66 days until the paperback release of When the Earth Was Green

241 days until the release of Tyrant Lizard Queen

Long, long ago, towards the end of my personal Paleozoic, I wanted to write a shark book.

Of course I read JAWS as soon as I was allowed to check it out. And MEG, and White Shark, and Extinct, and the outdated, musty books in my school library like Shadows in the Sea. Prior to Shark Week, I’d make some hard choices about which VHS tapes to record over so that I could have the best of that year’s basic cable broadcasts. I loved the fish about as much as I loved dinosaurs, so, being a little impatient about wanting to make my own contribution to shark literature, I decided at 13 to write my own megalodon novel.

I only got a few chapters in. It was as derivative as you might expect. Mostly a collection of “wouldn’t it be cool if…?” thoughts from all the hours spent watching JAWS I-IV. I knew I didn’t have the rest in me, and no one would take something like that from a middle schooler seriously. Certainly not as violently as I was going to write it - a core element of any killer shark tale. All I could tell you of it now are the parts that generated confusion and critique from the few people I showed it to.

And now, thirty years later, I’m back writing about Otodus megalodon again. I can’t specifically say why yet. But it feels like catching up with an old friend. The frantic pace of freelance science writing usually keeps me hopping from one topic to the next. This is the nature of news. And that’s why it’s been refreshing to let myself sit a little heavy in familiar waters, think about what’s down there. What’s always been down there. What may be ready to break the surface.

Scribblings

• This week’s article for premium subscribers is all about an unexpected Cretaceous face bite and the afterlife of an Edmontosaurus. Last week’s article, on Tyrannoroter, is up on my website.

• Most of my writing work this week is still on its way to publication, but I’m working on something related to an article I wrote a few month’s back for National Geographic about dinosaur skin impressions. Turns out, there’s more than one way to make a dinomummy.

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Ear Perks

• It’s the tiniest pachycephalosaur! Even though it’s unclear what dome-head species the fossil represents, the partial skeleton is the most complete look yet at a yearling from this still-mysterious group of dinosaurs.

• Like I’m not going to be excited about a trailer for a body horror tentacle sex comedy (I suppose one of at least two coming soon, lucky us).

• A new paper offers a stunning look at a Cretaceous toothed bird. I’ll be writing about this study for you in a few weeks, but you can check out the paper on Gorgonavis right now.

• For all you paleoartists and paleobotany appreciators, Juilianne Zelda Kiely has a good guide on how to draw prehistoric Ginkgo.