THE MOR DIARIES, ENTRY #6

At the end of two weeks of drawing nonstop are 85 line drawings that don't come even close to a complete documentation of the skeleton! Why on earth am I smiling?! Photograph by John Scannella.

 Part A: Progress Report

My trip to the MOR is now over and done with; in the end, I completed 85 line drawings in two weeks and the revisions bumped the ms up to 1,273 pages. Each day was so labor intensive that I was left mentally and physically exhausted to the extreme that I hadn’t the energy or motivation to post updates.

After the first a full week of making illustrations, it was clear to me that I had to narrow my focus on the articulated skull and exclude the disarticulated bones in the cabinets. Despite appearances, the articulated skull is in several sections that can be taken apart and reassembled. I want this trip to be the last (or second last) time that happens in order to minimize handling and stress upon the large, but delicate fossil. My plan was to fully illustrate the skull in its articulated and disarticulated conditions before I left.

As history turned out, I was able to illustrate nearly the entire skull and jaws, with the exception of much of the braincase and parts of the lower jaws. One of the main benefits of this trip was getting a handle on my weekly progress, which is approximately 43 line drawings a week. This will help me plan my next visit, during which I plan to complete the skull and jaws, and get a good start on the postcranium.

I approach each drawing in three steps, where (1) I draw the outline of the bone, or the outline of a set of articulated bones with a heavy line weight, (2) I then draw outlines of all of the damage, plaster, glue, and epoxy with a thin line weight, and finally (3) I draw in the topography of the bone with a light or medium weight line. In a collections room with diffuse light, I wear a small headlamp to illuminate the specimen. To stave off boredom, especially during the midafternoon, I usually have a maximum of three drawings in progress. In most cases I find that drawing the actual anatomical details gets accomplished very quickly, in contrast to drawing in all of the damage. Since there was such a high volume of illustrations to make for this project, I saved time by holding off the final task of varying the line weights for home except for highly damaged bones such as (in this case) the premaxilla.

Part B: Rationale & Justification for a Big Monograph

In this section I will answer the most frequent questions I get regarding this monograph, with the goal to flesh out my aims for embarking on this sizeable work, as well as that on Jane.

Q: Where do you plan on publishing such a large work?

A: There are several online journals (e.g., ZooKeys, Zootaxa) that do publish large works online, which is enabled by the digital format. There are traditional print journals (e.g., Palaeontology, Journal of Paleontology, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology) that publish large memoirs in addition to their regular issues. And there are publishers that that will print specialized works in book form (e.g., Springer). I therefore have several venues to consider once the final manuscript is produced.

Q: Why not just break up your monograph into several smaller articles? That way you can boost your publication record.

A: To my mind, a monograph is a single coherent reference work that saves fellow researchers the inconvenience of tracking down separate articles, and personal experience has shown me that a single work (or set of works between two covers) is simply easier to work with. I think the mode of publication ought to benefit the audience more than the author. Put another way, a monograph is a work that the reader can count on as delivering a maximum amount of information content in a single location. That’s the whole point.

Q: Why such a huge monograph on one species? Aren’t you just repeating previous works, like Brochu (2003)?

Why not a huge monograph on one species? Let’s take an honest look at the current landscape of publications on new dinosaur taxa: most articles in the premier journals are 30 pages long or less, and each bone is usually covered in a paragraph or two. How is that acceptable when we know that bones aren’t that simple and there is a huge volume of literature behind most groups of dinosaurs that needs adequate comparison with new fossils. I think we’re in an unfortunate historical moment where less information is seen as better than more; I suspect that this has more to do with publication costs of printed media than anything else.

With regard to the specific project at hand I am describing a growth series, which significantly bumps up the page length. This also helps make the argument for a large work, not against it; a monograph provides the opportunity to capture the variation of a taxon in detail. Again, my basic argument is the same: maximizing information content is better than minimization. Why leave people guessing?

The question of repetition strikes me as a little bizarre, since the taxon I’m working on isn’t an adult T. rex; the question implies that there’s so little difference between T. rex and its immediate relatives that there’s no reason to treat any of them in detail. But that would be to argue from ignorance of the tyrannosaurid literature, the history of the group, and variation in the clade; we really don’t know that much about tyrannosaurid osteology and variation, and we must take every opportunity we have to enrich our knowledge if we are to have any hope of understanding their biology and their place in Cretaceous ecosystems

I agree that Brochu (2003) is worthy of some discussion here. That is an exemplary work, and I have used it as a template for the Two Med tyrannosaurine monograph and for the Jane monograph. But it has to be kept in mind that more taxa and more information has been published since that time and we’re currently in a phase (perhaps perpetual) of catching up with new knowledge. For example, I’ve drafted below a table contrasting the information content of the maxilla in Brochu (2003) from that in the Two Med tyrannosaurine monograph by comparing the number of subheadings that correspond to primary osteological features. A quick glance shows a huge difference of information content, showing that my effort isn’t redundant by any measure, but rather it is complementary. The difference is primarily one of resolution. Also Brochu (2003) takes care of the maxilla in about three printed pages, whereas in my case, the maxilla is covered in 74 (double spaced) pages.

