Ask Pangaea

Caustizer · **Reply #440 on:** March 02, 2011, 12:19:21 AM

Do you find you connect at all with Swiftwalker's character in Far Away Home, or do you find him to be a last minute addition you are unconcerned about overall?

oogaboo · **Reply #441 on:** March 04, 2011, 06:10:56 PM

Have you ever made like a short story or something like that for that character in your avatar? And what is he/she?

Pangaea · **Reply #442 on:** March 08, 2011, 02:05:36 AM

Quote from: Caustizer,Mar 1 2011 on 11:19 PM

Do you find you connect at all with Swiftwalker's character in Far Away Home, or do you find him to be a last minute addition you are unconcerned about overall?

Sorry for making you wait. I figured I should read the latest Far Away Home chapter before I responded, and then…I procrastinated.

Given that adult Ruby was implied to have never found a mate in an early “present-day” scene in the story, I suppose that I might have guessed that Swiftwalker was introduced as a love interest for Ruby who would meet an untimely death in the climax of the story, and as a result subconsciously kept myself from getting too attached to him.

(I hadn't considered the possibility that he would become her mate between the end of Far Away Home and the prologue of Ruby in the Jungle.

) Lately, however, I think I've been starting to feel for his character more, especially in the last chapter, with his and Ruby's endeavors to save one another during the battle with the sharpteeth. (I find that I'm connecting with him better than I did with Bron in LBT X, if that's any yardstick.)

Quote from: oogaboo,Mar 4 2011 on 05:10 PM

Have you ever made like a short story or something like that for that character in your avatar? And what is he/she?

He's a Lystrosaurus, the most common and ubiquitous large backboned inhabitant of the supercontinent Pangaea between around 250 and 245 million years ago. Further explanation here, here, and here in my art thread.

My track record of storywriting has been rather pitiful for the last several years, so no, I have not written a story about him. He could barely be considered an OC, really; he has no name, no traits or personality that have yet been defined in words, and even I don't know what he looks like below the neck.

: Basically, that picture is everything I have so far devised for that character. I have thought of a couple of potential stories in which he could appear, however. One idea is a LBT fanfiction in which the gang discovers a “lost world” of creatures that should have died out over 150 million years ago (which, for them, would have been the Triassic/Permian/Carboniferous

). The other is an affectionate parody of the original LBT set in the Permian, with species from that period substituting the familiar dinosaur characters.

Malte279 · **Reply #443 on:** March 17, 2011, 06:35:37 PM

Since MSN didn't work out, is there any chance we could try to have a chat via Skype? I think we both might enjoy a chat some day

Pangaea · **Reply #444 on:** March 18, 2011, 02:25:45 AM

I have to apologize to you, Malte. I feel very bad about this, as the issue isn’t that MSN and other chat programs haven’t been “working out”, but my own failure to even pursue the task of learning about these programs and how to use them in the first place.

I have Microsoft Messenger (8.0) for Mac installed on my computer, but I am flummoxed as to how to use it, and unsure of whether it is even compatible with the program you use. Prompted by your question, I just checked out Skype as well, but from what I can make of it, I have my doubts that it would be practical for me to use. (Basically there are a number of factors that deter me from using it.) On top of this, these days I have been having a real problem balancing my life and getting work done; the rate at which I’ve been accomplishing things has slowed to a pathetic crawl.

I don’t know how much time I would be able to devote to chats even if I were able to have them. That said, I hate to disappoint you, and I would like to converse with you more often, but I don’t know when or if doing so through chat programs will be possible. At the moment, I think e-mail is still the most feasible means for us to communicate. Again, I am sorry for letting you down.

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #445 on:** March 19, 2011, 01:05:06 AM

How is Sasquatch these days

?

Pangaea · **Reply #446 on:** March 19, 2011, 01:51:32 AM

Still as wild and fluffy as ever.

Lately he seems to have been obsessed with being let out of the house. He'll beg for someone to open the door for him, standing up on his hind legs and pawing at the door knob/handle; if and when someone lets him out, he runs outside for a few minutes; then sometimes he'll reappear outside the door, apparently wanting to be let in, but when someone opens the door, he'll either continue to just stand there, or actually dart away.

