Rico Penguin

  So I’ve spent much of the morning working on the following animation to showcase the major events of the Renaissance. It’s a little bit better than the previous one and this time all the dates are spot on with a little commentary at the bottom. This should be just weird enough to stick in your (and hopefully my) mind.

  So lets see. Where should we go next now that that is done (this thing is roughly a minute and a half long and it took me hours to complete).

  Real quickly lets do a crash course through the paintings that were on the last exam and are likely to show their face again.

This is the Primavera, from right to left we have Zephyr, Chloris, Flora, Venus (Below), Cupid (Above), the Three Graces, and Hermes.

This is Pallas (Athena) and the Centaur, from right to left you have Pallas (Athena) and the Centaur. I’m sure you figured that out though.

This is the Birth of Venus, from right to left we have Hour (a season), Venus, Zephyr (Male) and Zephyr (female). This one raises some confusion since the winds are blowing flowers (like Flora) and the season or Hour looks like…well Flora. Methinks that Botticelli was just horny for Flora in general.

This is Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, he is 8 heads tall and fits perfectly within a square and a circle (considered to be the two most sanctimonious shapes). Now I would like to take this moment to say shame on Microsoft for not having Vitruvian in their dictionary.

That is the Florence baptistry, it makes a lot of sense why it would have been used for Linear Perspective. You can attribute two big events, the battle of Ghiberti and Brunellesci as well as the discovery of LP to this structure. So its a nice way to keep multitudes of information in your brain.

Massacio’s Tribute Money is a great example of Horizon Line Isocephaly, in other words the horizon line is at the head height of the figures and more importantly all the angles should point your eyes to Jesus. He was always a sucker for attention.

Pietro Perugino’s Peter Receiving the Keys, easy to remember as it is someone retrieving keys, Also Pietro and Peter kind of sound the same. The horizon line here is at the doorway to the building in the back (that looks a lot like the baptistry). Follow the tiles on the ground for confirmation.

Leonardo’s Last Supper is another example of using Isocephaly and Linear Perspective to draw everyone’s eye to Jesus. It makes sense, if you are going to do a picture of Jesus you figure he’ll be the main point of the image.

On your left is Brunelleschi’s entry for the baptistry and on the right is Ghiberti. The level of detail on Ghiberti’s is likely what got him the win.

Massacio’s Holy Trinity is another example of using LP to draw the eye to Jesus. Although I’m not sure why there is such an attraction to the whole…you know…dead or dying Jesus.

On your left you have Donatello’s take at David. Standing over the decapitated head of Goliath. I was under the impression that he wore clothes and didn’t use weaponry outside of a sling and stone but maybe I’m just misinformed (likely). On your right you have Verocchio’s take on David, has armor but it is skin tight and once again standing over a decapitated head of Goliath. Finally you have Michelangelo’s David. He opted for a more adult dude, but naked nonetheless.

This is Donatello’s St. George, I know I won’t remember his name well but hopefully you will. I suppose the cross on his shield should help remember the sainthood.

We begin with Verocchio’s mobster looking “Colleoni Monument” followed by Donatello’s Awesomely named “Gattamelata” in the middle, and Marcus Aurelius by…someone?

We have both sides of the Medici chapel here done by Michelangelo. The four naked folks underneath the two Medici are the times of day, on the left you have day and night and on the right you have morning and evening.

In both of these pictures you have St. Bernard talking with the Virgin Mary in works titled “Vision of St. Bernard”. On left you have Filippo Lippi’s version and on the right is Pietro Perugino. Notice the softer tones of Perugino’s work. That is what sets him apart from the more harsh works of the time (line wise).

Albrecht Durer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, then Knight, Death, and the Devil, and Adam and Eve. Try and remember these four, his works are sort of unique in that they are all grayscale and sharp drawn so it should be easy to punch him onto them.

Hugo van der Goes “Portinari Altar” is an example of someone influencing those in Italy rather than the reverse happening. His influence can be seen most prominently in the following.