Brochu (2003)	Two Med tyrannosaurine monograph
General form	General form
Ventral margin of lateral alveolar process	Ventral margin of lateral alveolar process
Alveoli	Alveoli
Teeth, number and shape	Teeth, number and shape
Circumfenestral foramina	Circumfenestral foramina
Alveolar foramina	Alveolar foramina
Maxillary nerve channel	Maxillary nerve channel
Subnarial foramen	Subnarial foramen
Jugal ramus	Jugal ramus
Subcutaneous surface	Subcutaneous surface
Antorbital fossa	Antorbital fossa
Maxillary fenestra, size and shape	Maxillary fenestra, size and shape
Interfenestral strut	Interfenestral strut
Promaxillary recess	Promaxillary recess
Promaxillary fenestra, position and shape	Promaxillary fenestra, position and shape
Vestibular bulla	Vestibular bulla
Caudal antromaxillary fenestra	Caudal antromaxillary fenestra
Antorbital fenestra	Antorbital fenestra
Palatal process	Palatal process
Bony choana	Bony choana
Maxillary antrum	Maxillary antrum
Maxillary antrum, medial wall	Maxillary antrum, medial wall
Sutural contacts	Sutural contacts
-	Condition
	Horizontal ramus (excluding antorbital fossa)
	Horizontal ramus (including antorbital fossa)
	Interdental septa
	Sulci of the alveolar row of foramina
	Subnarial region
	Joint surface for the premaxilla
	Premaxillary buttress
	Narial fossa
	Circumfossa ridge
	Teeth, position
	Dorsal jugal process
	Ventral jugal process
	Caudal alveolar foramen
	Joint surface for the jugal
	Nasomaxillary suture
	Ascending ramus, lateral view
	Maxillolacrimal suture
	Ascending ramus, medial view
	Antorbital fossa, subordinate fossae and foramina
	Maxillary fenestra, position
	Maxillary position, form of edges
	Maxilla, medial surface
	Interdental plates, form
	Interdental plates, position and texture
	Medial alveolar process
	Dental pits
	Joint surface for the palatine
	Palatal process, form
	Palatal process, medial wall
	Palatal process, dorsal surface
	Maxillary sinus system
	Maxillary antrum, caudal region
	Maxillary antrum, epiantral recess
	Intermaxillary process
	Intermaxillary joint surface
	Intermaxillary process, foramina
	Medial surface above maxillary sinus system

It also has to be kept in mind how much our knowledge of tyrannosaurid osteology has come since 2003. Since then, different authors will describe features not mentioned by others, which has expanded the amount of anatomy to write up. The number of phylogenetic characters published for the clade is now well into the hundreds, which is additional incentive to expand the osteological descriptions and to describe how each feature varies. Therefore, a monograph that aims to capture all of that information will have a huge payoff for other researchers in that the full range and hierarchy of variaton is captured, including phylogenetic, ontogenetic, and individual.

References cited

Brochu, C. A. 2003. Osteology of Tyrannosaurus rex: insights from a nearly complete skeleton and high-resolution computed tomographic analysis of the skull. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 7: 1-138.

THE MOR DIARIES, ENTRY #5

The start of the first interpretative line drawing for the monograph. Photograph by John Scannella.

January 13, 2015

For the past several days a migraine headache has stopped me from making daily updates to this diary, but it has now receded. In the meantime, I've made all of the revisions to the monograph, where features could be seen in lateral view. The manuscript is 1,269 pages in length.

Late last week I reached an important milestone, namely the interpretive line drawings of each bone. Although photographs are a straightforward approach to illustration, they are unable to capture subtle features or the difference between a pristine surface and damage, and their value is diminished when they are defaced by labels and leader lines. Therefore, it is ideal to have accompanying line drawings in a formal description that map out all of the features that are not obvious in a photograph and show all that are discussed in the text.

This time around, I am making each line drawing by tracing the photographs that will make up the plates in the monograph. I crop each image in photoshop and adjust the size (maximum fit to an 8.5 x 11 page) and dpi (300) before reorienting them and converting them into pdf files in illustrator. Once printed, I then tape onto the paper a sheet of acetate, the sort used for overhead transparencies. I then put the sheets on a clipboard and start the drawing using various calibers of black pens (Prismacolor, black ink, caliber 0.8-0.01).

