a bath ever. It can be done, but it takes longer to get a fire type to take a bath than other types. Trying to use a hose on your rex that just romped around in mud and hates water would be very irritating.

Could you imagine vets that specialize in vivosaurs having to deal with things like that? I applaud those that can bravely go in and help large theropods with toothaches without fear of being chomped in half, or having to stand in front of a cerotopsian's horns or an ankylosaur's club or a sauropod's feet, I could never.

In between the two Mammoth Cave tours we went to @dinosaurworldky and it was a blast! I’m pretty sure the Tyrannosaurid theropod is judging the chasmosaurs; “dinojesus christosaur, y’all cerotopsians need to learn to use birth control.” #cavecity #dinosaurworld #dinosaurworldky #dinosaur #dinosaurs #tourists #walk #walking #mammothcave #ky #kentucky #birthday #chasmosaurus #birthcontrol #cerotopsian (at Dinosaur World, Kentucky) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zFNZjnm26/?igshid=kdesufoqrgp7

Honestly getting 3D prints of irl dino fossils instead of hoarding/buying the real thing away from museums.

Has the same moral energy as getting lab grown gemstones instead of getting mined ones.

Technically maybe even more.

Who’s excited for Beasts of the Mesozoic

TWO!

Polar dinos???

right so there wasn’t much in the way of polar ice caps back in the time of dinosaurs, but places at the extreme north or south ends of the globe still got plenty cold and dinosaurs lived in all of these places.

in the far south near where Antarctica is today there were all kinds of dinosaurs, from giant long-necked Titanosaurs like Wintonotitan and Austrosaurus to medium-sized Theropods like Cryolophosaurus and Rapator! there was a full thriving ecosystem near the south pole, and you can bet those boys were fuzzy.

(src: Hannah Böving)

meanwhile in the far north near where Alaska is today, we had Theropods like the newly discovered tyrannosaur Nanuqsaurus, small Maniraptorans like Troodon, and big Cerotopsians like Pachyrhinosaurus! and again, all of these animals would have had to have a thick layer of fur-like feathers to survive the arctic climate.

(src: MicrocosmicEcology)

(src: MoriceMonkey93)

it was a wild world with as varied a climate as ours is today, and dinosaurs lived in all of it. 66 million years ago, you could have found dinosaurs skidding around on glaciers and romping in the snow just as easily as you could have found them in a tropical forest, and I think we should talk about that more often.

I, personally, am very interested in what ornithoscelida is and why it may not be a thing

that's a spicy one! I also know fewer specifics but basically, the traditional view of the dinosaur family tree is that there are two groups: ornithischia and saurischia, the bird-hipped and lizard-hipped dinosaurs. these two groups diverged early on in the evolution of dinosaurs.

bird-hipped dinosaurs had a pubis bone in their pelvis which pointed backwards, as it does it birds; they include the thyreophorans (armored dinosaurs like stegosaurs and ankylosaurs), the cerotopsians, and the ornithopods (think hadrosaurs like iguanodon or maiasaura).

lizard-hipped dinosaurs had -- mostly -- a pubis bone which pointed forwards, as it does in lizards. they include sauropods, but also the theropods, all those bipedal predators, which means that birds are not in fact bird-hipped dinosaurs. (the theropods who led to birds convergently evolved the bird-hipped pubis on their own.)

this arrangement makes a lot of sense, although it does have some problems. one notable one is that while we can find a lot of early saurischians from the triassic, the earliest period with dinosaurs, we can't really find any ornithischians from them. every time we think we've found one, it turns out to be from an animal that is related to but not quite actually a dinosaur at all. (side note the triassic had SO MANY animals that were almost-but-not-quite dinosaurs and none of them ever get any love. it's a shame.)

then in 2017 some guys went, "Hey, so we think maybe T. H. Huxley was right in 1869 (nice) when he proposed that actually, saurischia only included sauropods and herrarasaurids, and actually theropods were more closely related to ornithischia" and everyone got extremely angry all at once, BUT, if they are right, ornithoscelida would be the clade which contains the theropods and ornithischians.

I am, once again, not an expert, but there does seem to be at least some regard for this system amongst the experts I do follow? but I can't say that I've seen anything like consensus, and I have no ability to judge it for myself.

Wood Carved Dinosaur Figures 

Cerotopsian and Ankylosaurid wood carvings out of oak wood, decorated with Rune inspired symbols, finished with some stain and varnish.

Both will be posted to my shop by the end of the day today. Keep an eye out!

10:59 A.M.

Through the cold snowy outskirts the young warrior is still wandering into the prosperous land of not only yokai and humanity but the machines, and the next step evolution being the mutation neo complex organisms born by the primordial hearth. However the young one had stopped and encountered one of the machine beasts that had coexist with other animals. This bio nechanical animal is one of the pack hunters called the bio-sabers.

Both this young ancient Koishisaur and the bio mechanical sabretooth had gone face to face but not leading violence yet. But just to show the creature means no harm, she lower her bio organic weapon down and showing friendly behavior.

The bio saber continued staring at the odd ancient amalgamite for a few moments and growled, naturally the bio-saber would have killed the girl who has a weapon that is mold and fused with her flesh but the creature had sense that she's only trying to survive and had no interest in hunting. For this alone the bio-saber spare the creature's life and runs away back into the woods showing that the bio mechanic animals have intelligence but still follow by instincted.

