Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs

Happy Easter! Lots of cool stuff on episode 33 of the Chasmosaurs podcast. Natee can finally show some exciting stuff they’ve been working on, for a museum in Switzerland no less! Meanwhile, Marc scares all the kids away imitating a posh dinosaur from the Isle of Wight. For our Vintage Dinosaur Art, the crew takes a peek Inside Dinosaurs with a very unusual book about dinosaur anatomy, and Gemma realizes a long held wish as Ellinor Michel and Bob Nicholls come onto the show to talk about an extrordinary project involving a recreation of one of the long lost creatures of Crystal Palace.

What is Bob Nicholls’ own favourite creation? What has been achieved eleven years since the Friends of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs foundation began? Has anyone heard of Bing? Can you feel your own caudofemoralis longus? Is Stegosaurus ever going to escape the dreaded walnut? Can we do a whole episode without triggering Natee’s tryophobia? Seriously, has anyone heard of Bing? And do you have little green dinosaurs running around inside of you, operating your body? Find out in episode 33!

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Spring has come early, and episode 32 has come late! In this one, Marc, Natee and Gemma discuss the unusual, singular and slightly deranged dinosaurs from the swinging 60s by cult palaeoartist George Solonevic, as it appears in a book called Dinosaurs and More Dinosaurs. Marc interviews the esteemed Stavros Svenson Kulindadromaeus Kundromichalis on his fabulous book on the dinosaurs of the Triassic. Have we polished up our Swedish? Will Allosaurus emerge from your wardrobe and swallow you up if you've been bad? Would Solonevic be less well-remembered if his dinosaurs looked more, well, normal? Can Stavros truly recreate every single dinosaur that has ever been described? How do you reconstruct the most obscure dinosaurs? Will Stavros and Johan Egerkrans fight to the death for the crown in the Swedish Palaeoart Brawl? You won't want to miss this one!

And, once again, happy year of the Dragon.

Show Notes at Chasmosaurs!

Our tremendous trio is back for 2024, but not all things are as they were... mostly they are, though. We get back into the swing of Vintage Dinosaur art, or is that Nostalgic Dinosaur Art? We explore the work of Mark Hallett, the man Marc once declared his Favourite Palaeoartist Ever, as it appears in Stephen and Sylvia Czerkas' Dinosaurs: A Global View, also featuring works by John Sibbick and Douglas Henderson. Then, Marc and Natee interview Andy Frazer, also known as Dragons of Wales, on his creative and provocative palaeoart, as well as his more fantasy-oriented works. Is Hallett still Marc's favourite? Where do the hornlets on Jurassic Park's T. rex come from? Would you kiss a Yangchuanosaurus? What's the worst advice you can give to a budding artist? Is there going to be a permanent item about dinosaur toys on the podcast? (No.) And what was the name of our editor again? Find out in episode 31!

And wish Natee a happy belated birthday!

Show notes at Chasmosaurs.com!

TetZooCon 2023 is in the bag, and of course, we were there. Join Marc, Natee and Niels as they relay their adventures, the talks, the vendors, the people, the experiences and the catastrophes of the legendary London extravaganza of zoology, palaeontology and palaeoart as it grows ever bigger. Did we all make it to the end? Who was our favourite cosplayer? Have all the Crystal Palace dinosaurs been scanned? Are we finally going to talk video games on here? Are there finally good looking dinosaurs in the Jurassic World franchise? Does Luis Rey love a festive dinosaur? Does The Lost World hold up? And what talk made us most want to vomit? Relive our memories of TetZooCon! Of course, featuring lots of interviews with attendees, vendors, artists and speakers.

Show notes at Chasmosaurs!

Niels, Natee and Marc look forward to TetZooCon, chat about recent museum visits, and continue to shamelessly plug the new merchandise designed by The Founder, David Orr. Then, in lieu of Vintage Dinosaur Art, they – and special guest Agata Stachowiak – discuss the Netflix series Life On Our Planet, in which Morgan Freeman gravels his way through an intriguing mix of modern-day wildlife footage and CGI recreations of creatures from Deep Time. Finally, Niels and Marc discuss unlikely hybrids, how our preconceived notions of certain dinosaurs can deceive us, who should be receiving many more museum commissions, and much more besides with the absurdly prolific artist Emily Stepp.

Show notes on chasmosaurs.com

Marc, Niels and Natee essay a new and improved, that is, much more informal, news section, as we follow up on previous items and comment on two new palaeo media releases. This month's Vintage Dinosaur Art is illustrated with the sculptures of Arthur Hayward and others and is an approach that we at least would very much enjoy seeing a return of in newer publications. Finally, our Lord and Blogmaster, David Orr, makes another very welcome appearance and joins Niels in interviewing writer, Asher Elbein, about his new book, co-written with Cindi Sirois Collins, Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals of Big Bend.

Show notes on Chasmosaurs.com!

As the summer fades and the leaves start falling, nothing better but to sit and listen to the latest episode of the LITC podcast. Marc, Niels and Natee discuss a favourite from the early 90's: Donna Braginetz' brilliant Dinosaurium, the dream museum in book form. In a not dissimilar vein, Marc and Niels interview Matt Dempsey, whose musculoskeletal dinosaur reconstructions are a great help to palaeoartists everywhere. Lots of discussions about tyrannosaur legs, ornithiscian quadrupedality and Jurassic Park abound.

What does Peak 90's look like? How can you tell a corn snake from a milk snake? Can a T. rex look too good? Will there ever be justice for Tenontosaurus? All this and more in episode 27.

Show Notes At Chasmosaurs.com

For episode 26, we’re crossing a big one from our list: The work of the legendary Zdeněk Burian, as it appears in 1972’s Life Before Man. Surely, this book is worth an entire episode, so we’re foregoing the interview this month. Niels, Natee and Marc discuss not only the art of the Czech master, but also his life, his beliefs and his enormous legacy. How did Burian get around reconstructing dinosaurs when he had no access to any fossils? Is romance dead in today’s palaeoart? What can we learn from Burain’s portfolio in the modern day? Will Marc be able to type “Petrodactyle” without AutoCorrect ruining his day? And will Niels be able to pronounce it properly?

Show notes at Chasmosaurs.com

We're back! After a few months' break, the podcast resumes with a Prehistoric Planet 2 special and welcomes the return of palaeoartist, Gabriel Ugueto, who can finally tell us more about his role as concept artist on the series. We can wax lyrical forever about the show, and nary a soul can stop us.

Show notes at chasmosaurs.com!

Our guest this episode is Emiliano Troco, a modern 'old master' whose traditional paintings evoke the imagery of the flowering of early 20th century palaeontology. Our Vintage Dinosaur Art title is Dorling Kindersley's The Ultimate Dinosaur Book, another of those formative publications released in the same year as Jurassic Park, and one which can quite justly claim to have then lived up to its name. Can Niels resist making a Slam Dunk joke? Can Marc resist referencing Jurassic Park and vintage dinosaur toys all at once? Can Natee resist breaking into Carrollean verse? Can Troco resist flying into a berserk rage whenever anyone mentions Zdeněk Burian? Find out in this exciting episode!

Show Notes at Chasmosaurs.com