You’ll notice those three dudes on the right and the troth being in both images. This one is done by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Shooting for the worlds most complicated name Antonio del Pollaiuolo is the artist behind both the sculpture and the painting. Each showing the battle of Hercules vs. Antaeus.

Lastly we have 4 works (one you’ve seen before) apparently nobody knows who did them but they are all four important and their names should be on your mind if you are taking the exam.

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The first is Marcus Aurelius, followed by Belvedere Apollo and the Belvedere Torso, and finally the Laocoon Group.

  I hope I’ve hit everything. If anyone who is taking the exam noticed some big holes feel free to send me an email and I’ll put them up. I too will be looking at this before the exam to refresh my memory .

  PS. That reminds me. Important to remember, Verrochio was Leonardo’s Teacher, Ghirlandaio was Michelangelo’s Teacher, and Perugino was Raphael’s. Just remember that daio sounds like angelo, Perugino and Raphael have p’s and r’s in their names, and that Rochio and Nardo are similar. Or you could just be a good student and remember them the old fashion way. But you know how that is .

Characteristics of Ornithischia

    There are some important things to know about Ornithischia when you are confronted by them. Well firstly I’d check your BAC but after that remember that all of them are Herbivores. Keep in mind that generally speaking you are more likely to be killed by Herbivores than Carnivores (they are aggressive enough to dwarf the hunger of many Carnivores). The had something called Ossified tendons up and down their spines. Now I don’t quite understand what this is yet. I’d look online but frankly I’m hoping to have it unraveled to me in the course. An image from future slides is as follows.

  It is even nice enough to point out the tendons, you’ll notice the cross hatching of them. Fascinating stuff. They possessed a horny bill on the front of their lower jaw. Think Triceratops if you want a quick (and relatively universal) visual.

  Finally they had their backwards pointing pubis bones. Which was more birdlike, which if memory serves, is where the orni comes in.

  Now I’m going to have to actually put the rest of these on hold. I’ve been stepping beyond my knowledge level in these latest questions and there is no reason to misinform myself and others. But this will most certainly be re-touched on.

  So unlike the dinosaurs this shouldn’t end up extinct, just delayed. Who knows what tomorrow holds.

What are the distinctions between the Sauropod groups Brachiosauridae, and Diplodocidae?

  This one is probably going to be short but it’ll be fun. You likely saw some images last time so I won’t repost them however the skulls are different.

  From the first group of Camarasaurs you have the Camarasauridae (which we aren’t learning about) and the Brachiosauridae which we are. Of these the special characteristics consist of demarcated snouts (check a dictionary I actually don’t know haha), chisel-like teeth in the entire mouth, they have longer front limbs than back ones, and finally they are heavier than the Diplodocidae (and Titanosaurs in general).

    Now unintuitively so the Titanosaurs are as stated before lighter than the Camarasaurs, of which the Titanosaurs comprise two different sub groups. You have the Titanosauridae which we aren’t interested in (because its not part of the Exam) and the Diplodocidae. With the Diplodocidae you have special traits of long broad noses, nostrils on the top of their head as opposed to front, pencil-like teeth instead of chisel like (big difference trust me), teeth at the front of the jaw (looks pretty weird to me brown skull on last post set is of this), long and slender fellows, and they have a V-shaped neural spine on the neck that is pretty neat. If it doesn’t come up later, that neural spine is likely for the attachment of that ligament from the previous post. When thinking of cranes you get a general idea of how handy a series of wires like that would be.

    I believe that is it for now. I hope you enjoyed this little foray into information about dinosaurs. Oh and so you get SOME sort of visual fun out of this lemme grab an image from our slides for you.

  Good stuff.

What are signs of a fast animal and what indicates their primary food source (carnivore, herbivore, omnivore)?

  When looking at an animal there are initial obvious hints. The stockier and thicker the bone the slower overall the animal will be. Now relative to humans just about any big animal will still stomp a hole through your torso if you try to slap them on the butt and run. A good rule of thumb when looking at the legs of an animal, the more ‘hinge points’ it has the faster the animal will move. Each hinge region (like your knee) essentially becomes a spring that helps an animal move much faster than even their muscles alone would allow. In Martial arts, people are told to stay on their toes which adds a new hinge at the Ankle.

