The Living Dinosaurs? pt. 2

Hello everyone! Once again we will begin our voyage of discovery into the amazing world God made for us. But as usual, let's start with some updates, and believe me, today they're really worth reading!

Recently, 20th Century Fox has released the second trailer for a movie I can't wait to see, "Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie". Click the video below to watch it:

If you've been reading my recent posts, you'll recall that I have been working on my most recent stop-motion series called, "Planet of the Dinosaurs" for the past five months. I expected to have the first episode released in April, but I greatly underestimated the project. Well, you'll be glad to know that I have made major progress on the first episode of the series: IT'S FINISHED!!! It's finally finished! This episode which I've entitled, "Out of Africa" will take place in Egypt as it was 4,900 years ago, when huge dinosaurs stormed the planet. While this episode will feature a variety of dinosaurs that lived in Northern Africa, it will be staring the largest carnivorous dinosaur God ever assembled: Spinosaurus aegypticus and a slightly smaller carnivorous dinosaur a bit larger than T. rex called Carcharodontosaurus saharicus. This episode is about 30 minutes long, so you may want to read today's article before watching the clip. But whatever you decide to do, I hope you enjoy it:

I'll be releasing the next episode, "The Tropical Poles" next month after it's complete. How did you like the one you just watched? Please leave a comment or two!

Now it's time for this week's non-fiction topic:

Dinosaurs used to roam all over this planet. They lived on every continent, including Antarctica. Yet, their fossils only appear in rock layers underneath the K-T Boundary. This is where evolutionists believe a massive six-mile wide comet or asteroid slammed into the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago and killed not only dinosaurs, but most of the marine reptiles, pterosaurs and most of the other terrestrial creatures. That's how to look at things through a secular worldview. But, as Christians, we should instead use God's Word, the Holy Bible, to determine the history of Life on Earth – in other words, we should use our Christian worldview. So, dinosaurs were on the earth, now they're not. What happened to them? Dinosaur extinction is a lengthy topic, but I'd rather not discuss it today. Instead, there's another topic we're going to look at – instead of looking at why the dinosaurs are extinct, we are going to look at if the dinosaurs are really extinct? Yes, you read right! Your typical evolutionist would say no due to their beliefs, but if we follow the Bible's framework, we learn that the Flood of Noah's time described in the Bible was responsible for the many rock layers containing fossils under K-T boundary. The Bible also says that God brought two of every kind of land animal on board (and seven pairs of clean animals), so this would have included a “teenage” or perhaps sub-adult pair of dinosaurs (which were smaller and easier to care for than full grown adults). These dinosaurs came off the ark to reproduce in the post-flood world (even if they weren't as numerous as before). You will recall if you've read the article I wrote a couple of weeks ago called “The Living Dinosaurs”, that that post was the first of a two part topic (you can click on the link to go to this article). On the first part of this topic, I made a review for a movie that recently came out on DVD called The Dinosaur Project, a film about an ill-fated mission to find a living Mokele-mbembe (in the movie it was a plesiosaur). The topic of dinosaurs that could possibly still be living on the planet is a very extensive topic, and I plan to delve into much of it on a later date. So on this second part of this topic, we'll be looking at an animal that might not have gone extinct at all – maybe the dinosaurs didn't die out, what if they're still among us? Let's learn about Mokele-mbembe!

The theatrical poster for this movie

Creatures such as Big Foot, the Abominable Snowman, Loch Ness Monster and Mokele-mbembe are called “cryptids”, creatures that may or may not exist. In The Dinosaur Project, a group of scientists went to the deep jungles of the Congo in Africa to find a living Mokele-mbembe. Now, in the movie, this creature was a plesiosaur, but in reality, if this animal does exist, it is probably a dinosaur. Now let's learn about this animal in more depth.

An illustration of Mokele-mbembe

Over the past 100 years, sightings of Mokele-mbembe have been reported. While each of the report does vary some, they all have some similarities. This animal is described as being the size of or larger than an elephant, having a squat body and a long neck and tail. It is said to use its long neck to reach the tree leaves and fruit it eats (sounding familiar?). This beast is believed to spend much of its time in rivers and lakes. In fact, in Lingala language, Mokele-mbembe means “one who stops the flow of rivers”. They also are said to be able to climb out of the water and onto the river banks and they leave clawed footprints behind them. So this appears to rule out most, if not all Mokele-mbembe sightings as plesiosaurs, since most plesiosaurs probably couldn't leave the water and none of them had clawed feet. No, the animal that fits the description of Mokele-mbembe isn't any animal that is known to be living today; some skeptics have claimed this creature to be anything from a crocodile or large snake to the elephant, hippo or rhinoceros. The behemoth-animal is often said to be a gray-brown color. When explorers and scientists go into the Congo and other nearby regions to find evidence of Mokele-mbembe, they will often question the natives and show them pictures of living and extinct animals. They ask the natives to tell them which animal looks most like Mokele-mbembe, the natives often point to an animal only known to modern scientists from the fossil record with a long neck and tail, small head, thick legs and a large body – they point to a member of the sauropod kind of dinosaur. One sauropod that fits the description of Mokele-mbembe is a small Apatosaurus.

