Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Renato Santos

Natee (they/them) @himmapaan.bsky.social · Feb 10

#Iguanodon was formally named 200 years ago today in 1825. The second dinosaur to be named after Megalosaurus, and one of three genera originally used to define Dinosauria.

Pencil drawing of an Iguanodon, a large herbivorous dinosaur with a heavy, beaked, ungulate-like head and large distinctive 'thumb' claws on its hands.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 10

The branch looked a bit too much like an antenna for a tracking device so I had a look. Checks out 😉

Earth Notes: Tracking Burrowing Owls

In the western United States, a little owl is at the center of a big project. Researchers have outfitted burrowing owls with backpacks containing…

www.knau.org

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 7

Small blessing in a way: my first name seems to be rare enough the happenstance hasn't come up in a way I've noticed or remembered.

(Idly searched Google's news feed just now and it's mostly soccer players.)

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 7

Hey @wotcmatt.bsky.social just to be sure: the interaction between Aminatou, Veil Piercer & Room enchantments regarding miracle cost works the same as determining flashback cost for Fire//Ice in graveyard with Lier, Disciple of the Drowned on battlefield, right? (CR 702.1b)

Thanks for your time🙂

Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 6

Stark to see Musk stating towards the end his intent to dispassionately manage his fellow human as a trophy hunting entrepreneur manages big game: more meat for capitalism's grinder, more creativity to claim credit for.

He believes himself a savior. He's rather another blight on humanity.

Some More News @somemorenews.bsky.social · Feb 5

Hi. Elon Musk is not very good at things – running companies, managing the government's money, parenting, gaming, etc. And he thinks you're so fucking stupid that you won't even notice.

Elon Musk Thinks You Are So F**king Stupid - SOME MORE NEWS

YouTube video by Some More News

youtu.be

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 5

I do think that's the lead that's somewhat buried under complaints that CGI has gotten worse: working conditions for VFX artists have gotten worse.

‘Like being in the military’: embattled VFX artists push to unionize

Visual effects workers enduring long hours and low pay look to secure the same protections as film industry colleagues

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Renato Santos

Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · Feb 4

Bird nests made from anti-bird spikes?! 🤯

Hi, I'm a nest researcher 👋 and new here on BlueSky, sharing the craziest #bird nests I've ever found. 👀 Today, I’m sharing my discovery of rebellious birds that build nests out of anti-bird spikes. And honestly, it's like telling a joke...

A thread. 🧵

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 5

An interesting variation: Mongooses (including meerkats) have horizontal pupils as well.

I suppose the small size of these predators allowed larger predators to be an important selective pressure.

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Reposted by Renato Santos

Jenolab @jenolab.bsky.social · Feb 4

There's a petition to ban conversion practices (targeting LGBTQIA+ people) in the European Union. We need one million signatures, and we currently have 180,000+. If you live in Europe (even if you don't), spread the word ! 🌈🔥✊

eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#...

European Citizens' Initiative

Give your support !

eci.ec.europa.eu

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 4

Included in my furry resumé:

- Not as much the cartoon people angle as the creature feature one
- Indulged frankly furry forays even before I knew what a furry was
- So much lurking
- So much time to figure myself out: the queer in me, especially
- A good amount of relevant, moldering WIPs

Amaruuk @birdtooth.studio · Feb 3

Included in my furry resumé:

- Not actually one myself but have been furry adjacent online for like 20 years
- Do animal/creature art more than anything else
- Do use nonhuman creatures to represent myself online
- Most of my customer base are furries
- Neurospicy
- A little queer

Meek 🍁🍂 @themeekwarrior.bsky.social · Feb 3

Included in my furry resumé:

- Over 10 years of drawing primarily animals and anthropomorphic animals
- Gets called a furry without identifying as such
- Has drawn multiple human characters as some form of animal instead
- Loves the artist alley atmosphere
- Cool with 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
- Will share snacks

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Feb 4

That was the one I came here to mention: around 15 years ago, I had to take my time wrapping my head around the fact something so weird existed.

In any case, here's a video from way back then by @mbarinews.bsky.social .

Macropinna microstoma: A deep-sea fish with a transparent head and tubular eyes

YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)

www.youtube.com

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 24

Might as well have a look...

Yeah, I've fairly consistent with it, carrying the habit over from my last posts on Twitter. It's very convenient for sourcing images, beyond all the other useful aspects 🙂

Screenshot from @cred.blue's Bluesky Alt Text Rating tool, https://dame.is/ratingalttext . It shows a text entry box with an "Analyze" button below it. The analysis results for dracontes.bsky.social are as follows:

"342 posts analyzed
41 contain images
26 are replies
40 posts have alt text
Score: 97.56% ☺️ "

A semicircular score meter is shown at the bottom. It has sectors colored in red, orange, light yellow and light green, respectively from left to right. The black dial/hand is just above the horizontal edge of the light green sector, indicating a very favorable situation.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 21

Described in some detail in The Amber Spyglass, part of Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trllogy, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dar...

