Every few sentences there are words I want to borrow. You do the reptiles more than justice.
The ends of the Hell Creek rex and the rexlings sing. And, man, the ways some of these entries, like “Blood Tide”, start are beautiful.
Pliosaurs, polycotylids, and “sea-dragons” in time for Chicxulub? I think listing who the plesiosaurs are joining up on Death’s shore can work in the same spirit, but do you have a theory?
In the end, the end but not the end (of you writing about dinos). Hell yeah.
Thank you, David! I'm honored that you enjoyed it- and also that you caught onto one of the main inspirations for it. Really, thank you.
Dinosaurs are very special to me- they are THE fount from which my own sense of creativity sprang, and throughout my childhood their world was always the one I would retreat to in play and in dreams. It mattered a lot to me to write a fitting eulogy for them, among the many, many other celebrations of these wondrous creatures which have been written over the centuries since they were first brought to the light again from their graves.
As for the pliosaurs- I forgot that Megacephalosaurus was from the Turonian... oops. With the polycotylids though their latest remains are close enough to the KT boundary for some Signor-Lipps to possibly be in effect.
Here's to many more dinosaur stories in the future! May our good friends never be forgotten!
Beautiful! You mentioned bats in one of the stories. I didn't know they originated in the Mesozoic. I was under the impression that they arrived later.
It’s a bit speculative on my part… the earliest unambiguous bat fossils are from the late Palaeocene, but Chiroptera definitely originated in the Cretaceous. Since bat flight probably only evolved once, and even the earliest known stem-bats were already proficient flyers, it’s likely there were also volant Cretaceous bats. We don’t have any fossils of Cretaceous bats though so it’s all inference.
The Road: Dinosaur Edition.
Every few sentences there are words I want to borrow. You do the reptiles more than justice.
The ends of the Hell Creek rex and the rexlings sing. And, man, the ways some of these entries, like “Blood Tide”, start are beautiful.
Pliosaurs, polycotylids, and “sea-dragons” in time for Chicxulub? I think listing who the plesiosaurs are joining up on Death’s shore can work in the same spirit, but do you have a theory?
In the end, the end but not the end (of you writing about dinos). Hell yeah.
Thank you, David! I'm honored that you enjoyed it- and also that you caught onto one of the main inspirations for it. Really, thank you.
Dinosaurs are very special to me- they are THE fount from which my own sense of creativity sprang, and throughout my childhood their world was always the one I would retreat to in play and in dreams. It mattered a lot to me to write a fitting eulogy for them, among the many, many other celebrations of these wondrous creatures which have been written over the centuries since they were first brought to the light again from their graves.
As for the pliosaurs- I forgot that Megacephalosaurus was from the Turonian... oops. With the polycotylids though their latest remains are close enough to the KT boundary for some Signor-Lipps to possibly be in effect.
Here's to many more dinosaur stories in the future! May our good friends never be forgotten!
Beautiful! You mentioned bats in one of the stories. I didn't know they originated in the Mesozoic. I was under the impression that they arrived later.
It’s a bit speculative on my part… the earliest unambiguous bat fossils are from the late Palaeocene, but Chiroptera definitely originated in the Cretaceous. Since bat flight probably only evolved once, and even the earliest known stem-bats were already proficient flyers, it’s likely there were also volant Cretaceous bats. We don’t have any fossils of Cretaceous bats though so it’s all inference.
This is a good breakdown of it:
https://x.com/Rednaxela1821/status/1529519918730854401?t=L7Bwkj68x4YOIJrXIvO7Bg&s=19