Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Pictures Hot off the Cambrian Press!















I figure it's probably a good idea to own at least one "first edition" product from your own store. I really like how my Canadaspis Perfecta design turned out, so not too long ago I decided to snap the first one up, before someone else decided to. So I put in my order, along with some other stuff as gifts for my family

I have to say that all in all, I couldn't be much more pleased with the result! Not only is the sweatshirt high-quality, but the design in sharp, and the colour is vibrant. It's been through the wash, to no ill effect, as well.














Anyways, I figured that some of you might be interested to see evidence of the physical products, so, through the miracle of "teh interwebs," there it is to the left! Very cool, very cool indeed!

In other fossil news, Discover Magazine published it's 100 top science stories of 2007 issue, and bagging the #10 spot, was an article named "T. Rex Time Machine." The article talks about Mary Schweitzer's work sequencing proteins preserved in T. Rex soft tissue. Said proteins turned out to be extremely similar to modern chickens.














But the T. Rex protein isn't the real breakthrough, but the fact that soft tissue was preserved over around 68 million years. Conventional wisdom for the past, well, forever, has told us that soft tissue does not survive the fossilization proccess. Who's willing to bet that, now we know to look, we start finding all sorts of cool stuff?

Another article, #57, dealt with research into the classic dinosaur death pose, controversial, because some claim that only death in, well, a great flood would produce the pose. Cynthia Marshall Faux has suggested that the pose may be a result of opisthotonos, which apparently is caused by injury to the cerebellum. Apparently this has been observed in modern birds, so why not dinosaurs as well?

There were several other interesting tidbits for the paleo-minded, but you'll just have to buy the magazine to find out the rest!


Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Squidoo'd

Hey Fossil Fans,

Well, I've done it again. This morning I joined Squidoo thinking I would put a little promotion lens up for the trilobite clothing store (www.cafepress.com/trilobite , in case you missed all the other links on this page!). Anyways, that original concept has been expanded somewhat.

My lens is now called "Dinosaurs and Fossils: The Ultimate Guide," and is rapidly turning into a behemoth. So far I'm going through the history of life on earth, with plenty of links to articles with more depth on various topics. Truely, it is an epic undertaking, which may outweigh even the mighty wikipedia one day!

So check it out at http://www.squidoo.com/dinosaursandfossils/

I'm pretty pleased with myself, needless to say.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Another cool fossil store, for the Dino-Fans!


So I found this super-neat design at a fellow cafepress Shopkeeper's store, and I thought I'd post to help spread the word! This isn't all the Dinochick store has to offer though, check out the brand new "Dancing Ceratopsians" design as well! Very cool.

The URL is: www.cafepress.com/dinochick

Check it out!

Friendly Ostrich, or ferocious child-killer


Lately I've been thinking, are we really 100% sure that Big Bird is a bonafide "bird." While looking at a picture, I realized that his beak is less of a beak than well, the snout of a vicious raptor.
With this whole bird-dinosaur connection, we should really be more careful about our so-called "feathered friends." After all, how do we know when or if gamma radiation will activate the long dormant "slaughter in packs" gene of say, starlings or robins. If you saw Jurrasic Park, you know my terror!
But I digress...
The real topic of this post is a talk I heard by Dr. Phil Currie, of the University of Alberta Paleo department, a month or two ago. In it he covered in brief some of the amazing discoveries being made these days, especially those relating to the fossilization of soft tissue (muscle, arteries, etc).
In one of his slides, he showed the cross-section of a T-Rex leg that showed a layer of bone found in modern female birds, which is related to egg-laying. So, T-Rex had hollow bones, a la birds, as well as this bone layer. Pretty interesting stuff.
Next, he showed how paleontologists think they've discovered fossilized blood vessels inside said hollow bird-like bones. Conventional wisdom has always said that soft tissue cannot survive fossilization, but conventional wisdom seems to be wrong!
Needless to say, I was totally beside myself with glee after the lecture!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Velociraptor: The New Peacock?