The books certainly have my recommendation as a good read 🙂

His Dark Materials - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 21

IIRC, "vertebrates" in the mulefa world have a lozenge layout to their body: a limb at each corner. So just the middle limb you see above has a counterpart on the other side.

A chaser: the swans someone mentioned below have wings at either end of the body and use those as sails.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 19

I've felt it more, I'll admit.

It's good though to find a level engagement that doesn't lead to burnout. Knowing how the literature goes, I usually wait for the review papers.

Henry Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · Jan 19

Don't you just. love dinosaurs

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 16

Years ago I tried, similarly, to do #art more consistently: jotting a scribble & working it as pareidolia suggests. The problem is Photoshop allows a lot of refinement & I was then neck deep in my undergrad degree.

In other news, doing this with MS Paint's calligraphy brush only was challenging.

Digital line drawing of the head of an alien planktonic filter feeder, seen from the front and side. It is reminiscent of aerodynamic/hydrodynamic design, especially air/water intakes, with a gaping mouth opening supported open by a midline vertical strut. A short, thick wing-like appendage on either side of the head trailing the mouth sports three simple eyes. The body continues eel-like, controlling its position with undulating lateral fins. The view into the mouth opening shows gill slits underlie the fins.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 15

Changing things up a bit to keep it interesting on MS Paint: this time with the menu's first brush.

Also committing to the bit, as it were, trying to recall as much ray-finned fish anatomy as I could. Probably not enough to make sense, but these are quicker drawings to get back on the #art horse.

Line drawing of a fantasy fish, attacking unseen prey with mouth agape. It has an inverted heterocercal tail. The long lower jaw seems ill-fitting for the short upper jaw and the former sports four long foreswept barbels.

#art #digitalart

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 14

Oh, I wasn't too late to the party on the layer count then. Though, fortunately, it seems I missed it so far regarding genAI. (Likely localization to Portugal holding things up.)

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 14

Exploring MS Paint more as far as brushes are concerned. This time, something calling back to Barlowe's Darwin IV & a perennial aesthetic fallback, Allosaurus.

Tentative takeaways:
- Layers in MS Paint are useful but not dependable
- I might just enjoy this foray into #art with limited implements

Red line drawing of the side view of an alien creature's head. It has the rough head shape of Allosaurus but with a snaggletoothed jawline, a trio of eyes at the end of a foreswept horn, a large nostril just behind and above the last teeth, and a gash-like vent on the back of the head.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 12

The rub is MS Paint may now have layers to ease workflow but AFAIK it can't save them so it's not like I can tarry for long in laying things out being at the mercy of, among other things, power outages.

Screenshot of MS Paint's tool ribbon with the layer subsection highlighted at the very end at the right.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 12

Did you know MS Paint has layers? I didn't until a few months or so ago.
So today I picked up an abstract scribble I saved (as one does). Duplicated/reflected layers until the overlap suggested... some sort of ruminant? Then I cleaned it up with the charcoal brush just enough for visual interest.

Paint sketch of a face-on view of a fantasy ruminant. It has long wavy tusks on both upper and lower jaws, large, wing-shaped ossicones above the eyes and smaller knobs on the lower jaw.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 12

Idle curiosity had me look into what the Inostrancev part of Inostrancevia means: "Foreigners" in Russian (see declension table on Wiktionary link).

Now, with the impression surnames were earned as nicknames by the populace early on, I wonder how insular a community has to be for such a sobriquet.

иностранец - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

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Reposted by Renato Santos

Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · Jan 7

A reminder that David Peters is a serial purveyor of nonsense, that he shouldn't be taken seriously, and that he is toxic and leading a highly negative campaign of constant criticism. ResearchGate have been alerted to this issue but have yet to take action. Please see... tetzoo.com/blog/2020/7/...

Why the World Has to Ignore David Peters and ReptileEvolution.com — Tetrapod Zoology

And so it is that I must once more write about the great eternal menace of our age: David Peters.

tetzoo.com

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 7

Explain your username

As a longtime fan of dragons & their inspirations, I checked DeviantArt in 2004 to see if "dragon" was in use. It was. So I used my knowledge of Latin & Greek by way of taxonomy to coin a word (I wasn't aware had already been coined).

While we're at it, relevant #art of mine.

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Renato Santos @dracontes.bsky.social · Jan 6

Considering Portugal & Spain's territorial history as once part of Arabic-speaking states, it'd be difficult not use loan words, borrowing inshallah as "oxalá"/"ojalá" or names of places like the Algarve, where I live.

Then again, US-centric surveys do routinely put into question whether I'm white.

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