A dinosaur similar to a small Apatosaurus might be responsible for the Mokele-mbembe sightings.

The first time that Mokele-mbembe was known to people other than natives was when a French Missionary to the African Congo named Lievain Bonaventure saw the humongous footprints of the creature that were three-feet in diameter in 1776, but he never saw the creature itself. Of course, considering dinosaurs weren't thoroughly described until the early 1800's, if Lievain did see Mokele-mbembe, he probably wouldn't have had a clue what it was.

But between 1910-1911, reports of Mokele-mbembe were finally making worldwide news in the newspapers. Since sauropod fossils had been discovered, many people knew of a possible identification for the beast. Some were skeptical about this animal, while others believed otherwise. But regardless of personal opinions, there was no firm evidence of the creature's existence. There was only one way to prove whether or not this cryptid exists! Explorers and scientists would have to go out themselves and find the proof!

Scientists and explorers started going out in droves to find proof of Mokele-mbembe's existence. But most came back with the same results – failure. The only “proof” they brought back was either tales, stories and descriptions of Mokele-mbembe from the locals and/or sometimes sightings of large footprints. Here are just a few of the expeditions that took place:

1919-1920 – Smithsonian Institute: Failed

1927 – Alfred Aloysius Smith: Failed

1938 – von Boxberger – Failed

1939 – von Nolde – Failed

1979 – Mackel-Powell – Failed

1985-1986 – Operation Congo – Failed

1986 – Ronald Botterweg – Failed

2000 – William Gibbons – Failed

2001 – CryptoSafari/BCSCC – Failed

2006 – Vice Guide to Travel – Failed

2009 – Monster Quest – Failed

2011 – Beast Hunter – Failed

So as you can see, no one has yet come forth with affirmative proof for its existence. I mean, even with Big Foot, we have numerous photos and even a video or two of it. But for Mokele-mbembe, not one photograph or video . . . right? Well, for the most part that's true. However, some explorers who have claimed to have seen the animal have tried to either get a photo or film it, but, of course, most of these explorers who supposedly filmed or photographed it claim that their photos either didn't come out, were blurry, not really an animal at all and etc. While it may seem a little suspicious that maybe these photos or film footage never existed to begin with, I don't find it likely that every single one of those “supposed footage” instances were fakes. And actually, we do have a video that might be of Mokele-mbembe.

In 1988, a Japanese expedition went to the Congo. The expedition was led by a wildlife official named Jose Bourges. In the year of 1992, they were filming above Lake Tele (where the natives say Mokele-mbembe is often spotted) in a plane when they noticed something in the water. The cameraman tried to get a better look at the object and he caught 15 seconds of footage of a strange object swimming in the lake. The footage isn't the best, but it does appear that it could be a large, long necked sauropod! Of course, as has been pointed out by skeptics, it might also be anything from some men in a canoe, an elephant swimming or a snake. We may never know, but maybe, just maybe . . .

While we have no current evidence for Mokele-mbembe at this point, there are still many square miles of uncharted land in the Congo and surrounding areas. Perhaps somewhere in the deep jungles remains the last living dinosaurs on the planet (it's often said that in those deep jungles, you can be a few meters from an elephant and never know it!). If a dinosaur is discovered, this isn't the first time an animal previously thought extinct was discovered: a fish called the Coelacanth was thought extinct for 65 million years was rediscovered alive and well off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. The wollemia pine tree supposedly went extinct with the dinosaurs but was discovered living in Australia. A subspecies of whale thought to be extinct (by evolutionists) for the past 2 million years was also rediscovered in oceans in the southern hemisphere. So finding a living dinosaur definitely isn't out of the question.

The fossil skeleton of a large sauropod

Will scientists find a living dinosaur in the Congo? No one really knows, but it isn't out of the realms of  possibility. If they are out there (and there's definitely enough forest to hide in!), I sure hope they find one before the last of its kind vanishes from the face of the earth for good! Don't you?

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to come back to next week to read my co-author's - Joy Hammond's - latest article. Bye for now!

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.

Exploring the Ocean's Less-Familiar Inhabitants pt. 1

 Hello everyone! Today things are going to be just a little bit different. Normally, I give you updates on things happening in my life and then I present a non-fiction article, normally dealing with animals or something else in nature. But instead, today we are having a guest writer! But we'll get to that later, first, let's do some updates:

The first episode of my upcoming stop-motion series, "Planet of the Dinosaurs", which as you will recall is entitled, "Out of Africa" is nearing completion! It stands at about 85% finished! I expect to have it completely done by the 30th of this month. I'm so glad that I'm almost finished with this first episode because I will finally be able to see my hard-work completed.