  When looking for hints on the primary food source of an animal you check their teeth. It is the first place food goes for processing (Well the mouth is) and thusly the best place to learn about the animals favorite snacks. Plant eaters will almost always have flat teeth, like a mouth full of molars. This is for grinding up plants and other soft organic material. Carnivores will have some gnarly fangs (canines) that are used for shearing, crushing, and otherwise maiming their prey. The larger the teeth generally the larger the prey. If the creature had raisin sized teeth you could expect they ate insects. Omnivores have clippers in the front usually and grinders in the back (like you or me).

Linnean classification and cladistic classification, The meaning of general and specific characters, How to construct and use a cladogram, and What are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs?

  Linnean classification is the one that everyone is familiar with, the whole kingdom phylum order genus species thing. I probably missed a few and ordered it wrong but you get the idea. I’m just proud of myself for remembering that many pieces. Cladistic classification is actually a bit weird and sort of the species equivelant of being racist. To me at least.

  When looking at Cladistic classification you have two groups of examination, the General Characteristics and the Specific Characteristics. The general being things that an animal has, like bipedal movement, something that helps describe the animal but doesn’t solidify its rankings in uniqueness and the Specific like the opposable thumb which is purely a human characteristic. It’s neat stuff but you have to be cautious to not use terms so broad (such as having a heart) that they are meanginless.

  Cladograms are basically line charts that take a group of similar animals, that is animals that share a ton of general characteristics, and organizing them through a system of Specific characteristics. For instance you might work from say a T-rex and slowly move towards its nearest modern relative. Along the way picking out the characteristic that it and all the animals before it have but none of the ones after it do. It would look something like this.

  While not very similar, the way this works is that you start with a backbone for fish, which is something all animals above it have but none before it, then you move to legs with Lizards and above have but Fish do not, then you move to hair which Dogs and above have but Lizards and below do not, then finally the Opposable thumb. Which where you start is somewhat arbitrary it helps to put like items together.

  One of the professors more detailed examples is below:

What is a tetrapod? What are the characteristics of a tetrapod that set it apart from a fish? How did tetrapods evolve from fish?

    A tetrapod, literally four legged creature, the major separation that I can think of that separates them from fish is that they have legs with fin like appendages (when dealing with water) whereas Fish literally have fins. Fish also have much thinner skeletal structures because most weight is supported by water. They also tend to have massive heads to body ratios. The evolution was likely the transition from fin to fin like appendage to appendage.

What are Behaviors of crocodiles that separate them from other reptiles?

  They tend to use pack behavior (pretty efficiently), they vocalize (albeit not exactly eloquently), and take care of their babies after they hatch. It’s pretty cute to watch…all things considered.

What is erect stance and what are its advantages? What tetrapod groups do and do not have erect stance?

  An erect stance is any creature that stands at or near verticle with two limbs that are the primary source of motion and a second set of limbs that is primarily used for grasping. Of the saurischian (lizard hipped dinos) prosaurupods and theropods were bipedal, of the Ornithischian (bird hipped dinos) the Ornithopods were bipedal. All other options were quadrapedal.

How do Saurischia and Ornithischia differ?

  As stated before, Saura were the lizard hipped and the Ornith were bird hipped. Has to do with the direction of the Pubis. With the bird hipped having it pointing it back, the others having it pointing down or forward.

What are the names of the Era, periods and dates of the periods when dinosaurs were alive?

  Now this part is a bit hard to remember. Basically working backwards keep adding 65 million years and you’ll get ‘close’ to the right years. 65 Million years ago was the end of the Cretaceous, which was the fall of the dinosaurs, 144 million years ago was the end of the Jurassic which was the time we built a park full of dinosaurs (wait a second), 208 million years ago was the end of the Triassic period, and 245 million years ago was the end of the Permian and more importantly the start of the dinos. If you are taking a multiple choice you should be able to get close to these dates by just remembering 65 MYA and keep adding 65 . Or maybe more accurately adding 50.

