Museu da Lourinhã announces the CIID 2011

GEAL – Museu da Lourinhã is delighted to announce the 2011 Edition of the International Dinosaur Illustration Contest (CIID 2011). This is the 7th Edition of the contest. In the combined six previous editions, 168 artists (from 35 countries of all continents) have submitted 369 works. Prizes were awarded to 50 works, by 35 artists (of 17 countries).

For more detailed information, including a gallery of all the works and a gallery with the prizes, please see www.museulourinha.org/en/CIID.htm

Contestants can submit artwork until April 15, 2011. All the information on the contest, in particular the Regulations and “Frequently Asked Questions” for this Edition, can be found from GEAL’s home page .

-----------

O GEAL - Museu da Lourinhã anuncia o CIID 2011

O GEAL - Museu da Lourinhã tem o prazer de anunciar a Edição de 2011 do Concurso Internacional de Ilustração de Dinossauros (CIID 2011). Esta é a 7ª Edição do concurso.
No conjunto das seis edições anteriores, 168 artistas (provenientes de 35 países de todos os continentes) apresentaram 369 trabalhos. Os 50 trabalhos premiados envolvem 35 artistas (de 17 países).

Para informação mais detalhada, incluindo uma galeria com todas as obras e a galeria dos premiados, recomenda-se a consulta emwww.museulourinha.org/pt/CIID.htm

Os concorrentes podem submeter obras até 15 de Abril de 2011. Todas as informações sobre o concurso, nomeadamente o Regulamento e um conjunto de "Perguntas Frequentes" para esta Edição, podem ser consultadas a partir da página principal do GEAL.

PaleoArt Teaching in Lourinhã - 2010

The Museum of Lourinhã anounces the workshop PaleoArt Teaching - 2010

Overview

The Italian painter Fabio Pastori, winner of the 6ª CIID - International Contest of Dinosaur Illustration - (amongst 71 artists, of 22 countries) and professor Sante Mazzei, specialized in computer aided drawing techniques, will host, under the sponsorship of GEAL - Museu da Lourinhã, a brand new summer class which they have named as PaleoArt Teaching - The Complete Lost World Journey.

During the course of nine days, students will have the opportunity to know the Museum, do field prospecting for fossils, learn and live with renowned artists, and those who search scientific illustration and painting know-how.

Fabio Pastori: www.fabiopastori.it

Santino Mazzei: http://www.jurassicparkitalia.it/

see more information

Escavando embriões de dinossauro...

Mais dentes, ossos, ovos, ninhos e afins. Tudo de dinossauros e crocodilos...

Entrevista

Interview: Ricardo Araújo on Journal of Paleontological Techniques

Fossil preparators are the unsung heroes of paleontology. For every paper on a spectacular Archaeopteryx skeleton, or an exquisite new ceratopsian skull, there is at least one talented preparator who freed the fossil from its rocky tomb. Despite the importance of preparators for paleontology, there are surprisingly few formal publications devoted to the trade (beyond the occasional symposium volume). Even rarer are open access publications on fossil preparation. Thus, it is a real pleasure to share this interview with Ricardo Araújo, the executive editor for Journal of Paleontological Techniques.

Tell us a little aboutJournal of Paleontological Techniques. How did the journal get started?
The Journal of Paleontological Techniquesgot started due to the difficulties that we felt in theMuseu da Lourinha (in Portugal) to get access information relative to preparation. Unfortunately it is extremely hard for a peripheral country to have access to the know-how developed in the great centers of knowledge, namely central Europe and the US. So, we had to find an economical way without detriment of scientific rigor; publishing and editing articles using an open access philosophy seemed the right solution. Furthermore, the lack of a systematic compilation of paleontological techniques is evident in the literature.

What makes Journal of Paleontological Techniques unique?
There are a few things that make our journal unique:

1. There is no other journal focused on the practical side of paleontology. Some typical paleontological journals publish sporadically on paleontological techniques, and there are a handful of printed publications. However, there is an immense quantity of knowledge acquired by generations of preparators that is hard to access if you cannot go to the main conferences or workshops.
2. Also, preparation is practical in its essence. Thus, our papers can include videos and as many photos as necessary to make a technique easily perceptible. Most of the time it is difficult to express these techniques in words.
3. Our publications are edited in volumes. Each article is published by itself as a volume, which decreases the total amount of time for publication. This flexibility allows us, for example, to publish annals of congresses or symposia.
4. Our journal is totally open access and double-blind peer-reviewed. This doesn’t make our journal unique but certainly a “rare specimen.”

What advice would you give to authors who are interested in submitting their manuscripts to JPT?
Write! The preparation community is not used to writing about their findings, some of which are extremely important and can save thousands of euros for paleontological institutions. To spread paleontological techniques is to advance paleontology as a whole. Preparation is a science as well, in its most Popperian essence. To test and refute paleontological techniques is possible, and in fact, is done by all preparators everyday when we use different products, methods and tools, striving for the best way to do something efficiently.