When he really does want to come in, he tends to crouch just outside the open door for a few seconds, then spring through the doorway and dash across the room. :blink: As he did last year, he often grabs the opportunity to slip out of the house when someone opens the door for whatever reason, but now he's also taken to trying to get people to let him out whenever he sees or hears them come near a door. Earlier this evening, almost every time I passed the front door on my way up or down the stairs, Sasquach would race over to the door and gesture that he wanted to let out. (We prefer to keep him inside at night, so I kept telling him, “Sorry, Sasquatch. Not gonna happen.”

)

Cancerian Tiger · **Reply #447 on:** March 19, 2011, 01:57:42 AM

That's a good idea, considering there are Black bears in your neck of the woods. Have any more bears come near your property, or has it so far been just the one time they raided the trash cans

?

Pangaea · **Reply #448 on:** March 19, 2011, 02:13:14 AM

Actually, black bears have raided our trash several times over the years. There were also a few occasions on which we saw a bear at the edge of the yard, and a number of years back we saw a juvenile bear behind our garage, which climbed up a tree, allowing us to get a pretty good look at it (though we kept our distance, of course). Truthfully, though, I'm not too worried about the black bears; from what I've heard, they tend to be afraid of cats.

Caustizer · **Reply #449 on:** April 04, 2011, 02:31:52 PM

Did you have any April Fools pranks played on you this year?

Pangaea · **Reply #450 on:** April 04, 2011, 03:18:40 PM

No, surprisingly enough. Go figure it was the one April Fool's Day when I was alert and prepared for any pranks that might come my way.

Although a lot of snow did fall in our area that morning, leading me to joke, “Mother Nature decided to cancel spring!”

I did, however, pull my traditional (for three years running now) prank of baking a cake and using food coloring to disguise it as chocolate. My family, of course, has wised up to the ruse; the point now is to make them guess what kind of cake they are really eating. I managed to fool all of them this year: it was a carrot cake with buttercream frosting,

and to my pleasant surprise they all enjoyed it.

Other than sneaking up on someone and surprising them, brain teasers like that are about the only pranks I ever play on people. I'm not really the pranking type, largely because I don't like being pranked myself.

P.S. I have seen that you have a new Far Away Home chapter posted and plan to review it soon.

Please accept my advance apology for the delay.

And thank you for the question; it's been a while since I've been asked one, and I've missed them.

Sky · **Reply #451 on:** April 11, 2011, 03:06:02 PM

I heard that you do not enjoy visiting the GOF anymore. D:
What is the reason? Will you leave the GOF eventually?

vonboy · **Reply #452 on:** April 11, 2011, 03:41:25 PM

I don't want to sound greedy, but would you review a fan fiction if someone asked you to?

Pangaea · **Reply #453 on:** April 15, 2011, 03:27:13 AM

Quote from: Sky,Apr 11 2011 on 02:06 PM

I heard that you do not enjoy visiting the GOF anymore. D:
What is the reason? Will you leave the GOF eventually?

Well, there are a number of factors, the main one being that the forum is so much less active these days, and fewer members are posting. There haven't been many new, engaging, thought-provoking discussion threads, and even the Party Room and “Caption This!” section haven't been receiving much new material lately. I'm not a very spontaneous poster; I practically rely on other members to prompt or otherwise motivate me (either directly, as in this thread, or indirectly, such as by posting something that inspires me to comment or add to a conversation).

Another part of the reason is that I myself am in a rut. As I'm sure I've already stated countless times in the “How are you feeling?” thread, lately I have been feeling gloomy, uninspired, foggy-headed, lacking in energy, and generally apathetic towards everything. It's almost gotten to the point that my obligations on the GOF are the only things that keep me coming back. And even with those I've been having problems. I no longer find enjoyment in reviewing; it just feels like a chore now; so much so that I'm reluctant to even look at new fanart and fanfiction, and feel disinclined to start post feedback on new threads, for fear of ending up being overwhelmed with reviewing work.