If you've been reading my recent posts, you will note that I am writing about the updates for the upcoming movie known as Jurassic Park IV. Let's recap what we've learned about the movie in the past few months:

1. It's supposed to be a sequel.
2. A new scary dinosaur is making an appearence
3. It's not coming out on June 14, 2014 as originally planned due to major script changes
4. It's taking place on Isla Nublar, the island of the first movie
5. Colin Trevorrow is directing (he's directed movies such as Safety Not Guaranteed)
6. No mutant dinosaurs are in this movie

Did you notice that I underlined "supposed" in the first fact? This is because in earlier interviews with people working on the movie, it was stated that Jurassic Park IV (JP4) was supposed to be a sequel. But now this is put into question based on a recent interview with one of the main actors in the first Jurassic movie, Sam Neil. He portrayed the paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant. In the interview Sam stated that:

"I'm told it's [JP4] a big reboot, a total rejig."

He also said that since he believes its a reboot, he probably won't get a part in the movie because the movie-makers will want a fresh start with new actors. Now it's believed that if this is a reboot, the movie will still follow the same storyline as the original so that its sequels are not obsolete. However, Sam also admitted that he hasn't seen the final script that the director and a few of the film's writers revised. So Sam could have gotten some of the wrong information. I don't know for sure, but it's possible (and hopefully it's true) that the older script was the reboot, and the newer script is an actual sequel. I was kind of looking forward to a sequel considering we've already been waiting 11 years for it. Only time will tell whether Jurassic Park IV is a remake or not. Hopefully not though! Here is more information about the interview:

Now, my friends, it is time for today's nonfiction article by a guest writer! Today's guest writer is Joy Hammond, a friend from the church I attend, and she wrote about some of the lesser-known inhabitants of the ocean world. Here is her article:

Have you ever noticed the beautiful chirping sound a cricket makes late in the night or watched as an ant picked up a huge crumb of bread to bring it back home? Have you taken time to stop and watch nature around you?  Well guess what, the most amazing things are all in your backyard if you stop and look around! I'm sure most of you all have been to the beach. You've all had your time, building sand castles, tanning on a beach chair, or suffering on the waves. I'm sure you she all collected seashells every once and awhile. Have you ever wondered about what creatures lie within the sea? There are millions of miles of ocean to explore and the waters get deeper as you go in. 

Did you know that there are so many different sea creatures living in the sea that scientists have hardly just begun searching for! That's right. Because you see, there are so many unknown creatures near the bottom of the ocean floor! But these animals aren't as boring as they might look at first glance, God created these animals survive in the environment they live in. Those sea creatures that live near the bottom, tend to illuminate themselves, which is amazing for both scientists and the public.

There are five creatures that I'm going to talk about, but I'm only doing two for now: Barreleyes, glass squids, Transparent Sea Cucumbers, moon jellies, and predatory tunicates.

Glass squids are different than the average squid, they do not have the stinging tentacles of some other invertebrates (e.g. jellyfish) so they have to hide for their lives! As a baby squid, they live at the surface of the ocean but their transparent skin camouflaged them from predators, such as birds. As it grows, the glass squid moves deeper into the ocean, where there are larger predators but it still has camouflage. The most amazing  thing about this creature is that it can cancel out its own shadow with the small lights under its eyes, making it undetected in the ocean depths!

This is a little Glass Squid, as you can see, it gets its name from its translucent body. The only thing not transparent in these little guys is the cigar-shaped digestive gland (yes, that's in its stomach!)

Another sea creature is the Transparent Sea Cucumber! Average sea cucumbers live on the ocean's surface searching for food. They are constantly in danger as it moves only an inch per minute. Most sea cucumbers use camouflage to protect them from sea predators, the Transparent Sea Cucumber uses a different tactic...SURPRISE! This species of sea cucumbers was found in the Gulf of Mexico. When they sense danger, the Transparent Sea Cucumber, flips its tentacles out of its tail and over itself, looking like its wearing a cape. Then the tentacles propel the sea cucumber to a different location where they start digging again.

A sea cucumber, keep in mind that these animals aren't nearly as tasty as the food cucumber!

         These creatures are just a few of thousands that live here on earth. All you have to do to meet some is stop, look around, and be patient.

What did you think of Joy's article? Please leave comments to voice your opinion!

I hope you enjoyed this article. I can't wait till next week so that, not only can we learn more about the wonderful world God made for us to enjoy, but we can also look at the first episode of "Planet of the Dinosaurs"! See you then!

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.

Coloring the Terrible Lizards!

Hello everyone! Welcome back to my website/blog. Once again, it's time for more updates before we go to my most recent article. So let's get started!