What kind of difficulties, if any, have you encountered in editing JPT? How have these been solved?
When we embraced this project we quickly realized that the challenge was not to create the space to publish practical-paleontological ideas, but almost to change the status quo that preparators face nowadays. Institutions hire preparators to prepare fossils, not to write scientific articles. However, to my eyes, that is a rather limited view about the role of preparation. Preparation is the technical side of paleontology, and like any other science paleontology has its own methods—methods that are publishable. Actually, methods that are required to be published. Moreover, thinking strictly in an economic perspective, by spreading this sort of knowledge, preparator’s employers will quickly realize that they can save money by KNOWING and SHARING their knowledge.

In order to circumvent this problem, we are trying to present at as many events related to preparation as possible, not only to publicize the journal itself but also to spread the ideas behind it. We are part of mailing lists, groups of geosciences journals, and a gazillion things like that. For every preparation-related paleontological event that we know, we try to contact the organizers in order to publish the abstracts or edit a volume with selected papers. We are currently trying to organize an opinion paper that will be submitted in a mainstream paleontological journal, about the underestimation of the importance of preparation/paleontological techniques as a legitimate science. We recently got a wave of papers submitted, and hopefully it will be sustainable.

What has been the best part of editing a journal like JPT?
What I enjoy most about this project is actually the spirit of the journal and the challenge it represents. I believe the actual scenario is difficult, but not impossible to surpass. Ideally we would like to get help and cooperation from various areas of the preparation community, starting from the preparators themselves, up to the heads of departments, and paleontologists.

Image credit: courtesy Ricardo Araújo, originally published at Palaeontologia Electronica.

Retirado de openpaleo.blogspot.com

As cabeças cheia de ar

Irra, que só deves ter vento na cabeça!
A expressão não podia vir mais a calhar já que dois professores de anatomia da Universidade do Ohio (EUA) publicaram este mês mais um trabalho sobre a os seios paranasais de dinossauros. O estudo "The paranasal air of predatory and armored dinosaurs (Archosauria: Theropoda and Ankylosauria) and their contribution to cephalic architecture." foi publicado na revista Anatomical Record por Larry Witmer e Ryan Ridgely e devo confessar que é do melhor que a paleontologia de dinossauros tem feito nos últimos anos. [Para um europeu como é estranho que o americanos ponham paleontólogos a ensinar anatomia humana aos seus futuros médicos.] E se há uma coisa que estes senhores não têm na cabeça é: ar.

Bom, para dizer a verdade até têm, todos temos! Reparem na figura abaixo e vejam quantidade de ar que a nossa cabeça contem. O azul escuro representa o nosso cérebro, todas as outras cores são preenchidas por ar.

























No que diz respeito aos dinossauros, esses, tinham necessidades realmente ciclópicas e para poderem perder algum do peso da cabeça (cerca de 8% para ser mais específico) acabaram por desenvolver (como eu detesto este verbo aqui) cavidades pneumáticas muito maiores que as nossas. Esses espaços preenchidos por ar são uma solução económica que certos animais, no decurso da sua história evolutiva, acabaram por explorar. A razão é simples, conseguimos aumentar o tamanho atenuando o aumento proporcional do peso sem comprometer a resistência. Experimentem abrir uma placa de cartão e vêm o que quero dizer, já que, o cartão canelado não é mais do que papel e ar! Se o ar existente no interior dessas mesmas placas fosse preenchido por papel teríamos algo mais parecido a madeira que a cartão, claro que seria resistente mas o peso seria muito superior. Muitas vezes é preferível perder 5% da resistência para podermos livrar-nos de 80% do peso.


Claro que para quem tinha uma cabeça que pesava 515 kg qualquer emagrecimento é bem vindo, não dá jeito nenhum ser tão cabeçudo.
No caso dos dinossauros, era extremamente "inteligente" ter a cabeça cheia de ar.




A Evolução é um processo fascinante e muitas outras utilidades poderiam ser extraídas destas cavidades: ressonância para vocalizações e consequente comunicação entre os animais, ou mesmo a amplificação de sons mais difíceis de ouvir, ou até mesmo a termorregulação através do ar respirado... Tudo isto pode ser estudado com o recurso a técnicas de Tomografia Computorizada e de processamento dos dados em software de manipulação 3D. O resultado final são crânios virtuais mais parecidos a esculturas pré-colombianas do que a fósseis do Mesozóico.
Um mundo está ainda por explorar para quem pensava que ter a cabeça cheia de ar não tinha interesse nenhum.




Publicado simultaneamente no Lusodinos

Imagens (sexta)

Casca de ovo de titanossauro, a Argentina tem destas coisas...



















(clicar na foto para aumentar)




Publicado simultaneamente no Lusodinos.

Imagens (quinta)

A Alice e o Argentinosaurus huinculensis.

























(clicar na foto para aumentar)




Publicado simultaneamente no Lusodinos.

Imagens

Durante uma semana, publicarei uma imagem que me tenha marcado nesta última viagem pela Patagónia.



















Ovo de dinossauro saurópode, Cretácico da Argentina.




Publicado simultaneamente no Lusodinos.