the Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas

John and I found a new book, the Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas, when we were visiting the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History last month. This is a cute book for kids and entertaining enough for adults. It has some nice and colorful illustrations by Nathan Hale, with the story by Anne Muecke. And yes, that is Cryolophosaurus you see on the cover, although he is sadly missing from the rest of the book. Not to give anything away, but a fun sidenote - Santa-saurus is played by a ceratopsid - so that is worth something there, right?!? The back cover of the book tells me that "a portion from your purchase of this book helps support [the American Museum of Natural History] scientific and educational endeavors."

Probably the best (although best in a completely goofy and possibly eggnog intoxicated type of way - if you are into that type of thing) is the CD that comes with the book. It contains five "Dinosaur-Christmas-Holiday" themed songs, set to traditional Christmas/Holiday tunes, such as: Hey, Duckbills! (Jingle Bells), The Allosaurus Chorus ("Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah), Hark! The Pterodactyls Sing (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing), Deck the Halls with Stegosaurus (Deck the Halls with bla bla bla), and We Wish You a Dino Holiday (We Wish You a Merry Christmas). The CD also has Al Roker reading the story from the Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas.

I wish I could figure out a way to upload these songs for you to hear, but the anti-Pirate (yaarrr) people make life more difficult every day (you can hear clips here at least). So, instead, I'll just post the lyrics, and you can hum the tune in your head. I guess I will start with and post the others on days to come. Consider it my Christmas gift to all of you. Your so lucky! ;)

Hey, 'Duckbills!

Hey, 'Duckbills! Hey, 'Duckbills!
Oh, how can we say
'Why your odd-shaped cranium
Evolved to look that way?
Hey, 'Duckbills! Hey, 'Duckbills!
Oh, how can we say
'Why your odd-shaped cranium
Evolved to look that way?

'Dashing looks aside, I think
that I would dread
To have so many bony pounds
en-crested on my head!
Unless this crown would bring, along
with sinus space
Some fine survival advantage to aid my
humble race!

Oh! Hey, 'Duckbills! Hey, 'Duckbills!
Oh, how can we say
'Why your odd-shaped cranium
Evolved to look that way?
Hey, 'Duckbills! Hey, 'Duckbills!
Oh, how can we say
'Why your odd-shaped cranium
Evolved to look that way?

Hidden in your crest were chambers
full of air,
Could these extra cavities enhance
your vocal flair?
'Did they make your voice resound
so deep and loud?
Or was yoru crest just fashion fluff to
make your mate feel proud?

Oh, how can we say
'Why your odd-shaped cranium
Evolved to look that way?
Hey, 'Duckbills! Hey, 'Duckbills!
Oh, how can we say
'Why your odd-shaped cranium
Evolved to look that way?

Lyrics by Anne Muecke

Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History

Traumador of the Tyrannosaur Chronicles is hosting this month's Boneyard carnival and asked for submissions on "My Favorite Museum."


Here is what I have for him - my recent trip to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, located on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.



The first time I had a chance to visit this museum was in 2002 when the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting was held in Norman, Oklahoma. I can't remember if we had the meet and greet there or not, but I do remember that the auction was there! The museum was so full I did not get to see many of the exhibits well. So this visit was a long time coming!

I went down to look at their beautiful Pentaceratops sternbergi for some continued research I am doing with chasmosaurine ceratopsids. They have wonderful collections if you ever have the chance to visit them (this is the way all museum collections should be!). It was great to spend the entire day in the museum and get to tour their exhibits (which you can do virtually here). They have a new Paleozoic exhibit (many pictures of that above, click here if they are not working for you or for larger views). They also had a traveling exhibit "Hatching the Past," about dinosaur eggs and discoveries with many nice Lui Ray prints. And as always, it was nice to see their other paleo exhibits and the Karen Carr murals throughout the displays. Saurophaganax and Apatosaurus are fun to see, even if it is impossible to get a good photo of them ;)

I remember going to the museum at OU (University of Oklahoma) when I was a kid and it was the still the Stovall Museum. The Stovall is now gone, but this 'new' museum is definitley worth a visit if you are ever in (or near!) Oklahoma!!

Oklahoma's Dinosaurs

I will be swinging by the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History to do some work over the Thanksgiving holiday. They have a new Paleozoic Hall that opened this past summer and have a new temporary exhibit, "Hatching the Past," about dinosaur eggs and discoveries that should be interesting to see. The museum also has many great murals by artist Karen Carr, which I always enjoy seeing. I have a copy of her "Jurassic Landscape" that has been hanging in my office for 5 years that I bought when SVP was in Norman back in 2002. It has suffered from the direct light through my windows, so I am looking forward to getting a new copy of that!

Getting in the spirit of all things Oklahoman, there was an article a few weeks ago on the Oklahoma News 9 website about "Oklahoma's Dinosaurs" that one of my aunts sent to me. Since I am from Oklahoma I thought I would share the story.



Oklahoma’s first residents

Posted: Nov 6, 2008 07:48 PM

Updated: Nov 9, 2008 04:57 PM

By Christian Price, News9.com INsite Team

"NORMAN, Okla. -- From the highest point of our state, to the woodlands that haven't been explored, dinosaurs can be found in every part of Oklahoma.

Dr. Richard Cifelli, a Paleontologist with The Sam Nobel Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, says Oklahomans don't realize what really lies beneath their feet.

"Oklahoma is fossils from the grass roots down; there are fossils everywhere," Dr. Cifelli said. "It's truly a remarkable state because of the diversity of the kinds of things we have. People get this idea that dinosaurs are only found in really exotic places like Mongolia or Patagonia."

Some of the dinosaur material from Oklahoma is the oldest ever found.

"The oldest material that's from Oklahoma, the oldest vertebrate material, is about 450 million-years-old," Cifelli said. "It's some of the earliest vertebrate material known in the whole world, and it comes from a site in the median of Interstate 35 as you're going over the Arbuckle's."

Our official state dinosaur, the Saurophaganax, is only found in the state panhandle (see painting below).

"We do feature a very large meat eating dinosaur out there," Dr. Cifelli said. "This thing goes by a kind of complicated moniker, Saurophaganax, but it's basically an Allosaurs on steroids. It's a real big bad Allosaurs. It's got three big claws on the hands and big jaws, so a very impressive one. It's only been found for certain in Oklahoma."

Even the animal with the longest neck in the world has been discovered in our red dirt.

"The other really cool thing we got from south eastern Oklahoma is this thing we named Sauroposeidon," Dr. Cifelli said. "It's a long necked dinosaur and it's actually related to the Brachiosaurs, but it's about a third larger. It's got the longest neck of any animal known in the world at 39 feet."

According to Dr. Cifelli, many of the most recent discoveries have all been found in the same area.

"Most of our discoveries through the 1990's and on into this century have been made actually at a state prison property down in south eastern Oklahoma," Dr. Cifelli said.

The person who found the dinosaur bones has a unique tie to the prison as well.

"That material was discovered by a guy who trains the prisons canine unit," Dr Cifelli said. "His job is to basically run these dogs all over the whole property and he's a backwoodsman and he knows bone when he sees it."

Discovery of dinosaur remains still occur in Oklahoma, most of which are found mostly by locals."

[link to story] "Jurassic Landscape" is a copywritten image and was used with permission from Karen Carr to R. Hunt-Foster for this blog post.


Maybe if we have time on our way back from Oklahoma we can stop by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and see their temporary exhibit, "Dinosaurs: Ancient Finds, New Discoveries."