I tell ya, just when I was starting to get really excited about Jurassic Park IV's release, something happens. As you'll recall, this movie was supposed to come out on June 13, 2014. And over the past few months, they've been slipping a little bit of information on this movie out. But something terrible happened recently to this movie – the release date has been . . . postponed! Why you ask? Well, for a few days, JP fans have been wondering why in the world they would postpone this movie. Then we finally got our answer. Here is what Universal Studios has to say about the film:

"Universal has decided to release Jurassic Park 4 at a later date giving the studio and filmmakers adequate time to bring audiences the best possible version of the fourth instalment in Universal's beloved franchise.
"We could not be more excited about the vision that Colin Trevorrow has created for this film, and we look forward to watching as he and the producers create another great chapter in this franchise's storied history."

So, it appears that the movie's release date has been postponed because after the original final script was completed and the “release date” was given, the director of this movie, Colin Trevorrow and some of the film's screenwriters have done some “minor” changes to the script and they gave this new script to Universal on May 6^th. They apparently have made the film more epic then they had originally imagined and this makes it impossible to release the movie by June 13, 2014. So, so much for Jurassic Park IV coming out next year! BUT, on the bright side, at least it's not canceled! And I also have learned some other news regarding this movie: they've started asking actors to be in the movie! The two possibilities for a couple of leading roles are Bryce Dallas Howard and David Oyelowo. We'll see if they accept the offer to be in one of the greatest franchises ever!

Now we know Jurassic Park IV's original release date has been postponed, but fortunately there are other movies I will look forward to seeing in the upcoming future. As you know from reading my last couple of posts, I am looking forward to three upcoming movies from Pixar:

Monsters University, June 21, 2013

The Good Dinosaur, May 30, 2014

Finding Dory, November 25, 2015

And if that's not good enough, I will also be looking forward to a film that's due to come out later this year and it's being produced by the BBC. I am a fan of the Walking with . . . series (this series includes series such as Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Beasts, Walking with Monsters, Chased by Dinosaurs and etc.). So when I found out they were making a new film, I found it easy to get excited! This new film is called Walking with Dinosaurs 3D and it's due to come out December 13, 2013. Unlike Jurassic Park IV, it's already (for the most part at least) finished, it's just waiting to be released. Here is a teaser trailer for this film:

For those of you who are looking forward to my upcoming stop-motion series: Planet of the Dinosaurs, you'll be glad to know that I am roughly 75% finished with the first episode, “Out of Africa”. So I should be completely finished with it and ready to reveal it by the end of this month.

Dinosaurs are some of the most awe-inspiring creatures ever to walk the earth. You've probably seen hundreds of them in books, television, toy shops, museums and theme parks. You might think you know what they look like. But did you know that just about every dinosaur you've ever seen is a work of fiction? I mean, we don't even know what color these animals were. For years, the trail was cold. Why? Well because first of all, while we have a lot of dinosaur fossils – stone copies of long dead bones – dinosaur fossilized skin isn't that common. And when it's found, the coloration is gone. So scientists have had to guess.

So what factors would possibly determine what color dinosaurs were? Knowing what habitat they lived in definitely helps. Maybe a dinosaur living in a forest would have spots for camouflage or a predatory dinosaur might have stripes like a tiger to conceal itself from its prey until the attack. But that's all scientists used to be able to do – guess! They had no sure way of knowing what color the dinosaurs were. Scientists were sure that the color of the dinosaurs would never be revealed. I mean, it can't right, considering the coloration of the skin is gone . . . right? Not anymore!

In 2010, a paleontologist named Fucheng Zhang and his colleagues completed their studies of a little dinosaur called Sinornithosaurus. What they discovered would totally change the way we view these animals. Pigment in hair, fur and feathers comes from microscopic cells called melanosomes. What color you are depends on the shape of the melanosomes in the skin/feathers/fur. Zhang believed that if these structures appeared in the cells of the  extinct animals when they were alive, they should also appear in the fossils. He was correct! By comparing the melanosomes in Sinosauropteryx with living animals, he was able to determine the color of this dinosaur when it was alive! For the first time in thousands of years, dinosaurs can be depicted in their real colors, so what color was Sinosauropteryx? Well, based on this study Sinosauropteryx is believed to have been reddish-brown with ginger-colored bands on its tail.

Sinosauropteryx - by comparing the melanosomes genes found in the fossils of this dinosaur with modern animals, scientists were able to learn the true color of this animal.

What could these have been used for? Well, perhaps these striped tails could be used to signal to other Sinosauropteryx or to attract mates. We may never know, but we can always guess. In recent years, scientists have begun to look at other extinct dinosaurs and birds to see what colors they were. Let's look at a few of these creatures that have just been given a touch of true coloration!

