Today's Document
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
tumblr dot com
ojovivo
occasionally subtle
$LAYYYTER
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
oozey mess
No title available
almost home
Origami Around
Sade Olutola
todays bird
PR's Tumblrdome
祝日 / Permanent Vacation
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
No title available
Janaina Medeiros
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
I'd rather be in outer space 🛸
seen from United States
seen from Bangladesh
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
@teratart
A few words about me:
♪ i'm just a simple russian girl, I've got vodka in my blood♪
Daria aka Terata // dino digger // literally live at work // monsters & skeletons lover // autistic // post some different stuff, mostly about paleontology // my texts can look weird bc I don't know language well enough // but that doesn't stop me from writing longreads and trying to make terrible jokes // ... // let me know if I accidentally made some cringe
@teratassaves – reblogs
As promised, I’m showing you something beautiful. This is a 3.7 cm incomplete skull of Tagarosuchus kulemsini, which I already wrote about a while ago, but now after 70 hours of prepping. Most of this time was spent on cleaning the characteristic crocodile "pimples". All the work was done under a high-magnification microscope.
Tools and materials used: entomological needles of different sizes, ordinary water for softening a very thin layer of rock, and a solution of acetone and b-72 for conservation.
Tagarosuchus kulemsini, reconstruction by Andrey Atuchin.
sorry for not posting for so long, haven’t been in the mood to write anything (nothing interesting happened that was worth writing about anyway). right now, I am trying to get an education. unfortunately, it’s turning out to be not as easy and fun as I imagined it would be lol. it takes a lot of time and energy. on top of that, i’ve had some troubles at home with my mom’s health, and some other circumstances I cannot speak of… all of this hasn’t made me more optimistic either.
anyway, since I'm back on the blog… there are a few neat preps I still haven’t shown ya. I think I’m gonna write about them in the near future. then maybe you’d like to see some photos from my past fieldwork. what do you say?
A Christmas tree decorated by my colleagues.
to @fossilprep :
At first, hello to paleo enthusiasts from the other side of the planet!
In October, we are waiting for the arrival of experienced paleontologists – Pavel Skutschas and Alexander Averyanov. I'm sure they'll be able to say more about who it dino was. And yes, we are going to make one or two sections from this specimen for histological analysis.
Several new photos of theropod fossil from the Early Cretaceous (about 125-113 mln y.o.), found on the bank of the Kiya river in West Siberia three weeks ago.
Watch my previous post about this dude (by the way, thank you all for attention to my little story! 💚).
So, after a little preparation, we saw a complete set of tubular bones of one leg: thigh, tibia and fibular, metatarsal and phalanges. Another metatarsal and possibly tibia lie below. We can see 5 claw phalanges so far, and they are all pretty similar in shape and size. The bones on the right may be part of the forearm of the same being. Also, izolated fragments of ribs protrude from the sandstone block on the sides. Hopefully, we will be able to do a tomography of the sample soon.
Photos by Yaroslav Zheleznov.
So, the preliminary conclusions so far are as follows: it was a relatively small theropod dinosaur about two meters long. We have not yet found anything that could indicate the diet of this animal, therefore, we cannot say for sure if it was a carnivore or a herbivore. Judging by the length and structure of the legs, the dinosaur was a pretty good runner. And, as I wrote earlier, we have not yet established the taxonomic affiliation of it. So far, a cautious assumption is being put forward that this is some kind of Noasauridae (Elaphrosaurin) dinosaur.
I'll keep you posted if anything clears up.
August 7th was a big day for me. Finally. After 5 years of participating in fieldworks, I found a skeleton of a theropod!
Well, this is actually not a full skeleton, but! For all the years of research on the Shestakovo location since 1953, only single bones of various theropods have been found here. And in general, all previously found here articulated skeletons belong only to psittacosaurs... So... this is really something new.
The wet sandstone was very brittle and crumbled at the touch of fingers, exposing the fossils.
