Microraptor: The Four-Winged Dinosaur

Last Friday my old classmate Julian shared his master's research project, a 3D animation depicting microevolution in the process of antibody affinity maturation. I've already said this in a comment, but I'd like to restate that the animated simulation of evolution in the movie is absolutely stellar, so do give it a look!

I'd also like to point out that the biomedical communications company Julian works for did some animations for a Nova special last February on a feathered dinosaur called Microraptor. The full episode is available on Nova's website, here.

The scenes they animated were the flight tests of the model dinosaur in a wind tunnel,
this CG feather,and a really dynamic 3-D evolutionary tree:
As an illustrator trapped in the 2nd Dimension, I admit to getting Maya envy occasionally, especially when I see stuff like this. In the future I'd like to explore some of the uses for 3D software in visualizing evolution--functional uses beyond simply making things dynamic-looking (not to undermine the importance of making things look dynamic, of course!).

Visualizing Microevolution (link updated)

Hello,

A bit about me, since I'm the new guy:

I'm a former classmate of Heidi's from Biomedical Communications at U of T. At BMC, I focused on biomedical animation, and now work at a medical animation studio in Toronto. I share Heidi's interest in evolution and visualization (and visualizing evolution). I thought I'd share my master's research project animation, and talk about my approach.

My animation dealt with evolution, but not on the level of the organism, as we often think of (and visualize) the process. The goal was to visualize evolution on the cellular level -- microevolution -- in the process of antibody affinity maturation.

In my animation, I wanted to show some of the cellular and molecular details involved in the process, but more importantly, I wanted to try to visualize the evolutionary changes at the population level (in this case, the change in affinity in the population of centrocytes). To visualize this population-level view of microevolution, I needed to show the distribution of affinity within the variable population, directional change, and the vital role of time in the process. To try to show all this, I created a virtual population of cells, and used scripting and dynamics in Maya (the 3D software) to simulate evolution in this population. The results of the simulation are shown in a cartoony graph.

The first few minutes provide an outline of the process, and then the simulation part starts about two and a half minutes in.
Here's a (new) link:

Antibody-Affinity Maturation

Therizinosaur: Mystery of the Sickle-Claw Dinosaur

I just wanted to share a link to a recent Flagstaff Live article about an exhibit at the Museum of Northern Arizona on the dinosaur Therizinosaur which contains a lot of cool-looking paleoart:

Illustration by Victor O. Leshyk

Leshyk blends a strong fine arts background with studies in anatomy, physical science and natural history. As the current scientific illustrator at the Bilby Research Center at Northern Arizona University, and an educational background in both science and fine arts, he is well versed in detailed drawings by hand, computer-based images, and clay and wire models, all of which were involved in the Therizinosaur exhibit.

Check out those claws. I just love this guy's art. He even has a piece on convergent evolution (it's not part of this particular exhibition but by gosh, I had to show it):

Illustration by Victor O. Leshyk

Nice! So I guess if you live in the Flagstaff, AZ area, go check it out. Me, I'm too far away. : (

Ventastega curonica

From Science News, a newly described fossil gives evidence of the transition from fish to land-dwelling tetrapods. This is Ventastega curonica, from the late Devonian (365 million years ago) of Latvia, in a recent article in the journal Nature. It's the most primitive Devonian tetrapod, and is intermediate transitional form between Tiktaalik (our favorite early tetrapod) and the later Devonian tetrapods like Acanthostega and Ichthyostega. So I guess it's a fishomander, of sorts?

Alas! One more missing link means two more gaps in the fossil record!

Anyway, to stay on topic, here is the illustration being shown on all the news sites:

Illustration by Philip Renne - click for big

He looks so happy! I had to piece this together since most of the news sites are showing a cropped version sans the bottom-dwelling Bothriolepis in the background, and the only full-version I could find has poor resolution. And Philip Renne doesn't seem to have a website, unless all the media sites are mispelling his name, in which case, Philip, I appologize for my lack of link.

Anyway, I like the painting itself. It's colorful, has a nice balance, looks like it may have been designed for a book cover. But we're missing the most important part of the animal. The innovations of Ventastega are in its legs, and all we get to see here is the big smiley head! Man, that reflection on the eyeball is nice, though. And the angle is so dynamic; I feel like I'm right there in the water with him!

Here's an illustration from Devonian Times showing the nearly complete braincase, shoulder girdle, and partial pelvis:

Illustration by Dennis C. Murphy

Maybe the reason the illustrations don't show details of the foot is we don't have them represented by fossils.

I'd never browsed Devonian Times before; their illustrations have a lovely consistency: black sillouette with red bones. Check out the pages for Tiktaalik, Ventastega, Ichthyostega, and Acanthostega. The site makes it really easy to compare fossil forms. Though I would have put them in chronological and not alphabetical order.

I'm going to try to track down the full Nature article at the library this weekend, so hopefully another update on Ventastega will follow.

Darwin's Canopy: Update

The results are in on the Darwin's Canopy art installation, and London's Natural History Museum has chosen Tania Kovat's "Tree":

From the New Scientist: Tania Kovats' TREE has been chosen. It will consist of a cross-section of a 200-year-old oak tree, cut lengthways and running along the full length of the ceiling. It was inspired by Darwin's "tree of life" diagram.

Awesome! That was one of my picks! I'm just relieved they didn't go with one of the more abstract entries. The judges were unanimous in this decision and according to the NHM site, work has already begun on the installation, which is to be unveiled on February 12th, 2009, Darwin's 200th birthday.

More on the artist from NHM:

Tania Kovats is a British artist who works primarily in sculpture and in the exploration of landscape. She is currently exploring Darwin’s voyage while in South America.

'The starting point for this proposal, known as Tree, was Darwin’s iconic branching tree drawing, the first representation of his theory of evolution.'

Tania Kovat’s recent work includes the Museum of the White Horse. Visit the Museum of the White Horse website.

Apple Evolution

Related to my post on automotive evolution, here is an image depicting 30 years of evolution of Apple products from designer Edwin Tofslie (who has a lot of neat design work in addition to this):

You'll want to click for big. A lot of familiar machines are depicted here. I was just thinking about our old Apple IIGS the other day from when I was a kid. And there's the bulbous blue iMac we used in undergrad... and there are the Macs we used in graduate school... and there's the G5 I'm using right now! Ah, nostalgia attacks again!

Except for this:

I'm glad this is extinct.

Anyway, look it over, keeping in mind how evolution of technology relates to biological evolution. Look for overall trends and think about the selective pressures (or 'mutations' or 'genetic drift') that drove those adaptations. And perhaps try to imagine what the future Apple will look like.

And here are a couple more computer-related examples. I have no idea what's going on in either of these but what's interesting is the fact that they're represented as cladistic trees!

More Calvin and Hobbes

Last week's entry in which I included a Calvin and Hobbes comic made me feel nostalgic. And then curious to see if the boy and his tiger had anything to say on the subject of evolution. I found these three online: (And now I am seriously considering picking up a copy of the printed anthology, for a number of reasons!)