Sinornithosaurus is probably a member of the dromaeosaur family (this group contains animals such as Deinonychus and the ever-popular Velociraptor). This dinosaur's coloration was revealed at the same time as Sinosauropteryx's was, and the study revealed that Sinornithosaurus was probably a mixture of browns, yellows, reds and blacks – perfect coloration for a life hunting in the ancient, pre-flood forests of China. This dinosaur has another deadly secret – a recent study not only suggests this was a colorful and dangerous predator, but also a venomous one at that! Stay clear of this dinosaur!

Sinornithosaurus - God designed this possibly venomous animal with the perfect  body colors to help it blend into the forests it lived in. (Please note that we have no evidence for feathers on this dinosaur)

The skeleton of Sinornithosaurus

Dinosaurs aren't the only ones getting colored up. Prehistoric birds are getting a make-over too.   Anchiornis was the prehistoric version of a roadrunner – it had long legs that were perfect for running and, despite being a bird, it had a sickle-shaped claw on each foot like a dromaeosaur. Most of this bird's feathers were black and gray, but the Mohawk-like feathers on its head were a rusty, orange-reddish color.

Anchiornis - the prehistoric version of a road-runner. With a pair of sickle-shaped claws on its feet, black and white body feathers and rusty-colored Mohawk-like feathers on its head, this bird was built to impress!

At about the size of a raven, the bird known as Archaeopteryx, is perhaps one of the most famous of the extinct birds (next to the Dodo bird). After looking at the microscopic melanosomes in 2011, graduate student Ryan Carney and his colleagues discovered it was mostly black. While the study doesn't prove that it was 100% black, it still makes the older paintings of Archaeopteryx as a colorful creature obsolete.

Archaeopteryx - this bird was created on Day 5 of the Creation week 6,000 years ago with stunning black feathers. Black feathers suggests this bird was diurnal.

This painting of an Archaeopteryx is inaccurate because this bird is now known to have been at least partially/mostly black.

Discovered in 2000, Microraptor (like Archaeopteryx and Anchiornis) is considered by most evolutionists to be a dinosaur that is evolving into a bird. However, creationists (like myself, even though I don't have a PhD, so I guess you could call me an “amateur, unofficial scientist”) and know that this animal is in fact a prehistoric bird (for more, see this link), with clawed hands, a sickle-shaped claw on each foot and a tooth-filled jaw. Like Archaeopteryx, Microraptor has often been depicted as a colorful animal, but in 2012, Dr. Quanguo Li and his team uncovered the truth: Microraptor was probably a black, iridescent color, much like the modern blackbird. Perhaps this bird used its feathers for communication or sexual display, like modern iridescent birds.

Microraptor - this bird is now known to be black in color

Up until 2013, extinct animal coloration studies were done on small animals that had either feathers, in the case of Microraptor, Anchiornis and Archaeopteryx, or collagen fibers (not feathers), in the case of Sinosauropteryx and Sinornithosaurus. But scientists finally found out that they might be able to know about the coloration of other, larger, more familiar dinosaurs. Recently, a piece of Cretaceous fossilized hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) skin was found in Alberta, Canada. This find is amazing only because it's rare, but also because it's three-dimensional – many other “skin” specimens are just skin imprints. Many scientists are hoping that those little melanosomes are still in this piece of skin so they will be able to tell what color this dinosaur might have been. Physicist Mauricio Barbie is quoted for saying, “As we excavated the fossil, I thought that we were looking at a skin impression. Then I noticed a piece came off and I realized this is not ordinary-this is real skin.”

As I said earlier, learning the color pigments of prehistoric birds and dinosaurs is nothing new, but this is the very first time it will be done with actual dinosaur skin (remember, the study on Sinornithosaurus and Sinosauropteryx . . .). This hadrosaur is not the only dinosaur being tested for melanosomes however, a Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed “Scotty” is also being a analyzed. Wouldn't it be great to know the real color of the most famous dinosaur of all time?

Evolutionists are always puzzled when new discoveries are made dealing with fossils that have been so inquisitively preserved, from the intricate feathers of a Microraptor to the 3D piece of hadrosaur skin, because they would have needed to have been buried very quickly to be preserved so well. These scientists date these animals based on which fossil layers they've been found in and are often dated to being millions of years old; within biblical, Flood-model geology however, “many of the fossil-containing rock layers can be best understood to reflect the order of burial during the global Flood, which”* that occurred less than 4,500 (probably closer to 4,350) years ago. So the supposed date assigned to the fossils we mentioned today (e.g. the hadrosaur skin specimen is dated around 70 million years old in the secular worldview) are mere flights of fantasy.

A possible coloration for the hadrosaur known at Edmontosaurus

A possible coloration for Tyrannosaurus rex

I sure hope that  melanosomes have survived in hadrosaur and tyrannosaurus specimens. Wouldn't it be great to know what color these animals might have been when they once lived on this earth? I'll be sure to keep you posted on the latest news of this amazing find as we delve deeper and deeper into the literal Planet of the Dinosaurs!