So apparently scientists are almost completely sure that velociraptor had feathers. (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hfrz4P9iuz2PMVx546JTCapQvsNA)



This raises a lot of interesting questions like, how scary were these things anyways? I mean, sure, an ostrich may scare some, but how much more would it instill terror if it had scales?


Wikipedia has an awesome artist's impression of Deinonychus, which I've posted to the above. I Like the whole puffin look it has going on!

In all seriousness though, this whole "dinosaur-bird" thing is really starting to grab my interest. Exactly how many dinosaurs had feathers that we have traditionally assumed didn't? Apparently a relative of the T-Rex had feathers as well... was the mighty Tyrant Lizard more akin to a thanksgiving turkey?

Well, I'm off to find some scholarship to read about this whole thing!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Fossils: Uniting the World?

Hey Fossil Fans,

I couldn't resist a post to analyze the stats to my cafepress store, even though they have nothing to do with fossils. It seems that people all over the world are eager for fossilly goodness!

The biggest group is still the USA, though. So far today, for instance, 30 of 57 hits have been from the US.

Second is jolly old Canada, my own country, with 7 hits. Now this may seem pitiful, but think about it this way: The population of Canada versus the US is 33 022 208 versus 302 907 501, or a ratio of 1:9.17. So, I got one hit per 4 717 458 Canadians, and only one hit per 10 096 917 Americans! I knew there was a way to make Canada's hits seem better! And just to note, I blocked my IP from counting in the stats, so it's all legit! :P.

The Netherlands stepped up to the plate with three hits. Could it be that legalizing everything actually creates an interest in my products? Or perhaps fossils in general? This definitely bears further study...

Next in line is France with two unique visits. France is my homie, and Canada shares an official language with France, so that makes us rock it together! Nuff said.

Belgium also gave me two hits, obviously not wanting to be outdone by France...

Germany had one hit... I'll avoid my usual cracks about the war :P (Fawlty Towers, anyone?).

One for Austria as well, keeping pace nicely with Germany.

One from Israel, which is cool, my first hit from the middle east!

One from China, cruising through on the paleo webring I belong to. I've heard that paleontology is getting huge there.

And finally, one hit from an ominously "unknown" location. Are aliens interested in this sort of thing too?

To sum up, I really have to show some love for the US for the interest you are showing my site. We Canadians totally make jabs at you to show our love! Hits are flowing in from all over the world, and that's super cool as far as I'm concerned!

Anyways, I promise the next post will have something more to do with fossils, lol.

Friday, September 7, 2007

More on Drumheller...

Hi fossil fans,

I mentioned the Royal Tyrrell Museum, in Drumheller AB, in my last post, and today I read an interesting story in relation to Drumheller. Go ahead and read it for yourself at http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/travel/story.html?id=7634fab1-1e59-4838-9929-f7e085a001bb .

The article talks about the new expansion and renewal of the museum (which I saw, and it's awsome), as well as the rich fossil deposits of the area. The Drumheller area is known for dinosaur fossils, and only a few hours away, the Burgess Shale area is home to one of the most spectacular deposits of Cambrian period fossils in the world.

As an aside to that, and actually on the topic of trilobite clothing, I am basing my "Cambrian Collection" on species found in the burgess shale. That isn't to say that the species are exclusive to that deposit, but they were present there.

that's all for now!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Grand Opening...

Welcome to the official blog of Trilobite Clothing! In case you didn't know, we are located at http://www.cafepress.com/trilobite. We are steadily updating the store with new content, and are ready to satisfy all of your prehistoric clothing needs!

Marketing for the store will be going full steam ahead for the next few weeks, so check back here often for updates!

Just a side note: For fossil lovers in western Canada, the Royal Tyrrel Museum in Drumheller Alberta is an excellent place to visit. I highly recommend it!