Pioneers

Today, in Utah is a state holiday called Pioneer Day.  It honors the entrance of the Brigham Young and the Mormon Pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley.  So I am posting a few new pioneer drawings and some that were posted previously.

My own great great grandfather was here a day two before and was plowing and planting potatoes. (I read this in Amasa Lyman's journal..the transcript is available at the BYU Library Special Collections room.)  By the way, what Brigham Young actually said was, "This is the right place, drive on."  He was leaning up on his elbow in a wagon because he was sick.   Just goes to show that you can do great things even when you do not feel 100%.

Brigham Young Entering the Salt Lake Valley

The handcart groups were mostly pioneers who hand emigrated from Europe to join the saints in Zion...AKA Utah.  Zion is now wherever a Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is located.  A stake is a group of congregations in a specific area.

Handcart Pioneer Family Crossing the Plains

Two companies of handcart pioneers were caught in early winter snows and suffered terribly.  My great great grandmother was in one of those companies.  She lost all of her toes.  But she married her rescuer.   Their names are Lucy Ward Cole and James Barnett Cole.  I think they went on to have like 13 children.  SO...I am here because of them.  I will post theit story sometime.

Handcart Pioneer in the Snow

Pioneer Boy Thomas Dobson dancing the jig

Thomas Dobson was a pioneer boy who came across with a handcart company.  He loved to dance the Irish jig.    They were about to amputate Thomas' feet because they were frozen.  His handcart company had got stuck in the snow on their way to Utah.  Instead, he was given a blessing and was miraculously healed.  They did not have to amputate his feet.  He even was able to dance the jig for other pioneers to cheer them up.  He continued to dance for much of his life.   

Pioneers crossing the Plains and then the Valleys of Wyoming

Most of the pioneers came across the plains in covered wagons.  I think that it is important to remember to honor pioners that went to Oregon, Washington, California, and even places like DeSmet, South Dakota. (One of the places Laura Ingalls Wilder lived...my family loves those books...and my wife is from South Dakota.)  

Moabosaurus

pictures coming shortly.  I am scanning them now....

Moabosaurus utahensis was a Sauropod.  .   . and also a Titanosaur.  It was not by any means the biggest Titanosaur.  It was only about 32 feet (9.75 m) long.  It weighed about as much as an African elephant.  That means that a Moabosaurus weighed about the weight of a T. rex.  This is not small, although there were Sauropods like Argentinosaurus that was 17 times heavier than Moabosaurus.
Do the math, 13,000 lbs x 17 will get you the weight of an Argentinosaurus.

Notice that these illustrations show Moabosaurus with a short trunk.  This is a trait that has been hypothesized for dinosaurs like Moabosaurus and the Brachiosaurs.  These are the Sauropods that had nasal holes in the top section of their head.   The trunk would have been used for feeding like an elephant grabs branches etc. with their trunk.

Moabosaurus Feeding on a Pine Tree

Moabosaurus close up

Argentinosaurus at Nesting Site
This comparison is here to show that Argentinosaurus was a much larger Titanosaur. 

Mountain Lion

As I said in my last post, Cougars are hard to draw.  I was not happy with my last drawing of a cougar so I drew a different drawing of the same cougar...or mountain lion.  It is from a different photo, taken at a different angle.

I decided to mention that my undergraduate university experience was at a university with Cougars as the mascot.  The cougar specifically was and is named Cosmo.  I was even in "Cougar Band!"  I was a percussionist...that means drummer.  So.... Go BYU Cougars.  (Brigham Young University in Provo,Utah)

Anyway, here is the drawing and photo.  I think this drawing is far superior to the original "Cougar" drawing.  .   . from my last post.

Mountain Lion Walking

Photo of Mountain Lion walking (at the Adam's Museum, Deadwood, South Dakota

Cougar

Cougar on a Mountaintop 

The cougar is one of the most athletic of all animals.  They have been known to jump safely from the top of a 30+ foot tree.  They routinely can jump 20 feet while running down a mountainside.  They also can jump 18 feet straight up into a tree.  They are predators and live a solitary life.  They do not hunt or live in packs except perhaps a female with her partly grown young.  A female usually has around 3 or 4 cubs but sometimes they have 6..  They are the largest of the small cats.  The females weigh up to 105 lbs (48 kg) and the males weigh up to 158 lbs (72 kg).  They are up to 5 feet long (1.55 m) and that is just the body.  If you count the tail they are 8 feet (2.44 m) long.

Mountain lions (another name for cougars) are a tawny color that is somewhat darker on their backs.  Their underside is white.  They often have unique facial markings from panther (another name) to panther.  They have a black spot at the end of their tail.  Their scientific name is Puma concolor. 

Cougars eat deer and elk, but have been known to prey on big horn sheep, coyotes, rabbits, porcupines and raccoons.  A healthy cougar will kill a deer or elk every week to 10 days...but more often if it is a mother raising cubs.

