Thursday, December 26, 2013

The New Dinosaurs of 2013

Welcome back everyone! I hope that everyone had a good Christmas! I know I did. There were no movie updates this week, so we'll jump write into this week's topic right after we look at our "days till" section.

It is: 6 days till New Year's!

Despite the fact that most people only have heard of a select few dinosaurs (e.g. T. rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus), scientists have discovered hundreds and hundreds of different dinosaur species, many of which have only been discovered in the last ten years! Take a look at this clip from the new movie, Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie to see what I mean:


So as you can see, dinosaurs are being discovered all the time. Before we go on, you should know that even though there appear to be hundreds and hundreds (perhaps thousands) of different species of dinosaurs

Some even have only made their appearance within the past year! Some dinosaur discoveries consist of a few unidentifiable bones and are put in museum storerooms until they can be identified. But there are many others that consist of terrific skeletons. Like the article I posted about dinosaurs discovered in the last few years, I'll give a little description of the dinosaur itself. Let's start learning about some of the newest discovered dinosaurs that used to roam the world before the Flood of Noah's time killed and buried these amazing animals that can only be seen as fossils today:

Acheroraptor
Discovered in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, Acheroraptor means “underworld thief” and was discovered and named by David C. Evans, Derek W. Lawson and Philip J. Currie. As the last part of its name suggests, Acheroraptor is a dromaeosaur or “raptor” dinosaur and related to the more famous Velociraptor. Like Velociraptor, Acheroraptor had a sickle-shaped claw on each foot that was used to help kill its prey.

Albertadromeus
Image Credits
The small ornithopod Albertadromeus was an herbivorous creature from Alberta, Canada, hence its name which means “Albertan runner”. Like its name suggests, this dinosaur was a swift and agile runner; this is a good thing because when this animal was alive, predators such as Daspletosaurus, Troodon, Saurornitholestes and Dromaeosaurus would have stalked the landscape Albertadromeus made home. Other dinosaurs that lived with this relatively small dinosaur were Coronosaurus, Anchiceratops, Chasmosaurus, Parasaurolophus and Corythosaurus among others.

Brasilotitan
Image Credits
Brasilotitan was a genus of titanosaur sauropod from the Cretaceous habitat of the pre-Flood world. Sauropods – more commonly known as “long-necked dinosaurs” – were the largest land animals God made and are found on every continent. As its name suggests, Brasilotitan was discovered in Brazil. It was closely related to sauropods such as Antarctosaurus (which was discovered in southern South America! Go figure!) and Bonitasaura.

Cuspicephalus
Though discovered in 2009, Cuspicephalus wasn't named until 2013. This animal was a pterosaur, not a dinosaur, as dinosaurs were terrestrial creatures. The exact size of the animal is not yet determined due to the incompleteness of the fossils found so far, but its skull is about 326 millimeters long and 55 millimeters high. Like many pterosaurs, Cuspicephalus had a crest on its head, probably used for display.

Jiangxisaurus
Jiangxisaurus was a species of oviraptorid theropod from the Cretaceous of China. It is quite similar to its relative Oviraptor. The family Jiangxisaurus belongs to is also known for their head crests that, like the head crest of Cuspicephalus, were probably used for display purposes.

Judiceratops
Image Credits
Judiceratops is a relative of the more famous Triceratops. Like Triceratops, Judiceratops possesses a large neck frill and three horns on its head for protection and display. It was discovered in the Judith River Formation in Montana.

Lythronax
Image Credits
Lythronax was a ferocious 24-foot, 2.5 ton carnivore from Utah and since many of its more “important” parts of its skeleton were well preserved, we tell know a good bit about this extinct reptile. It that had a short, narrow snout and eyes set far back on its head. Its forward facing eyes enabled it to see three-dimensionally, which helped it lock its target on what it hoped to catch for a meal. And when Lythronax bit down, there was no way of the prey getting loose from its toothy grip! Lythronax was an efficient hunter that would have hunted a variety of herbivorous dinosaurs such as members of the ceratopsian (horned dinosaur) and hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaurs) family. Like its larger cousin, T. rex, this dinosaur had large banana-shaped, serrated teeth that were perfect, not for slicing, but for chomping out huge chunks of meat and bones. That makes it no wonder it's name means “king of gore”!