Wow! Who knew fossils could give us so much information about these extinct animals, now we have even begun to unravel their colors! What color do YOU think Tyrannosaurus and hadrosaurs were? Please voice your opinion by either taking part in my poll at the right side of the page (the poll closes on the15th) or post a comment using the instructions given in the “PS's” at the bottom of this post. Please come back next week where we can learn more about the wonderful world God has created for us to live in. Bye for now!

*Answers in Genesis – News to Note, May 11, 2013

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.

The Origins of Mother's Day

Welcome back everyone! You might be glad to know that I think we have finally solved the issues with my computer! So I'll probably be able to start back posting weekly not only on this website, but also SMILEY’S NEWS. So after you're finished reading today's post, be sure to check on that website as well and see what my pal Mr. Smiley has to say. Considering that this Sunday is Mother's Day, I will devote today's article to (what else) mothers of course! Now let's start off with updates before I get to today's article.

I am still attempting to complete my latest stop-motion series, Planet of the Dinosaurs. I'd say it's about 52% finished.

A few months ago (last year), I mentioned that Pixar has many “hidden projects” that are mostly kept under wraps. For some time, they only let a little bit of information about these movies out and we fans are constantly trying to guess at what the movie is about. Sometimes you can find out about these movies by looking on the internet on certain websites (such as Wikipedia). This way, many of us can know at least a little bit about such movies before most other people who don't do research. This is how I found out about the upcoming prequel to the ever-popular Monsters Inc. called Monsters University. By now, extensive trailers, commercials and previews are out so everyone knows about this film. I can't wait for this movie to come out! I've actually been hoping that they'd make another Monsters movie for quite some time, so I'm really excited to see what Pixar has come up with. In case some of you haven't seen the trailer, I put it on here for your enjoyment:

Remember, Monsters University comes out on June 21, 2013 for those of you who are going to the theaters to see it. For those of us waiting for it to come out on DVD, well, it's a good bet that it will be out by February 2014. I can't wait!

Since the last time I posted (last Thursday), there hasn't been a whole lot of news about another movie I'm looking forward to: Jurassic Park IV. As you might recall if you read last week's post, this film is supposed to be coming out on June 13, 2014. Universal still has a lot about this movie “under wraps”, but on May 2 (after I posted my last post) of this year, they released some new information about this upcoming film. On his twitter account, the director of Jurassic Park IV, Colin Trevorrow tweeted this:

Nublar. #JP4

After 11 years of speculation, we now know where this movie is going to take place: Isla Nublar! Isla Nublar is the island of the very first movie. In the Jurassic Park franchise, no one has set foot on this island ever since the tragic day when the park's power systems got screwed up, the dinosaurs escaped and the film's heroes narrowly escaped death at the hands of the cunning Velociraptors. So far, the plot of the film is still rather “hush-hush”, but when they release more information about this movie, you pretty can be sure that I'll let you know! (That is unless my computer acts up again or something unforeseen happens of course). In the mean time though, while we wait for this great movie to come out, take a look at the trailer for the recently released Jurassic Park: The Game (Jurassic Park 1 1/2), which is considered the bridging gap between the first and second Jurassic Park movies.

As you all know, Mother's Day is just around the corner! During this time of year, people everywhere visit their mothers and give them cards and gifts as a special “thank you” to devoted mothers all around the world! Mother's Day has been around for a long, long time. People know what we normally do on this very special day, but do you know where it all started? If you were to go out in public and ask a variety of people, “Where did this Mother's Day stuff all begin?” they'd probably shrug. In all probability, most people don't know how, when or where Mother's Day started. Well folks, I have decided to devote today's post to mothers all around the world. They definitely deserve a day devoted to them, because without mothers . . . well, even if we somehow managed to be born, think about all the things many mothers do on a regular basis, and it's a lot! Husbands will often admit that when their wives go away on trips or retreats, the house often feels empty and like there's an endless amount of work to do!

Much of what a mother does everyday is a work-related task (e.g. laundry, cooking, shopping). Have you ever thought about how much a mother would earn if she were paid for such tasks? Well, a recent survey on Salary.com set out to do just that. 40,000 mothers responded to the survey and each one explained what their job entailed and how many hours they worked. Out of this survey, they learned that the average mother had at least 10 jobs and worked 92 hours per week. After calculating all the numbers, the people who made the survey worked out that the average mother would earn $138,095 a year! Wow! Talk about a worth-it mother!

Now to get back to the topic of the origins of Mother's Day. The story of this special day begins during the Civil War in 1868. This was when Ann Jarvis decided to create a committee to help the soldiers in the war. She called her committee the “Mother's Day Work Clubs”. These clubs were devoted to the treating of wounds, feeding and clothing both Union and Confederate soldiers (that's following the second greatest commandment, “. . . let us love one another . . .” Jesus Christ).