Since I have less than three weeks to make hundreds of drawings, I am using acetate to save time; when time is not an issue I usually use parchment paper and I trace the images on a light board first in pencil, and then I ink the line drawing afterward. During this visit I can’t afford to waste time on two steps.

The main challenge with this process is that it takes a long time for the ink to dry on the acetate, and the finest lines may bead up to produce a faint or irregular line. The faint lines mean I have to go over some areas twice, but the wet ink is the larger problem. Many of those problems can be fixed digitally, but my preference is to make clean, sharp drawings that require a minimum of additional work. In addition to that, the acetate sheets are packaged with thin sheets of parchment paper that separate them; I use a sheet of parchment as a guard so my hand does not rest directly on the acetate and smudge the ink. However, smudging was not completely prevented on my first image (the skull in left lateral view), which shows that I need to take more care and plan out where I start on each drawing. I am happy to report that I've since solved that problem.

For line drawings, I follow a few straightforward rules:

1) Every line and dot must have meaning; i.e., each one must correspond to a feature that is seen on the specimen.

2) In keeping with convention, weight the lines in accord with illumination from the upper left.

3) Unite the entire image with a medium weight tie line and vary the line weight with the illumination; put the thickest lines along the edges of structures that are closest to the viewer; progressively thinner lines must correspond to progressively distant structures; unite each fenestra with a medium weight tie line and vary the line weight according to the source of illumination; solid lines pertain to edges whether or not they are free or overlapping, or pertain to broken surfaces, unprepared matrix, glue, or plaster; use dots are used to mark boundaries of nonoverlapping topographical structures (e.g., the edge of a fading sulcus).

4) Pay more attention to the specimen than to the drawing; i.e., double and triple check between the specimen and the image that the line you are drawing actually matches reality.

The first image - cranium of the subadult in left lateral view - completed! In the right foreground are the bound hard copies of the Two Medicine tyrannosaurine monograph (back when it was a mere 627 pages) and the Jane monograph. They are stacked together to give an approximation of the 1,269 behemoth that the tyrannosaurine monograph has reached. By the way, they are printed with two pages on each sheet to conserve paper!

THE MOR DIARIES, ENTRIES 2-4

Early Thursday morning, January 8, 2015 - I am examining the lacrimal sinus for an optimal place to measure its internal width. The process of revising a manuscript is best done with the specimen on hand in case details were missed the first time around. Photograph by John Scannella.

This week has been very busy and I have been left exhausted at the end of each day, which has delayed me in posting my accomplishments. Here is my summary of the past few days of tyrannosaurining.

 

THE MOR DIARIES, ENTRY #2

January 6, 2015

Today is the day of revisions to the manuscript and I reached page 58 of 627. Along the way I decided on some minor reorganization so that the description follows a logical ontogenetic sequence; I had penned it in a different order initially, but it wasn’t sufficiently straightforward to follow. I’m a bit disillusioned by my slow progress, but the changes and additions are necessary and they have greatly improved the text and information content. I reached 1,226 pages in the digital manuscript today.

THE MOR DIARIES, ENTRY #3

January 7, 2015

Today I resumed with the revisions to the maxilla. Although I did get past the maxilla, there’s a specimen that must be brought out of the gallery for me to examine before it is done. Also, the maxilla of the subadult needs to be flipped over so that I can photograph the medial surface. 1,236 pages reached.

THE MOR DIARIES, ENTRY #4

January 8, 2015

This morning I began with the lacrimal and from there I've made my way through the braincase section, and I have reached the palate; I've made it to the 308th page of the 627-page hard copy manuscript. In the meantime, the revised and expanded digital version has reached 1,248 pages.

My incremental progress over the past few days was the result of making comparisons with other taxa, from which I drew upon my many excel spreadsheets of data. That approach had greatly slowed me down; since I can make those comparisons without being here, I decided to focus on the immediate revisions that I had specifically marked in red ink for this visit.

Despite the recent breakthrough, it is clear to me that the revisions will continue into the weekend; hopefully I'll start the line drawings at the latest on Monday.

At the end of the day I became unfocused and frazzled with fatigue, which motivated a productive departure in using the last minutes to add some characters of Peck's rex axis to my cladistic dataset of T. rex ontogeny.

Night thoughts among tyrannosaur skeletons:

To the curtsy of the swan neck/the wolf head yields

To wisdom kept/the gorgon to her shield

To separate bled/the constancy of years

THE MOR DIARIES, ENTRY #1

My arrival yesterday morning at the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN). Bronze cast of MOR 555. Photograph by John Scannella.

