{.size-large .wp-image-20650 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“20650” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2023/01/21/i-am-about-a-great-work/brachiosaur-humerus-life-size-process-shot-1/” orig-file=“https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/brachiosaur-humerus-life-size-process-shot-1.jpg” orig-size=“3024,4032” comments-opened=“1”

I’m sure you’ve seen things like ChatGPT in the news: programs that can carry out pretty convincing conversations. They are known as Large Language Models (LLMs) and are frequently referred to as being Artificial Intelligence (AI) — but I really don’t like that designation as it implies some understanding.

For some bizarre reason, I have only today discovered Sauropoda Central — a sauropod blog written by someone who goes only by the name “Davidow”, but whose introductory post reveals that he is occasional SV-POW! commenter Vahe Demirjian. It’s a solid blog full of meaty, sauropodolicious nourishment.

2022 was an exciting year for deep Earth and planetary sciences communities.

Professor Will Featherstone passed away on 13 May 2022 in Perth after a brief illness. He was 54 at the time he died but he had behind him a thirty year research and teaching track record and over twenty years as full Professor in Geodesy.

Here’s a nice early holiday present for me: 51 weeks after our first paper together, I’m on another one with Tito Aureliano and colleagues: Aureliano, T., Ghilardi, A.M., Müller, R.T., Kerber, L., Pretto, F.A., Fernandes, M.A.,Ricardi-Branco, F., and Wedel, M.J. 2022.

Some quick backstory: lots of sauropods have long, overlapping cervical ribs, like the ones shown here in Sauroposeidon (diagram from this old post): {.size-large .wp-image-10817 .aligncenter loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“10817” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2014/09/22/wheelbarrow-handles-for-vertebrae-the-cervical-rib-bundles-of-sauroposeidon-and-other-sauropods/sauroposeidon-cervical-rib-cross-sections-v3/”

I was googling around some photos, confirming to myself that turtles don’t have cervical ribs, when I stumbled across this monstrosity (and when I use that word I mean it as a compliment): {.size-full .wp-image-20555 aria-describedby=“caption-attachment-20555” loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“20555” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2022/12/07/the-cylindrical-zygapophyses-of-trionyx-spinifera/trionyx_spinifera_1496_std/”

Just to wash our mouths out after all the theropod-related unpleasantness yesterday: {.alignnone .size-full .wp-image-20548 loading=“lazy” attachment-id=“20548” permalink=“http://svpow.com/2022/12/04/heres-that-ventral-view-apatosaur-cervical-anaglyph-you-ordered/dscn1412-1413-big-bink-apatosaur-c7-ventral-anaglyph/” orig-file=“https://svpow.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/dscn1412-1413-big-bink-apatosaur-c7-ventral-anaglyph.jpeg”

Over on Mastodon (sign up, it’s great!), Jim Kirkland posted a baby Utahraptor caudal vertebrae for #FossilFriday.