Coelurosauria vs Carnosaur

  Coelursauria is a group of Theropods that are identifiable by their (generally speaking) long necks, small heads, gangly arms, and small size. Carnosaurs are your T-Rex’s and Allosaurus’s. Big mofo’s that have lots of big stuff and tiny ass arms.

Attack methods of carnosaurs (a term which describes shape but has no cladistic/evolutionary significance)?

  I’m not sure what this question means. But we theorized in class that various carnivores of modern day may give us a good idea of how carnosaurs hunted. It is unlikely that they acted like fast animals given their size and more than likely were hunting relatively slow prey.

Compare and contrast Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus

  Tyrannosaurus has a huge strong head whereas the Allosaurus has a smaller head that is not as good at surviving side torque of a moving prey. The Tyrannosaurus also has much larger teeth and is overall larger. The teeth on the T-rex look like big fat fangs whereas the smaller Allosaur teeth are more bladelike. Allosaurus has longer arms too, so he could possibly scratch his itchy knee . The T-rex probably took a more gator like approach to killing while the Allosaur may have acted more like a large raptor or something similar, using its arms and head.

Evidence for stance and pack behavior in carnosaurs.

  The size of the creatures suggests that they weren’t super fast, their bodies just wouldn’t do well to support the weight at high speeds. Likewise considering their similarities to crocs it would seem reasonable to assume that they too act in pack patterns. Also there have been Carnosaurs that have been found with healed broken tibias which really would only happen if there was a pack looking out for one another. As for stance, a T-Rex couldn’t stand upright, it would be putting most of its weight on the weakest part of its Hip and likewise it would have to snap its own tail (fracture it) just to bend it along the ground like they often show them in museums.

Know the conditions of Sue’s skeleton and the other individuals she was preserved with.

  Sue has multiple conditions in her bones that show she likely suffered disease. She had a broken and healed tail, broken and healed ribs, and broken or malformed tooth. She even had bite marks that looked like another t-rex had bit her neck (A little too kinky for my tastes).

What kind of dinosaur is T. rex most closely related to?

  T-Rex is more closely related to various coelurasaurs than it is to other carnosaurs. Even the cute little compy is more closely related to it than Allosaur. According to Cladograms at least.

What is the evidence for how carnosaurs held their backbone?

  As stated before it had to do with the strong and weak points in their hips and the flexibility of their tails. They most likely leaned forward using their tails to balance the wait of their front leaning body and head.

How did Oviraptor live?

  Oviraptors  Their unfortunate skull structure made people incorrectly label them as egg eaters, in actuality they probably used their beaks to crush shelled creatures. For those that think I might be exaggerating.

How did Ornithomimosaurs and Dromaeosaurs live?

    Ornithomimosaurs were the dinosaur equivelant to the Ostrich. They share very common body types and were likely very fast. They probably ate plants, insects, and other small things.  Dromaeosaurs are actually what were incorrectly labeled velociraptors in Jurassic Park! . Not only were they wrongly labeled but the ones in the move were even increased in size by a few feet to make them look more menacing. So imagine a small version of those dinosaurs and you have them.

  On a somewhat unrelated note imagine this chasing your butt:

Principles of size, volume and surface area relationships. Be able to estimate weight of an object based on increase in a linear dimension, e.g. I have a cube that is 2 inches on a side and weighs 1 lb. How much would a cube of the same material weigh if it was 4 inches on a side?

  The size of a 3 dimensional object grows disproportionately in respect to the volume vs surface area. The volume goes up to the power of 3 whereas the surface area goes up to the power of 2. So an object that is 2 inches on the side and weights 1 lb would result in a 1lb for every 8 cubic inches. With this in mind a 4 inch cubed object has a total of 64 total cubic inches, that is 8 times larger so 8 lbs.