Yes - this is a new diary series to document science as it happens, this time it is my account of making the final revisions to another mammoth monograph I have in the works, as well as my progress on the interpretive line drawings, which is the primary focus of this latest research trip to the legendary Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, MT).

By the way, the monograph describes the Two Medicine tyrannosaurine.

This project has been in progress for some time - it started way back in March, 2012 and since then I have put in 76 days (= 11 weeks or 2.53 months) in the MOR collections with bones in hand, writing the initial manuscript, taking measurements, shooting photographs, and incorporating the literature. So this tale comes to you toward its end - at least the part that happens in the library of fossils.

January 4, 2015

Woke up at 3 am EST; flight at 6:40 am from YYZ to MSP, then 9:00 am from MSP to BZN; flight arrived in Bozeman around 10:45 am. Slept on both flights; no potable water on the second flight, so no coffee.

January 5, 2015

This monograph is intended to be an exhaustive treatment of a growth series, where the manuscript I arrived with was 1,180 pages long (double spaced, of course, and the page count excludes the figure captions and figures).

Woke up at 5:30 am, showered, and dressed, all by mistake - I had misread the alarm clock as 6:30.

Today I completed the description of the dorsal ribs of the subadult, and I photographed them afterward. I found three hemal arches of the adult in some shelves that I missed during my last research visit. I spent a few minutes putting then in the correct sequence (based on their overall size, shape, the form of their proximal joint surfaces, and the grooves that extend ventrally from the hemal canals), and it turns out they nicely fill in the base of the tail. I put in headings and subheadings for each of the new arches in their correct sequence, and I accordingly renumbered all of the other arches in the manuscript. I managed to get a start on the first arch, but then my energy flagged. Eventually I completed the descriptions of the hemal arches, the gastralia, and finally the prefrontal. Excellent progress; tomorrow I can focus on my red-inked mansucript, and the yellow highlights in the digital version.

End of day; I am holding the prefrontal of the adult in my hand that I had just finished writing up moments before. This small bone is quite complex and I had been avoiding it over my last two research trips. It is complex in form because it is at the intersection of several major anatomical domains, namely the orbital cavity, the nasal airway, and the dorsal skull roof, where it is jammed between the forehead and the snout. It is also part of several major anatomical structures, including the orbitonasal ridge and cranial crest. On top of all that, it articulates with three bones: the lacrimal, nasal, and frontal. The level of hierarchical osteological detail in one small bone can be dizzying. The prefrontal was the last major descriptive loose thread ahead of me, and it was very satisfying to have it done, but plucking the numerous small loose threads in the manuscript is tomorrow's primary task . Photograph by Scannella.

Oh, page count?

1,212 pages reached.

THE JANE DIARIES, ENTRIES #45 &46

THE JANE DIARIES, ENTRY #45

January 2, 2015

4:05 pm: Resuming with revisions after a busy morning and early afternoon. Starting with the description of the jugal processes of the maxilla.

THE JANE DIARIES, ENTRY #46

January 3, 2014

10:57 am: This will be the last day that I’ll be able to give my full attention to the Jane ms for three full weeks.

12:30-1:05: Break.

1:05: Before the break I reached the introductory section on maxillary teeth. This section will give me an opportunity to add my unpublished data on the teeth of LACM 28471 and CMNH 7541.

1:55: Lunch.

2:25: Resume.

3:48: Break.

THE JANE DIARIES, ENTRY #44

Presence sinister, absence dexter: the gate of madness to the mountain of dinosaur monographs.

January 1, 2015

10:49 am: A new month, a new file name! I am resuming the revisions of the maxilla; I’ve reached the section on the palatal process.

11:59: I just cleared 60 pages of revisions (of 617 pages)!

Somewhere in here was a ~15 minute shower.

1:44 pm: Break; 619 pages reached, where I have started on the description of the jugal ramus of the maxilla. After that are its subordinate processes, ascending ramus (I am approaching that one out of order – I usually follow a fairly strict rostral to caudal, and dorsal to ventral sequence), alveoli, immature bone grain, lesions, and then the maxillary teeth!

Later in the afternoon: some continued red inking of the manuscript, where I’ve reached the quadratojugal. A lot of time today given to New Year’s Day lunch and dinner with family.

Night thoughts

I have only two more full days to work on the revisions to the Jane manuscript. On the 4^th I fly out to Bozeman to spend three weeks working on the pen and ink illustrations for a monograph that describes a new species of tyrannosaurine (since that one describes a growth series, it has sailed past the thousand page mark – double spaced – and excluding tables, figures, figure captions, and appendices). That effort will be full time, and every day of each week, so Jane will have to take the back seat. I am debating with myself on whether or not to chronicle that effort as well; perhaps.

The pressure is on.