Computer programmer, essayist and venture capitalist Paul Graham writes: In most fields, prototypes have traditionally been made out of different materials. Typefaces to be cut in metal were initially designed with a brush on paper. Statues to be cast in bronze were modelled in wax.

This post started out as a comment on this thread, kicked off by Dale McInnes, in which Mike Habib got into a discussion with Mike Taylor about the max size of sauropods. Stand by for some arm-waving. All the photos of outdoor models were taken at Dino-Park Münchehagen back in late 2008.

Here’s BYU 12866, a mid-cervical of a neosauropod from Dry Mesa Quarry. It’s cataloged as Brachiosaurus, an identification I’ve never found any compelling reason to doubt. It’s definitely brachiosaurid, and for now Brachiosaurus is the only game in town for the Late Jurassic of North America.

Vicki and London and I were in downtown Los Angeles for a friend’s wedding on Dec. 30, and afterward we visited The Last Bookstore. Embarrassingly, even though I’m LA-adjacent, I had not been before.

Hey, look, a new sauropod vertebra to kick off the new year! I’ve blogged a lot about the giant – and tiny – apatosaurines from the Morrison Formation of Oklahoma, and just once on Saurophaganax. But otherwise I don’t think I’ve covered any of the other Oklahoma Morrison dinos.

As Matt recently noted, we both have a ton of photos from various expeditions that we’ve never got around to posting — not to mention a ton of specimens that we’ve seen but never got around to working on. Here is one of the most exciting: As you can see, this is a massive cervical […]

Matt just commented to me: “One thing I am realizing is that I have loads(*) of cleaned-up, ready-to-post photos in old talks, that I’ve never posted.” I too have that experience. The problem is, they tend to be sized for a 1280×960 projector screen, which is not really good enough for modern illustrations.

Hey sports fans, as the year winds down I bring you another podcast appearance. This time out I’m rolling with Mark Hallett, and we’re talking about sauropods through the lens of our still-plausibly-somewhat-newish book, The Sauropod Dinosaurs: Life in the Age of Giants, on the I Know Dino podcast.

This year Santaposeidon comes to you courtesy of OMNH vert paleo head preparator and 20th-level fossil conservation wizard Kyle Davies, who took the photo, composed the card, and gave me kind permission to share it here.

I have used this photo in loads of talks, but as far as I can tell, this is the first time I’ve put it up on SV-POW!

Here’s a bunch of cool stuff that is either available now or happening soon: Sauropod Dinosaurs book excerpt in Prehistoric Times Been on the fence about the sauropod book Mark Hallett and I wrote?