But Ann Jarvis isn't responsible for Mother's Day. She died in 1905. Two years after her death, Ann's daughter, Anna Jarvis was holding a memorial for her dearly departed mother when suddenly it clicked: why not have a day devoted to all mothers nationwide? So Anna Jarvis started campaigning for a special day devoted to mothers and apparently, the idea caught on rather well! In 1914, Anna's mission was a success and Mother's Day was a confirmed holiday to take place on the second Sunday in May.

Pretty soon, people all over the United States were sending cards and gifts of all shapes and sizes to their mothers. An International Mother's Day Shrine was even established in Grafton, West Virginia (where Anna Jarvis lived as a child) to celebrate her success.

Mother's Day was so successful, that not only did it catch on, but Anna Jarvis started campaigning once again in the 1920's! But this time, it wasn't to promote her holiday – instead, she was campaigning against it! By the 1920's, the commercialism involved with Mother's Day was skyrocketing. She and her sister Ellsinore were so serious about getting rid of the holiday (or at least what the holiday had become) that that's what most of their family inheritance went toward. Anna was once even arrested once for “disturbing the peace”.

Anna especially hated the use of printed, store-bought Mother's Day cards. She is even quoted for saying:

“A printed card means nothing expect that you are too lazy to write the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother – and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.” Anna Jarvis

Anna Jarvis never married or became a mother herself and died on November 24, 1948. But her legacy lives on. Now on the second Sunday in May (the exact day differs in different countries), people all over spend special time devoted to the hard-working, grossly underpaid, yet tender, loving and caring women who gave us life and a lot of TLC – our Mothers!

Mother's Day is going to take place on May 12 this year. So let's all take some time to spend with our mothers this Sunday (after church is over, of course, don't make an excuse to miss church service). Why don't you give your mother a card or some candy this year (but don't eat it all up!), and why not also use this special day to thank God for the amazing mothers He blessed us with.

Wow! Anna Jarvis sure put a lot into a holiday she would later despise, didn't she? Oh well. Be sure to come back next week for some more updates and another non-fiction article I am making for you to enjoy! Happy Mother's Day to all mothers all around the world!

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.

Beware! The New Dinosaurs of Jurassic Park Come Forth!

Hi everyone! Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but we are still having technical difficulties with our computer (I'm still not able to post as often as I'd like to, but I'll post as often as I can! Perhaps soon I'll be able to post weekly like I used to before my computer started messing up). So I figured that when I had the chance to post something, I'd better do it! Today, do I have TONS of updates, but I also have a non-fiction article. So let's get started!

First of all, as you will recall from my last post, the Easter production we did at Leptondale Bible Church was on the 29th and 30th of March. Well, now that it's all over, I'd say it was a big success! Many people came those two days we were doing the production to hear and see this part of Jesus Christ's life portrayed. I'd quite a few people got the message of Easter's true meaning during the production (some people even cried as Jesus hung on the cross!). And that's the real reason why we did this production, not so we could just be praised for our good performance, but so that other people could learn more about Jesus and how He paid the price we owe for all the sins (e.g. lying, stealing, sexual immorality, lust, murder, disobeying parents and etc.). And that price was death! Even though Jesus was innocent, He willingly died on a cross - the punishment we all deserve. But He didn't stay dead! People who saw the presentation also would have learned that to give us hope, Jesus rose back to life on the third day, conquering death. So now if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we can go to heaven and live with Him when we die instead of dwelling in Hell for eternity. This time, we caught the production on video, so if I can, I'll post the video on the blog so that you guys can view it!

I also have big news for the stop-motion series I'm working on - Planet of the Dinosaurs. Just because the computer is acting up didn't mean I couldn't continue to work on this series. During the past several weeks, I have been continuously been taking pictures for the series and I finally finished! Now the series is approximately 51% done! I know I said I'd probably have it done in May, but, never having worked on a series like this before, I didn't know exactly how long it would take. However, I firmly believe I should have it finished at least by July, probably sooner! I'll keep you posted.

By the way, in the midst of working on Planet of the Dinosaurs, I've also been working on various shorts. Here is one of my latest ones (never mind the 2012 copyright date at the end of the credits, that was a typo). While it has no connection to the stop-motion series I'm making, this clip is very funny (I still laugh even after seeing it twenty-zillion times!). I hope you like it!

If you've been following this website, then you'll know that I'm a huge Jurassic Park fan! I've seen all three movies and the recently released Jurassic Park: The Game (which could also be called Jurassic Park 1 1/2). I also have a little collection of Jurassic Park games as home. So as you can imagine, as soon as I found out that their making a fourth movie, I've been following the progress like crazy. There's been a good bit of progress on this movie since I last posted (see this article for more on the Jurassic Park series), so today, I decided to tell you what we know about this upcoming movie!