Early evolution of feathers and their purpose

  Feathers initially were more than likely downy and used for keeping animals insulated. As time progressed some animals probably grew longer feathers in order to glide from trees to catch certain flying insects and animals…oh and to surprise and catch non flying animals . Eventually you’d have flight.

Birds, characteristics of, and origins.

  The first bird is the Archeopteryx, well bird-like dinosaurs. Beak like mouths, long asymmetrical feathers and an in between stage of the hand that is very similar to bird like hands.

What is the first “bird” and what dinosaur group is it most closely related to?

  I think that my previous answer still fits here. If not that’ll be something on the exam I get wrong . Most closely related to Coelurasaurs.

What are the characteristics of Archeopteryx that make it bird-like and what makes it dinosaur-like?

  Feathers, Backward Pubis, bird like feet (3 toes front 1 toe back), all make it bird like. Teeth, distinct fingers, and a Gastralia make it dino like .

  Now quite honestly I had forgotten this is Wednesday. I really wish that was not the case. However over the next two days I’ll be covering the 6 chapters of info that will be in the exam. Hopefully it’ll all come to a better end than the one Dinosaurs succumbed.

  With 6 chapters to look over we split it cleanly down the middle. Today we’ll be discussing the Skeleton (hardest part), Classification and Relationships of Vertebrates (Step down in Hardness), and the Origin of Dinosaurs.

  Tomorrow you will (as well as I) be dealing with Size and Volume (Not too bad), Theropods-Carnosaurs (T-Rex And Friends), and Theropods-Coelosaurs (Raptors and Friends). Any errors in these headings will be corrected tomorrow as I go over the topics.

  The questions are from the study guide and I’ll be trying to answer them to the best of my abilities with the notes.

  What are the various Modes of fossilization? What are the best conditions for preservation?

  While I’d like to be creative and start from the least efficient and work up to the best we’ll do a downward spiral instead. The first method of fossilization is the best, known as unaltered, it is called such because as best as one can hope the organism has come from the past to the present with the absolute least amount of damage (mostly genetic). Insects that are trapped in Amber (or other small animals) is a great example of unaltered fossilization. The next of these unaltered situations is freezing, which also retains much of an organisms parts (not so much and not so long as the amber would), and finally bog mummies. What all these things have in common is that they are extremely low oxygen environments (perhaps extreme is a strong word), in the case of the bog people the environment is also acidic, and in the case of bog and ice it is a cool environment. All these things reduce the speed of degradation, bacteria is not very happy in any of these environments.

  A fun, if not disturbing, bit of info is that in an oxygen free environment a condition known as saponification happens, essentially the fatty tissues of a body turn into a soap like matter. So perhaps the name eludes to the end result . Likewise desocate refers to mummification which is another efficient way to preserve bodies (as Egyptians have shown).

  Moving onto a replacement like preservation (the one more people are actually familiar with). When organic material like leaves are buried, they’ll eventually be pressed and degrade until all that is left is a carbon film, it ends up looking like a photograph.

  Per mineralization is a similar (to me) system where the pores in organic matter is filled with minerals, usually silicon, when you think about dinosaurs that are well preserved this is likely the cause. If it isn’t you have a case of molds and casts, the bones and other matter just completely decay (as they should, bone is very organic) leaving a hole in the ground that tends to be filled with a different concentration of minerals. As far as I know, there is no actual dinosaur bone found anymore, just very well preserved casts. That may indeed be wrong but its what I’ve taken away thus far from the class.

  Another fun note is that skin, feathers, eggs, nests and turds can still be recovered from very very old animals in the right environment.

What are the Characteristics of bones, tendons, and ligaments? What are the names of all the major bones in a Dinosaurs body (and consequently most animals)?

  When thinking about bones in the general sense you tend to have a very thick and good-for-clubbing outer layer that surrounds a spongy inner layer (that any lion will tell you is delicious). There are variances in both of these factors when talking about birds (which are much lighter all around), or elephants (which are much thicker in general). When I see a cross sectioned bird bone it reminds me of those cupcakes that were a little ‘too airy’ that you bit into and find nothing but an empty chasm inside. Which in terms of cupcakes is tragic.