Nasutoceratops
Image Credits
Another Utah weirdo discovered in 2013, Nasutoceratops was also a member of the ceratopsian family, like Triceratops. At about 24 feet in length, it was shorter than Triceratops, but what made it unique was its head – instead of the typical triple horns on an average ceratopsian, Nasutoceratops had two bull-like horns near the top of its head and the nasal horn that sat on its short and high snout was low and narrow with an elongated base. Along with the fossil bones, skin impressions of Nasutoceratops have also been found and reveal that at least the left shoulder region of the dinosaur's body was covered in a pattern of large, eight to eleven millimeter wide hexagonal scales surrounded by smaller triangular scales.

Siats
Image Credits
Yet another dinosaur from the state I live in, Siats, at around 30-40 feet long and weighing 2.5 tons, is the third largest carnivorous dinosaur from North America, behind Acrocanthosaurus and, of course, Tyrannosaurus rex. This dinosaur is related a carnosaur and is related to creatures such as Allosaurus and the aforementioned Acrocanthosaurus, two dinosaurs whose remains are also found in Utah.

Xinjiangtitan
 
Many species of sauropods grew to gigantic proportions, and Xinjiangtitan was definitely no exception – it grew 98-105 feet long, outsizing most other sauropods. The only sauropods that grew longer were creatures including Diplodocus and Argentinosaurus. Like its relatives, this dinosaur was herbivorous, stripping plants of their leaves and/or fronds with its spoon-like teeth. As its name suggests, this dinosaur is from China.

So there you have it, a list mentioning a mere few of the incredible (and often times bizarre) dinosaurs discovered in 2013. I hope you've enjoyed the articles my co-author, Joy, and I have written as much as we enjoyed writing them. Next week begins a new year! The year 2014 will be upon us! I'm also planning to do things slightly different with the set-up of this website, so be sure to come back next week to see what changes are made. Happy New Years everyone!

PS 1: 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 new in the news? 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.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Joy's Snickerdoodle Recipe

Hi everyone! This blog post is the last one before Christmas, so naturally it's going to be Christmas oriented. I can't believe Christmas is already almost here! I mean, it just left, right? Anyway, let's get started with our "days till" section:

It is: 1 day till Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie is released!!!
It is: 6 days till Christmas!
It is: 13 days till 2014!

Now for movie updates! This week, some information on the upcoming film Jurassic World (formally Jurassic Park IV) was revealed: we now know when the film's going to start filming! According to a tweet from Kauaimovieguy, who reports movie news for the island, the film's finally going to start filming in early March of 2014! Here is the tweet:
Bob Movie Guy Jasper @KauaimovieguyRevised update....JP4 begins filming on Kauai early March... :)
I'm so excited! This probably means we can be expecting some more affirmative news on the film's cast pretty soon.

Also, thanks to word from the film's director, Colin Trevorrow, Phil Tippet, the dinosaur supervisor from Jurassic Park, is coming back for the new movie!

As many of you might recall, Walking with Dinosaurs: 3D is coming out on the 20th . . . that's tomorrow! I probably won't see it till it comes out on DVD, but it's nice that the movie is coming into theaters. Here are some clips from the movie itself:



Now, you can read a special recipe as today's article written by my co-author, Joy Hammond:

Here is a recipe for your Christmas table: SNICKERDOODLES!

These Snickerdoodles look delicious!

