This  is the fifth in a series of posts reviewing the Apatosaurus maquette from Sideshow Collectibles. Other posts in the series are: Part 1: intro Part 2: the head Part 3: the neck Part 4: body, tail, limbs, base, and skull Part 6: texture and color Part 7: verdict There are really only a couple of interesting points to discuss for posture: the neck and the feet. The neck posture is fine.

This is the fourth in a series of posts in which I review the Apatosaurus maquette from Sideshow Collectibles. Other posts in the series are: Part 1: intro Part 2: the head Part 3: the neck Part 5: posture Part 6: texture and color Part 7: verdict A long-running theme here at SV-POW!

This is the third in a series of posts on the Apatosaurus maquette produced by Sideshow Collectibles. The rest of the series: Part 1: introduction Part 2: the head Part 4: body, tail, limbs, base, and skull Part 5: posture Part 6: texture and color Part 7: verdict It is probably no surprise, given my proclivities, that I have more to say about the neck than about anything else.

This is the second in a series of posts in which I review the Sideshow Collectibles Apatosaurus maquette. The rest of the series: Part 1: introduction Part 3: the neck Part 4: body, tail, limbs, base, and skull Part 5: posture Part 6: texture and color Part 7: verdict First, a note on the photos. There a few minute white flecks on the head in the pictures.

I only learned about a month ago that this exists. Mike had written to Sideshow Collectibles and offered to review their Apatosaurus maquette if they’d send him a review copy. The folks at Sideshow were game, and would have sent Mike a complimentary review copy and covered the shipping. But the import fees would have been appalling, so Mike very generously suggested that they send it to me instead. And here we are.

Wedel’s Theorem: freezer full of interesting dead animals + great anatomy student who actually wants to get up on Saturday morning and dissect = happiness The rhea has been the gift that keeps on giving.

It’s been a little quiet around here lately. Mike has been slammed with day-job work, Darren is terminally busy as always, and I’m in my fall teaching block so I’ve been too busy to think. But life rolls on and there are announcements that need making. To wit: – My post on the long nerves of sauropods was chosen as one of ten blog posts for the Science Writer Tip Jar at Not Exactly Rocket Science, back in May.

Sinclair brontosaur, Hennessey, Oklahoma. This one has cement shoes because some ne’er-do-wells ganked the old one in the middle of the night a couple of years ago.

When you last saw this rhea neck, I was squeezing a thin, unpleasant fluid out of its esophagus. Previous rhea dissection posts are here and here; you may also be interested in my ratite clearing house post. We did that dissection back in 2006. Since then I finished my dissertation, got a tenure-track job, and moved twice. The rhea neck followed me, living in a succession of freezers until last spring.

Last time around, I referred in passing, rather flippantly, to what I called Tutorial n: how to become a palaeontologist .  Since then, I realised that actually I could write a tutorial on this, and that it could be surprisingly short and sweet — much shorter than it would have needed to be even a few years ago. So here it is: how to be a published palaeontologist.