There are many names for the cougar.  Here is a list.  It probably is not comprehensive though:
Cougar, Mountain Lion, Panther, Catamount, Mountain Screamer, Devil Cat, Painter, Sneak Cat, Devil Cat, Deer Cat, Fire Cat , Plain Lion, Grey Lion, Caracajou, Indian Devil, Klandagi, Catawampus, Quinquajou, Long Tail, Swamp Lion, King Cat, Mountain Devil, Red Tiger,
and Silver Lion.  Puma is the Spanish word for cougar, but Puma is commonly used in many areas of the Southwest United States.  Remember that Puma concolor is the scientific name, based on Latin.  So Puma is also the Latin word for cougar.  In some specific places, like Florida, the local subspecies of cougar is called the Florida Panther.  It is actually an endangered species.  Only 50 or so are left in the wild.

I drew the coloring page drawing of a cougar that was mounted (taxidermy) at t South Dakota Museum.  We went there last month.

Troodon

Troodon was a dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era.  Troodon was "gifted" by dinosaur standards.  In biology one measure of intelligence is brain to body ratio...that is, the size of an animal's brain compared to its overall body size.  Troodon wins in that calculation so it is thought to have been a very intelligent dinosaur.  This ration is similar to that found in modern birds.  Don't sell the bird class of animals short.  We say mistakenly "bird brain."  In fact, birds are very intelligent.  For example, hummingbirds can remember the location of every flower they have ever visited.  Troodon  was a raptor dinosaur, probably had feathers, and lived in what were probably forests boarded by open plains.   They were small, about 8 feet (2.5 m) long and maybe 3 feet (.9 m) tall. They probably weighed 110 lbs (50 kg)  Troodons were probably pack hunters, like wolves.  They probably could, working in a hunting pack, bring down larger prey like Hadrosaurs...the duck billed dinosaurs.

Troodon in the Forest

There are two known species of Troodon.  Scientific names have two parts.  Troodon is the Genus name and so to state the full scientific name you say the Genus and species.  You do not capitalize the species name but you DO capitalize the Genus name.  The first species of Troodon was found in 1856 and it was called Troodon formosus and the second found was in 1935 and is called 

Troodon inequalis.  

New Dinosaur Albertavenator curiei

NOTE to those of you who are on line right now... Sorry I took a while to put the printable coloring pages up of Albertavenator and Troodon...I was drawing the Troodon.  Turned out pretty cool...don't ya think?

A new  species of dinosaur has been identified.  It was found in the badlands near the Royal Tyrell Museum in Alberta, Canada.  It was actually found in 1980 with additional specimens found in 193 and 1996.   New examinations of the skull fragments,(found with the first specimen),  have led to the determination that it was a new species.  At first they thought it was the very gifted (smart) dinosaur called Troodon.  Now the new species is named, Albertavenator curiei.  It was name after the Canadian privince of Alberta and after the famous paleontologist Phillip Curie.  Venator means hunter in Latin.  Albertavenator lived about 71 million years ago.  A bit before T.rex.

Albertavenator curiei

Albertavanator was probably an omnivore, it ate both plants and other animals.  Someone said that it was like a very big chicken.  It was about the size of a full grown human man.  It was covered in feathers and was a close relative to Velociraptor.  By the way, Velociraptor was actually only about 4 feet tall and 6 or so feet long.  Albertavenator is estimate to have been around the same size as Troodon or about 110-120 lbs.  It would have probably been  8 feet long.  Both Troodon and Albertavenator were quite a bit larger than Velociraptor.  Velociraptor lived in Asia while Troodon and Albertavenator lived in North America.

Troodon in the Forest

Velociraptor in the Desert

Velociraptor Fluffed Out for Display

Velociraptor with Young

All of these  3 raptor dinosaurs we have discussed are thought to have had feathers, however, they were non-flying feathers.  There WERE some flying dinosaurs...not Pterosaurs which were flying reptiles.  .   .  but bird-like dinosaurs like Microraptor.  Microraptor had feathers and it could truly fly.  Fairly recent studies on the chemistry of the feather imprints left by Microraptor have shown that it was an iridescent black, like a raven.

   Pteranodon fishing       

This is a Pterosaur, a flying reptile Iit is NOT a flying dinosaur!       

 Microraptor Flying through the Forest

NOTE:  The older drawings I have put on this post are found further up the list on the Free Printable Downloads page....just click the button at the top of my blog.  The most recent drawing, the one of Albertavenator, is found at the bottom of the list.  You click on the title of the drawing and you get a free printable page to print and color.   

On the blog posts page you can click at the bottom on "Older Posts" to see more drawings with information and stories etc.   You scroll down and get the chance to click on "Older Posts" again for even more.  You can do this several times to see all the posts if you are interested.  

T. rex Parent Teaching Young to Hunt

The Corythosaurus does not know what is about to happen to him.  He is about to be the hunting lesson for the adolescent T. rex.  They have found Theropod eggs and X-rays have shown that the young were hatched with tiny teeth but they clearly would have been incapable of self defense in a scary and dangerous Mesozoic world.

T. rex Parent Teaching Young to Hunt