However, finding something is only half the case. You have to take it with you somehow and not break it. The fossil was encased in a single piece of sandstone weighing at least a third of a ton, lying on the bank of the Kiya River and half submerged in water. A high sheer cliff overhangs the shore, and the surface below is littered with cobblestones, on which no one truck can pass. The only way to take the fossil is to float it down to the gentle shore.
But there was a small problem... We had no boat or something. Fortunately, a local resident agreed to transport the block with the fossil on his own rubber boat. This was a small two-person rubber boat that can barely withstand the weight of the rock block. In addition, it turned out that the tightness of the air chamber of the boat is broken, so it needed to be continuously pumped up, otherwise the boat would have just sunk. x') But after a couple of hard hours, the fossil was finally loaded into the car... which couldn't move because it got stuck in the mud.
In parallel with all these events, I fought for the safety of the fragile bone, which was in a piece that broke off from the monolith. Its transportation took another day.
Location: Shestakovo-1 «Malyi Yar», Kiya River, Western Siberia. 08/08/2023
Now the fossil is in the camp. After drying and removing excess rock, it will be sent to the city for tomography. And maybe after that we will find out the taxonomic affiliation of the found prehistoric animal.
This looks absolutely amazing! Have you managed to ID the skeleton? How complete is it? It looks like it was an incredible adventure!
Also tagging @a-dinosaur-a-day because I'm sure ey'll be interested too!
Hello! Thanks for your reblog!
Well, after some prep several bones were exposed, so we can see now a pretty full leg and a few bones from another one lying below. There are also two damaged isolated bones, possibly forelimb bones. We haven't identified the skeleton yet, but there is an assumption that it belongs to Elaphrosaurinae or something related. Its metatarsal looks pretty... interesting.
I gonna make a post with photos and more detail information about the fossil later.
August 7th was a big day for me. Finally. After 5 years of participating in fieldworks, I found a skeleton of a theropod!
Well, this is actually not a full skeleton, but! For all the years of research on the Shestakovo location since 1953, only single bones of various theropods have been found here. And in general, all previously found here articulated skeletons belong only to psittacosaurs... So... this is really something new.
The wet sandstone was very brittle and crumbled at the touch of fingers exposing the fossil.
However, finding something is only half the case. You have to take it with you somehow and not break it. The fossil was encased in a single piece of sandstone weighing at least a third of a ton, lying on the bank of the Kiya River and half submerged in water. A high sheer cliff overhangs the shore, and the surface below is littered with cobblestones, on which no one truck can pass. The only way to take the fossil is to float it down to the gentle shore.
But there was a small problem... We had no boat or something. Fortunately, a local resident agreed to transport the block with the fossil on his own rubber boat. This was a small two-person rubber boat that can barely withstand the weight of the rock block. In addition, it turned out that the tightness of the air chamber of the boat is broken, so it needed to be continuously pumped up, otherwise the boat would have just sunk. x') But after a couple of hard hours, the fossil was finally loaded into the car... which couldn't move because it got stuck in the mud.
In parallel with all these events, I fought for the safety of the fragile bone, which was in a piece that broke off from the monolith. Its transportation took another day.
Location: Shestakovo-1 «Malyi Yar», Kiya River, Western Siberia. 08/08/2023
Now the fossil is in the camp. After drying and removing excess rock, it will be sent to the city for tomography. And maybe after that we will find out the taxonomic affiliation of the found prehistoric animal.
Our newest find – a skull of a Tagarosuchus kulemsini, a small protosuchian crocodyliform from the Early Cretaceous (about 125-113 mln y.o.)
Shestakovo-3. 07/28/2023
These photos were taken immediately after the croc was found in a waste rock dump)
Photos by Yaroslav Zheleznov.
… and these after gluing and some cleaning.
Not all the fossil bones belong to giants. This is a 1,5 mm jaw of the Early Cretaceous lizard found in 2022 in Shestakovo-3.