  Tendons are the wonderful little ties that connect muscles to bones, these are one of the reasons you have bones in the first place. If your muscles could retain shape without the framework of bones you’d have no need for tendons either…which may sound a bit stupid in retrospect but its just a bit of info out of the ole brain here. Next you have Ligaments which connects bones to bones, which together with tendons and bones helps fulfill all the basic requirements for building an organism (structurally speaking…not functionally).

  The part I was dreading comes next. There are 30 major bones in a dinosaurs body. Lets see if I can find an easy way to name them all.

  We’ll separate it into 5 parts, you have the head region, the torso, arms+hands, legs+feet, and tail. Vertebrae is actually split into 4 pieces. With this in mind it would go as follows.

Head:
  Maxilla is the top half of a skull more specifically the upper jaw.
  Mandible is the bottom half (otherwise known as the lower Jaw).
  Cranium is the…well it is the Cranium, what we commonly call our skulls.

Torso:
  Cervical Vertebrae is the first of 4 sections of the spine+tail, it consists of the spine between the base of the cranium and the shoulder region.
  Dorsal (Trunk) Vertabrae is the second of 4 sections of the spine+tail, it consists of the space between the shoulders and the top of the hips (well right up util that point).
  Ribs are the ribs and if you are curious what they look like check out a snake skeleton, those guys are made of basically nothing but ribs.

Arms+Hands:
  Scapula is the first part of what is the arm, I believe the slang term for it is “shoulder blade” but I may be wrong there.
  Coracoid is the bone that connects your shoulder blade to the arm. I think, that’s a complete guess honestly, I look on wikipedia and I’m still kind of lost. It’s there though (as you’ll see in a picture later).
  Humerus AKA the Funny Bone, is the top bone in your arm.
  Radius, one of two bones in the lower half of your arm, to identify it remember radius to Pinky.
  Ulna, the other of the two bones, to identify it remember Ulna to thumb.
  Carpals, those first bones in the hand.
  Metacarpals, the second set of bones in your hand.
  Phalanges (In the Hand), the tips of your fingers, perhaps even your whole finger. (I think it actually is the entire finger).

  Legs+Hands:
    Sacral (Sacrum) Vertebrae is the third part of the spine that consists of the hip region.
    Ilium working clockwise it is the top of the 3 pieces of the pelvic region.
    Pubis the next bone working clockwise in the pelvic region.
    Ischium the final bone in the clockwise scan of the pelvic region.
    Femur, the largest single bone in the Human body, great for clubbing.
    Tibia, the front bone in the lower portion of your leg. Break this and you are in for some serious recovery.
    Fibula, the back bone in the lower portion of your leg. Breaking it isn’t quite as bad but still sucks.
    Tarsals, the top bones in your footsies.
    Metatarsals, the bottom bones in your footies.
    Phalanges (In the Foot), the little piggies from that horrible horrible children’s song.

  Tail:
    Caudal (Tail) Vertabrae is essentially the tail. In raptors it is fused at about halfway down to the tip making it like a rod.
    Haemal Arches are what I believe to be the ‘ribs’ of the tail. For keeping it nice and sturdy.
    
    Below is an image to help clear up my terrible descriptions.
     
 

  Because of time constraints the following will be on tomorrows lecture as well. Good thing I’m starting very early.

What are signs of a fast animal and what indicates their primary food source (carnivore, herbivore, omnivore)? Linnean classification and cladistic classification, The meaning of general and specific characters, How to construct and use a cladogram, and What are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs? What is a tetrapod? What are the characteristics of a tetrapod that set it apart from a fish? How did tetrapods evolve from fish?What are Behaviors of crocodiles that separate them from other reptiles? What is erect stance and what are its advantages? What tetrapod groups do and do not have erect stance? How do Saurischia and Ornithischia differ? What are the names of the Era, periods and dates of the periods when dinosaurs were alive?