By now, most JP fans know that the new film is going to (finally) be released on June 13, 2014, will be directed by Colin Trevorrow and will be written by the Rick Jaffa and his wife Amanda Silver. In April 2013, an interview with the film's dinosaur consultant, John Horner has revealed something about one of the dinosaurs we are to expect in the upcoming picture (we'll get to that in just a minute, the paragraph talking about this new dinosaur is two paragraphs down).

Before going into what new dinosaur might be in the movie, I'll reveal another piece of information: on April 12, 2013, it was officially announced that filming for this movie would take place in Baton Rouge, LA and Kauai, Hawaii. The other three films in the Jurassic Park series were also filmed - at least partly - in Hawaii. As you might recall if you've seen the other films in the series, the first movie takes place on the fictional Isla Nublar and the second and third movies take place on the fictional Isla Sorna. So since they are going back to Hawaii to film this movie, we could also see a reappearance of one of the two islands in the previous films (wouldn't it be nice to see what has become of Isla Nublar since we haven't seen it since 1993, about 20 years ago?). Or perhaps we will see a completely new island. Who knows? So far, the location where the movie is taking place has been kept under wraps.

On March 20, 2013, Colin Trevorrow told us something else about the movie in his Twitter account. He posted: 

No feathers. #JP4

Many evolutionists aren't exactly comfortable with the fact that the dinosaurs in this movie won't have feathers. Why? Well, according to them, since dinosaurs evolved into birds, it only makes since that dinosaurs had feathers as well. Besides, they claim to have found dozens of feathered dinosaur fossils. But as a (young-earth) "creationist" (I don't have a PhD or anything), we know that we have no evidence for feathered dinosaurs. Now the Bible doesn't say that dinosaurs didn't have feathers, so some very well could have had a fluffy covering. I'm only saying we don't have evidence for this. The "feathered dinosaurs" discovered so far are actually "dinosaur-like" birds or dinosaurs with collagen fibers.

Now it's time to talk about the interview that recently took place with Jurassic Park IV's consultant, John Horner. In April 2013, Horner said that one of the new dinosaurs in Jurassic Park IV was terrifying. He also said:

"I can't actually tell you who that will be...But you'll want to keep the lights on after you see this movie"

Since no one working on the movie has revealed anything else about this dinosaur, many fans have a list of possible candidates for this "scary dinosaur". I myself have my own little list:

Candidate #1: Carnotaurus

This 30-foot long carnivore that appeared in the novel "The Lost World" (Jurassic Park's sequel) has yet to appear in the movie series. In the novel, it was depicted as a stealthy, nocturnal carnivore that can change the color and texture of its skin to blend into its environment, like a chameleon.

Candidate #2: Troodon Pectinodon

This creepy seven-foot long theropod made its appearance in  Jurassic Park: The Game. It is a sickle-clawed assassin, that hunts in packs, is nocturnal and has potent venom that attacks makes the prey disoriented and eventually paralyzed. Due to these reasons, it was supposed to be euthanized in Jurassic Park, but due to a rebellious JP scientist, they still persist . . . wouldn't they be great in JPIV? (Photo Credits) 

Candidate #3: Mosasaur

The mosasaur also makes an appearance in Jurassic Park: The Game. These sea-going lizards grew up to 50 feet long and are hungry for anything they could catch: fish, ammonites (similar to the nautilus), sea turtles, sharks and even other mosasaurs! While it isn't a dinosaur, it could make its appearance in the fourth movie! (Photo Credits)

Candidate #4: Inostrancevia

This reptile isn't a dinosaur, but it was still a ferocious predator! At the size of a rhinoceros, this beast was also very fast for its size. If you look at its jaws, you'll even notice that it has four-inch long sabre-teeth, just like a familiar Ice Age cat. This animal hasn't made an appearance in Jurassic Park, or much else for that matter! I think it's definitely time to shed some popularity light on this great beast - and Jurassic Park IV  is just the way to do it!

Do you like my list? What animals do you think will appear in Jurassic Park IV? Please be sure to take my poll on the right side of the page and leave a comment or two!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you had as much fun reading this article as much as I did writing it. Like I said before, I'm not sure when my next time to post an article will be, but Lord-willing, it will be very soon. See you then!

PS: To post a comment (this is highly encouraged), please simply click the post you wish to comment on, scroll to the bottom of the page and put what you wish to say or ask in the comment box. Then in the box below the comment box choose who you’re going to comment as. And then click preview or publish. If you aren’t signed into Google, you’ll be asked to type in a word and a number in the space provided. Type the word, put a space and then put the number. Then your comment is on the blog!

PS 2: Have a puzzling question about animals (including dinosaurs), myself, my latest book, my stop-motion movies, Creation or etc? Please post your question as a comment or send me an email at animaladventures@aol.com.

PS 3: What’s the latest scoop? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

PS 4: Be sure to comment on the latest stop-motion movies too, this will help me improve them.