Photo by Igor Parahin
Ilek formation (Western Siberia, Russia).
A male of a sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) which is in mating color. This is the first time when I saw such lizard so close! There are a dime a dozen sand lizards here, but most of the year they have a boring gray color.
... Okay, in fact, this post is not about a living reptiles. I wanted to brag about my friend's find – a fragment of a fossilized sauropod bone.
Location: Shestakovo-3, Ilek formation (Western Siberia, Russia).
This time I'm going to show ya not a dinosaur miniature... but meanwhile it's definitely a miniature dinosaur.
The fragment of the hind limb of a Psittacosaurus sibiricus chick (my first serious attempt at fossil preparation for exposure; not sure if it was a good idea to tint the host rock for contrast). It's about 4,5 sm * 3,5 sm.
And this is how it looked like before:
Tools used: a weak solution of hydrochloric acid and a syringe needle.
kinda eoraptor
Anthocharis cardamines (butterfly)
Trollius asiaticus (flower)
Location: Khakassia, West Syberia, Russia
Found an old photo from field practice in biodiversity
Nothing special but I like it
In a rough translation from russian, this plant is called «little flame», and the butterfly is «little dawn»
I repainted a toy dinosaur
This is just my second attempt at figurine painting. It turned out not so bad, isn't it?
This collectible miniature released by the Chinese company PNSO depicts a small troodontid dinosaur called Mei long, which means «sleeping dragon».
The species is described from an exceptionally well-preserved fossilized skeleton of a juvenile discovered in China in 2004, which died while sleeping under a layer of volcanic ash - its legs are bent under the body, the tip of the nose is hidden under the wing (similar to how modern birds do), and the long tail wrapped around the body. Another representative of this type of dinosaur, found later, also lay curled up.
In such pose, mei was captured by master Zhao Chuang (PNSO sculptor and artist). This figurine is just one of dozens of inexpensive miniatures of extinct animals created by Zhao in a fairly short amount of time, and unfortunately, the sculptor doesn't seem to have put much effort into each one individually. Mei was no exception: the replica has serious problems with proportions, and the legs are completely absent, although in this position they should be clearly visible. Also the factory painting of the figurine is awful.
Mei long (PNSO) before repainting
Nevertheless, it is very rare to find such a cute and at the same time scientifically reliable dinosaur in such an unusual pose. And the mei long itself is practically unknown to the general public, since it is not often found in cinema, encyclopedias and in the form of toys. In general, this is a rare specimen, and therefore it was worth acquiring it in your collection, especially since my hands have long been itching to repaint something.
A cursory google didn't reveal any research on mei skin and feathers coloring, so I decided to color the figurine like a velociraptor from a reconstruction I liked. In addition to a pleasant color scheme, this reconstruction also had such an advantage as the apparent simplicity of the painting scheme. However, I failed to repeat it (I didn’t really try lol) and somewhere in the middle of the process I went my own way.
Reconstruction of Velociraptor mongoliensis
I generally satisfied the result, although due to lack of experience quite a lot of mistakes have accumulated. I decided to stop trying to fix them - this mei has already suffered enough. It's better to try to take into account my mistakes when painting the next figures. However, the design of the base with the use of Gorodets painting looks too ridiculous, perhaps it is worth sticking sand on it or something like that. I also regret that I didn’t even try to finish the missing limbs, but at the time I started work, I had only paints available from the materials.
By the way, this dinosaur's name is Maomao. However, I was not able to find out whether this name was given to a specific fossil, or whether the manufacturers of the toy had already come up with it.
Another interesting fact: mei long was a very tiny dinosaur. The body length of the holotype was only 53 centimeters. Knowing this, you can try to calculate the approximate scale of the model - it's about 1:5.
Theropods
Allosaurus Fragilis
One of my old scraps. I had a great idea, but I doubt I will ever continue working on it. We have dinovember this month, so why I should't post these pics to participate in the event?
