Blade-of-the-Moon's Art

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

HOLEY COW!!!  How much did that cost?! I'ts amazing!

Our friend April Jones and her business Edible Elegance provided all free of charge for our event, we're VERY happy she did so ! It was a huge draw to people visiting us yesterday! 

[stoneage]

HOLEY COW!!!  How much did that cost?! I'ts amazing!

Our friend April Jones and her business Edible Elegance provided all free of charge for our event, we're VERY happy she did so ! It was a huge draw to people visiting us yesterday! 

That looks like a lot of cake.  Was there any left over?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

HOLEY COW!!!  How much did that cost?! I'ts amazing!

Our friend April Jones and her business Edible Elegance provided all free of charge for our event, we're VERY happy she did so ! It was a huge draw to people visiting us yesterday! 

That looks like a lot of cake.  Was there any left over?

There was some..it was cake for b-fast , lunch and dinner today.. lol

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Some new pics of Stan :





Should have some new Trike pics tonight, we're thinking of calling him "Topper " I like it.

[fabricious]

Sure does sound like a suitable name! Great new pictures of Stan, he really fits nicely into the environment. Ever thought of maybe adding some small, fleeing dinosaurs/birds?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Sure does sound like a suitable name! Great new pictures of Stan, he really fits nicely into the environment. Ever thought of maybe adding some small, fleeing dinosaurs/birds?

Thanks bud ! The greenery growing in really helps !

It's an idea for sure !

I'm waiting on some Compies from Malcolm  and I have couple Archeopteryx in the works as well !

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Some new Trike pics :





and we had another article here :  http://offbeattenn.com/ever-wanted-go-jurassic-park-check-dinosaur-park-includes-full-size-t-rex/

[Simon]

Chris - The Trike is looking awesome  when you look at how muscled the legs were you start getting a sense of the power of this animal.

One thing - the horns look too "skinny" to me.  I think they need to be thicker.  If they were this thin breakage would surely have been more of a problem.

Luckily, this ought to be an easy fix, no?

*edit* Just took a closer look at the photos - looks like the light reflecting off the bottom of the horns might make them look thinner than they actually are?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Chris - The Trike is looking awesome  when you look at how muscled the legs were you start getting a sense of the power of this animal.

One thing - the horns look too "skinny" to me.  I think they need to be thicker.  If they were this thin breakage would surely have been more of a problem.

Luckily, this ought to be an easy fix, no?

*edit* Just took a closer look at the photos - looks like the light reflecting off the bottom of the horns might make them look thinner than they actually are?

Totally agree, now the front legs might be too thick, again like with Stan it's a structural issue with the materials we have..we just have to build thicker to make it strong.  But the animal itself is just massive..we think of Rex as a real beast but Triceratops was so large and strong looking I think Rex would be suicidal to attack a fully grown, prime of life member of the species. 

It's not an easy fix after they are coated unfortunately, but yes the glare might make them look thinner.  If it helps I copied them directly from Scott Hartman's revised skeletal. The entire skull was blown up to scale and then cut out of wood, I just bulked up the outline with foam.

[Alexxitator]

My you have a fun garden! Looks like great fun to spend your time there!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

My you have a fun garden! Looks like great fun to spend your time there!

Thank you !

We've grown a bit beyond the backyard honestly ! lol

Here is a video and pics of our newest completed exhibit :

Protoceratops and eggs :


Video link : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202344663554498&comment_id=10202347533986257&offset=0&total_comments=7&ref=notif&notif_t=video_comment

[mb-cg]

The Protoceratops and the nest look awesome, an amazing job 

[stoneage]

I thought herbivore eggs were round.  Did you use something as an example?

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Thanks Manuel !

I used a paper that described the eggs and nest, I also checked a lot of references and it showed them as elongated as well. Bit odd and different than sauropods and hadrosaurs which do look to have mostly rounded eggs( not sure about other ceratopsians ) but that's what it looks like. Maybe size played a part ? Round could be better for bigger animals ?

[Takama]

as I recall, you had a lot of Trouble, finding info on Protoceratops egg, because a lot of sources still think that the eggs found During the American Museums Gobi Desert Expedition were Protoceratops eggs instead of Oviraptor Eggs

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

as I recall, you had a lot of Trouble, finding info on Protoceratops egg, because a lot of sources still think that the eggs found During the American Museums Gobi Desert Expedition were Protoceratops eggs instead of Oviraptor Eggs

True, I can't find one solid fossil egg that is 100% i.d.'d as a Protoceratops egg. So all I have is the research material on the nests and popular art work.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

There are basically two nests that might stand the test and be proven Protoceratops nests. Here is the link to the paper for them .

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/p/protoceratops.html

One other comment, in general Sauropod eggs tend to be almost soccer ball shape, although flattened due to compression, whereas Hadrosaur eggs tend to be for the most part somewhat Football shaped. A personnal suspicion, however I am starting to guess that Probactrosaurus also laid a spherical egg as well.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Interesting.

I did see one reference said that Protoceratops may be nocturnal ? I have our Velociraptors in the dark and explain to guests how they might have been nocturnal.

[Newt]

Wow, lots of cool new stuff since the last time I looked through here!  The new ceratopsians look great!

Just an aside on eggs: Egg shape in birds has more to do with nesting habit than with genealogy. Spherical eggs work fine if the nest allows no rolling, but birds that nest on ledges or bare ground often have more pointed eggs- like the ones you've made for Protoceratops. The shape keeps the eggs from going very far if they start rolling, as they tend to just move in an arc and come to rest near their starting point.

Of course, body shape is an issue too.  If you have a narrow birth canal and want to maximize egg size, the egg will be elongated (bot not necessarily more pointed at one end than the other).  Some snake eggs are virtually sausage-shaped for this reason.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

It would be interesting to see how much of that translates to dinosaur eggs given the differences in size and weight. I know my Citipatti egg measures over 7 1/4 inches long and is wider at one end than the other, whereas my oviraptor egg measures around 6 3/4 inches long. Given their size and by inference obvious weight, I am unsure how much they would be likely to have rolled or moved, however they are both still elongated and wider at one end than the other. This tends to suggest the shape of the eggs for dinosaurs had more to do with species or body shape than nesting behaviors possibly.
  In theropods I am unsure I would consider the birthing canal narrow, as they normally were a double wide passage allowing a pair of eggs at a time to be laid. One can readily see this in Oviraptorid nests, where the eggs are paired in sets around the edge of the nest.One also sees this in Tarbosaurus eggs as well as Gigantaraptors. Some of those eggs are as much as eighteen inches long and being laid in pairs, side  by side, so I would be hesitant to suggest a narrow canal for any such dinosaur.