With the animal gone the ancient creature let out a sigh in relief and continues on with her venture into the land of gensokyo this time to clean herself off the red liquid from the walls of bio mass from her hive she now seeks a water system for her to drink from and to wash herself with. She can survive without eating for days but she wanted to try the fresh water.

For an hour on end the creature wonders to the other side of the forest, venturing into the trees as the young one stared at the tall trees above her, leaves covering the bright sky and the sounds of birds and other fauna echoed into the forest. When she did arrive and find the river, to her amazement she had encountered a whole herd of cerotopsians enjoying themselves in this river. It wasn't like anything she ever seen. The creature all while amazed by the beasts of the bygone era appear before her she kept her distance and proceeds drinking from the other side of this lake.

And so after taking a few sips of the river the ancient creature smiles, now refreshed she began using one hand washing off the red liquid off her face, cleaning herself at last from being dirty the creature stood up from the ground and continues moving into the land of gensokyo, she wonders what other lifeforms she will encounter next? Will she encounter the yokai? The humans? Or more of these creatures? So many possibilities for this creature.

The Psittacosaurus is a member of the cerotopsians, the same group that the Triceratops is in. They lived during the early to mid Cretaceous, right before the Triceratops came about in the late Cretaceous. It’s hard to believe this little guy was an ancestor of the giant, fierce Triceratops with horns and a frill, when the Psittacosaurus had none of these traits. In fact, even the beak of the Psittacosaurus is different than the Triceratops, being more blunt than sharp, and is bipedal. The Psittacosaurus is a model for just how fascinating evolution is and how widely creatures can adapt and change overtime to become something completely different.

This guy, the Psittacosaurus mongoliensis, was about 5 feet in length and has been found in Russia, Mongolia, and China. This genus of dinosaur hold the most known species of non avian dinosaurs, making it a very well studied and understood dinosaur. The fossilized remains of this dinosaur have imprinted bristles around the tail/butt area. These are actually early feathers, called protofeathers. This is very unique and a huge discovery in the paleontology field, as it was one of the first non avian dinosaurs heard of to have protofeathers, suggesting dinosaurs other than theropods could have feathers, such as sauropods (long necks) and more. This suggests the bird lineage may have taken place further into time than we previously thought. We know that the protofeathers were not used for insulation to the Psittacosaurus due to the placement. Many believe that they were used for display and signaling as many modern birds use their feathers.

The Psittacosaurus mongoliensis is one of the few specimens that we found remaining tissue. With current technology, we are able to look at the skin cells to determine what pigmentation the specimen is. Because of the amount of tissue was remaining, we were able to discover that the Psittacosaurus mongoliensis  looked very much like the model here.

Through this, we can tell that the Psittacosaurus lived in a forest environment due to the gradient transition from the dark to the light colors. It also used camouflage, as many animals use counter-shading to blend in with their surroundings. This is very cool!!!! We only have a handful of dinosaurs that we only vaguely can determine the color or pattern, the skin cells were very well preserved to the point where we can tell the pattern and have an idea of the exact coloring of the Psittacosaurus.

Sticker!

Sources: Pim, K. (2016). Dinosaurs- The Grand Tour: Everything Worth Knowing About Dinosaurs From Aardonyx To Zunicerotops (pp. 183). The Experiment.

Thompson, A. (2016, September 15). This Is the Most Accurate Replica of a Dinosaur Ever Made. Popular Mechanics. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a22884/most-accurate-dinosaur-replica/#:~:text=Because%20Psittacosaurus%20has%20a%20more,world%2C%20at%20least%20for%20now.

I would like to briefly address my sources here. You may notice that none of the sources are actual scientific papers, but rather informal science papers/books for easy access to the public. I would love to include scientific papers, though I do not have access anymore as I am out of academia and am a poor graduated college student lol. I have a Bachelor’s in Evolution and Ecology, so I have a handle in what I am talking about and have taken several evolution focused courses, one being specifically about dinosaurs. I have also volunteered at a science museum around the dinosaur exhibit talking to the public about dinosaurs. I only take from sources that I make out as trustworthy and the best of my knowledge, if something is sketchy or outdated please let me know! Science should be for everyone and I want to facilitate the access of information that I and others find enjoyable- like dinosaurs- so that science truly can be accessed and enjoyed by everyone and not seen as something big or confusing or scary. Reading scientific papers is hard! There’s a lot of jargon that must be understood before understanding the material and not gonna lie- some of it is unnecessary and it makes it harder to read. I want to make this easier to understand so everyone can see how cool dinosaurs can be :)

In between the two Mammoth Cave tours we went to @dinosaurworldky and it was a blast! I’m pretty sure the Tyrannosaurid theropod is judging the chasmosaurs; “dinojesus christosaur, y’all cerotopsians need to learn to use birth control.” #cavecity #dinosaurworld #dinosaurworldky #dinosaur #dinosaurs #tourists #walk #walking #mammothcave #ky #kentucky #birthday #chasmosaurus #birthcontrol #cerotopsian (at Dinosaur World, Kentucky) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zFFgvnQDh/?igshid=jbp7vz85g8z5