With Spinosaurus temporarily out of the way, we're going to take a closer look at Acrocanthosaurus. This series is going to include a post on what we know and don't know about Acrocanthosaurus, how to restore the skeletal in multiple views, and how to restore the muscles. At the end of that series I'll also comment on some areas of soft-tissue variation that artists should keep in mind when they envision "their" Acrocanthosaurus.

First though, I wanted to take a moment to look at how my own reconstruction of Acrocanthosaurus has changed over the last decade. With any luck some of my earlier errors in methodology might help others who want to do skeletals. Also I hope to provide some insight to how I update skeletals over time, and the importance of revising your work as new data is published.

Join me after the break for an in depth look at the evolution of (my skeletal reconstruction) of Acrocanthosaurus...

A quick post (and a new skeletal) today, while I apply a bit more polish to the Acrocanthosaurus series. To satisfy all of your skeletal-drawing-based-amusement needs I give you Eoraptor lunensis, one of the most primitive dinosaurs yet discovered.

I've generally refrained from talking about subjects not directly related to paleontology and scientific illustration, but since our ability to have these conversations are now under attack, I've decided to make an exception today and add to the chorus of people opposing SOPA and PIPA.

Both are bills that are intended to protect intellectual property - and given what I do and how I make a living, believe me when I say that protecting intellectual property is an important subject to me. But the bills go (much) too far in crippling online commerce, removing the job of oversight away from the public eye (inviting the censorship of unpopular views, rather than illegal activity), and are unlikely to be effective in combating piracy.

I know, I know, my last post promised a series on reconstructing Acrocanthosaurus in multiple views - bear with me, as this is actually part of that series. Remember that both animals have stuff sticking up on their backs, so I want to be able to compare and contrast those elongated neural spines...and how those differences should impact reconstructions of the animals. But to do that I had to update this skeletal, as new information had rendered the older one no longer tenable.