First you will need:
  • 1 ½ cups of sugar
  • ½ cups of butter or margin, softened
  • ½ cups shortening
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 ¾ cups of all purposed or unbleached flour
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon of salt
  • ¼ cup of sugar
  • 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
Directions:
  • Heat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit.
  • Mix the sugar, the butter, shortening, and eggs in a large bowl. Then stir in the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
  • Shape the dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Mix ¼ cup of sugar and cinnamon into a small bowl, then roll the dough balls in it till it's covered. Place the balls 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
  • Finally bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set, and remove the tray from oven. Let it cool and then enjoy!
Well, in closing today, I'd like to leave you with this: from my house to yours . . . HAVE A MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

PS 1: 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 new in the news? 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.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

What's YOUR Focus this Christmas?

Well, I can't believe it! Christmas is already so close and we're already deep into the month of December! Before you know it, New Year's will be upon us. Let's look at the "days till" section, then we'll look at some movie updates and then we'll look at my latest article.

It is: 8 days till Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie is released!
It is: 13 days till Christmas
It is: 20 days till New Year's

Now, these aren't really updates, per se, but several clips related to the upcoming movie, Walking with Dinosaurs: The 3D Movie (or WWD for short) have been uploaded onto YouTube and you may view them below. (Keep in mind that they don't share the Creation world-view as we do) Hope you like them:










Seeing these clips really makes me excited about the film. Remember, if you want to see Walking with Dinosaurs, it comes out in theaters on December 20, 2013. I can't wait!

Now it's time for this week's article focusing on Christmas, written by yours truly:

Christmas came last year, and it’s already coming back! You know what’s interesting? When you ask a lot of people what Christmas is all about, many people including non-Christians could say something like: “Jesus Christ is the reason for the season!” And this is very, very true, as Christmas is Jesus’ birthday (at least, that's when it's celebrated). But that leads us to a very personal question: “What do we do for Jesus’ birthday?” If we were honest, most of us would probably say that we’re either visiting family members and/or giving gifts. But what do we do for Jesus HIMSELF for His birthday?

Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, but if we were honest, many of us would say that we don’t really do much for Jesus on His birthday. Now technically, we don’t know the exact date Jesus was born on, but we celebrate it on December 25th. So why don’t we really do anything special for His birthday? Perhaps it’s because we’re too focused on ourselves and each other!


While the giving of gifts to each other is not bad in and of itself, we really should be focused on the One who’s birthday it is. This may seem weird to some, but let’s make this a little more applicable – say your birthday falls on May 1st, the same as celebrity Jamie Brinton. Now, let’s just say that instead of celebrating your birthday, you celebrate Jamie’s birthday and yet you hardly know the guy (and that’s saying something because a celebrity by the name of Jamie Brinton doesn’t exist, but you get the picture, right?)! That wouldn’t feel very good for you, would it? Well, this is sort of what we do with Jesus. We do things for each other, when it's not even our birthday.

Granted, gift-giving, Santa Claus and other things we typically associate with Christmas aren't bad, but we should be primarily focusing on Jesus Christ this time of year.
This year, I'd like to challenge everyone to do something different. That's why my family and I recently produced a Christmas play entitled, "Meet the Cheatham's". The goal of the production was to get people to stop and think what or who they were focusing on this time of year, whether it be presents, decorating, Santa Claus or Jesus Christ. In the play, my family portrays a wealthy family known as the Cheatham's; their only concern is to use the Christmas season to make more and more money . . . until they decide to go to church, intending to make a profit. I don't want to give the ending away, so I won't describe anymore of the plot.

Now don't get me wrong, I totally enjoy Christmas decorating, giving and receiving gifts, Santa Claus and many other Christmas traditions; these aren't bad. They just shouldn't be the focus of the Christmas season.

So I'd like to encourage you readers, this Christmas and the Christmases to follow, to use Christmas to actually put Jesus as the center of attention at His birthday! The changes you make, whether big or small, still make a difference - for some it might be gift-giving on another day instead of December 25 (like my family is doing), or doing a Bible devotion on the true-meaning of Christmas before opening presents. Instead of focusing on ourselves this Christmas, let's focus on Jesus and also give Him what He wants for His birthday. What does He want? All He wants is us; He wants our time and attention given to Him on Christmas, since it is His birthday and all.

