BRITISH DINOSAURS SEMINAR

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

The latest Pal. Ass. newsletter (no. 52) arrived last week 
and it contains a few items of interest. 

-- British Dinosaurs seminar. On Wed 5th and Thurs 6th 
November 2003 Dinosaur Isle (Sandown, Isle of Wight) and 
the Quay Arts Centre (Newport, IoW) are hosting a 
Palaeontological Association Review Seminar entitled 
British Dinosaurs. It is being convened by David Martill 
(University of Portsmouth) and Martin Munt (Dinosaur 
Isle). There will be a series of talks at the Quay Arts Centre, 
an evening reception at Dinosaur Isle Museum, and a 
fieldtrip on the Thursday. Only 134 places are available 
because of space restrictions. Anyone interested in going 
needs to reserve their place by emailing or phoning Martin 
Munt: martin.munt@iow.gov.uk, tel 01983 404344. 
Intention to participate in reception and/or fieldtrip should 
be given and accomodation advice will be provided on 
request.

-- More on the Star Pit _Leedsichthys_. The same issue 
includes news of a Channel 4 TV programme devoted to the 
excavation of the specimen. There is also an article on the 
same specimen...

Martill, D. & Liston, J. 2003. Big gamble for a big dead 
fish. _Pal. Ass. Newsletter_ 52, 40-43.

A reclining Naish (combats, in forground, with shovel) can 
be observed in the photo on p. 42.

-- Book reviews in the issue that will be of interest include 
Paul Barrett's on Rea's 2001 _Bone Wars: The Excavation 
and Celebrity of Andrew Carnegie's Dinosaur_, David 
Waterhouse's on Worthy & Holdaway's IUP moa book and 
Ian Jenkins' on Agusti & Turner's _Mammoths, Sabretooths 
and Hominids_. 
             Of interest to some will be Jenkins' criticism of 
Anton's artwork: he argues that they are sometimes 
anatomically innaccurate, do not make big animals look 
bulky enough and are often just wrong when it comes to 
skull shape etc. Anton's restorations of hyaenodontid 
_Hyainailouros_ and amphicyonid _Amphicyon giganteus_ 
are said to look like 'oversized woolly-coated Alsatian dogs 
and polecats!' (p. 89). He also writes 'This is not a trivial 
criticism, the so-called accurate reconstructions of 
'renowned artists' such as Greg Paul and Ely Kish (both 
dinosaurophiles) are anatomically risible: yet they hold a 
major position in the field of palaeoart and have done so for 
years' (p. 90). I can understand Kish's artwork being 
referred to as anatomically risible, but as for Greg's I'm not 
sure if Jenkins is specifically referring to GSP synapsid 
artwork.

Oh well. Back to work.

-- 
Darren Naish
School of Earth & Environmental Sciences
University of Portsmouth UK, PO1 3QL

email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
tel: 023 92846045