My family has decided to dedicate this day to the Lord. Now let me leave you today with the following question: what's YOUR focus this Christmas season?

Jesus Christ should be the main focus of Christmas for us, because only HE is what Christmas is all about!
PS 1: 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 new in the news? Check it out at SMILEY’S NEWS.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

The Wonders of Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I certainly enjoyed mine. By now, Christmas season has begun and the end of 2013 is approaching. I can't believe it's going to be 2014 soon! With no movie updates to write about, let's start with our "days till" section before rolling right onto Joy's article for this week:

It is: 20 days till Christmas
It is: 27 days till New Years

Here's Joy Hammond's article for this week:

Now that Thanksgiving is done, I find myself scrambling for last minute shopping, and I mean last minute shopping, not the end. Christmas is just around the corner . . . actually it's less than a month away, but still, my point remains: it's not far away. I don't have a small and simple shopping list . . . nope, my list just happens to be about three lines long! It goes something like this: . . . get something special for my parents and my sister, while managing to save up money to pay off some long-overdue debts. I mean I owe $4 for lunch. Anyway, there are five things I just love about Christmas.

Christmastime truly is one of the best times of the year! Keep reading to learn what Joy likes about Christmas.
First, I just love Christmas decorations. My family and I always go riding in the car and drive around the block, just to enjoy all the lights. All sorts of figures and lights are set out on peoples yard, I just love seeing it all. It feels like the world is at peace. My dad always puts lights up on the roof of our house. My mom puts garland across the porch railing. Our tree is put up and decorated, mom insists we need another one (she has this ornament addiction!).

The decorating of Christmas trees has long been a favorite Christmas tradition.
Second, the Christmas music also takes part in this wonderful celebration. The music is all upbeat and warm. It talks about the fun and the compassion of others. I love listening to songs like: "When Christmas Comes to Town" (from "The Polar Express") or "Do You Hear What I Hear". Mom likes the song "When Christmas Comes to Town". Music has been an essential part in our history. I'm not sure what I'd be without music, I just love to sing.

Third, the cooking is another favorite, not just for me however, but my little sister. She absolutely loves to bake. All those different types of Christmas cookies and all those toppings to choose from . . . why it'd take me years to decided which one to eat first! There's so many different foods and drinks to have too, like eggnog, hot chocolate, or even pudding.

Talk about too many to choose from! All these cookies look delicious!
Fourth, you can't have a Christmas without gifts (well, you can but . . . where's the fun in that?)! Now most of the time this is where kids or adults can get a little . . . well you know . . . greedy. Not that every person is that way . . . anyway, most of the time it's the day of giving. People rush out and go shopping for gifts. That is what I like to do the best. I love going out shopping and giving gifts to others, and that's because whenever I get money . . . I have a hard time of saving it. So most of the time, I'd get things I don't need. However, when I think about others and I have money, I know that I'm doing some good and not putting the money to waste. I just love giving gifts . . . as long as I have the money of course. I wish there were more opportunities to give out gifts other that special occasions like holidays or birthdays . . . could there an exception?

The last AND certainly not least, is the most important gift Christmas could ever have! Well actually . . . Christmas isn't the actual date but, we commonly celebrate the most precious gift given to us: the birth of Jesus Christ. "Listen to what I say, the Child, the Child sleeping in the night, He will bring us goodness and light", That is the last verse to the song, "Do You Hear What I Hear". The Child in a stable gave us more than the joy of a new life entering the world - He gave us our gift of salvation. “For God so loved that world that he gave his only son that whosoever believed in him shall not die but have eternal life”, John 3:16. "In the land of sin and hopeless, came a voice crying no more, come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest". Matthew 11: 28. Jesus Christ is THE most important thing (or person) during this time (and all times) of year (we will go into more detail about the true meaning of Christmas in another upcoming article).

This is a recreation of the nativity: Jesus as a baby, lying in Mary's lap with Joseph looking on.
I will leave you off with one last note: 
". . . maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn't come from a store."
-Dr. Seuss
PS 1: 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 new in the news? 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.