You can at least rest assured that I am unlikely to leave the GOF altogether anytime soon. Part of it is because there are still a few fanfictions I'm reviewing, plus a RP that I'm now in charge of, that I don't want to let down. But I'm also very attached to this forum; I've been visiting it regularly for over two years now, and even if I no longer feel as motivated to come here anymore, I clingóperhaps futilelyóto the hope that things will improve.

Quote from: vonboy,Apr 11 2011 on 02:41 PM

I don't want to sound greedy, but would you review a fan fiction if someone asked you to?

Lemme guess: you want me to review your LBT story?

PM me and we can discuss it.

What kind of feedback are you looking for? Do you want the kind of review where I point out spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in the text, or just my opinion, suggestions, etc. on the story?

Truthfully, I tend to have a hard time saying no to requests, because I hate to disappoint people. This can cause problems for me, though, because if I’m reviewing a lot of fanfictions at once, I can end up with a huge backlog of work to do, which can make for a lot of stress. As a result, these days I’m rather hesitant to start reviewing new stories. :unsure:

vonboy · **Reply #454 on:** April 16, 2011, 04:09:06 PM

I have a question for my fanfiction about a certain species of dinosaur I don't know what to call. They are in this image from the tv episode the lonely journey

Sorry for the awful image quality :unsure:.

I'm asking about the dinosaurs on the right side of the image. the adult one and the two little ones. The scientific name for them would be good, but what I'd really like to know is what they'd be called in the LBT universe. I don't know if they were ever referred to at all, so I guess a name has to be made up for them. Do you have a suggestion?

Thanks

Malte279 · **Reply #455 on:** April 16, 2011, 06:41:40 PM

I think those are supposed to be Iguanodons. In the past I have referred to them as "Thornthumbs" in LBT stories.

EDIT: Sorry, I hadn't been paying attention at all to what thread it was I was posting in. Sorry for speaking up in a thread in which clealy I was not asked

Pangaea · **Reply #456 on:** April 17, 2011, 03:37:22 AM

Quote from: Malte279,Apr 16 2011 on 05:41 PM

Sorry, I hadn't been paying attention at all to what thread it was I was posting in. Sorry for speaking up in a thread in which clealy I was not asked

No problem.

Honest mistake.

Malte is correct; those dinosaurs are based on Iguanodon. Most LBT fans refer to them as “spikethumbs”, though peculiarly, their design in the show appears to be lacking their most famous feature, the large, conical modified thumb claws. You can also see that one of the babies in the picture is standing flat on its front feet; although Iguanodon was primarily quadrupedal (though juveniles were better adapted for walking on their hind legs), in reality, it walked on the tips of its three central fingers, which were bound together by skin to form a mittenlike hoof. Its pinky finger was prehensile, and could have been used as a thumb (since the dinosaur’s real thumb was a rigid, fused spike, possibly a weapon against predators and/or other Iguanodon).

It used to be that there were several species of Iguanodon, but recently the genus has been ~~split~~ shattered into so many new genera that Scientific American needed three articles to cover them all. (Here are the articles, in case you wanted to know more: Part I, Part II, Part III). Iguanodon bernissartensis is now the only species of Iguanodon still considered valid. The newly renamed genera include the following:
Dollodon bampingi
Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis
Dakotadon lakotaensis
Owenodon hoggii
Barilium dawsoni
Kukufeldia tilgatensis
Hypselospinus fittoni
Sellacoxa pauli
Proplanicoxa galtoni
I’ve wondered if the LBT Iguanodon were based off of one of these former Iguanodon species, since they seem to be rather small compared to the other leafeaters they commonly appear alongside. In real life, Iguanodon bernissartensis was a rather large dinosaur, with an average length of 26–33 feet (at least the size of an adult threehorn), and even as much as 42 feet (around sharptooth length :blink:). The 20–23-foot Mantellisaurus would be a better size match for the LBT spikethumbs, but I think of them as Iguanodon anyway since the filmmakers probably didn’t know about all the different species of Iguanodon (let alone that they would eventually be considered to not be Iguanodon) when they made the choice to include them in the show.

By the way, have you seen the LBT Glossary in the General LBT section? (There’s a link to it in my signature.) It’s a very useful resource if you’re looking for LBT-accurate terms to use in a fanfiction.

vonboy · **Reply #457 on:** April 17, 2011, 05:56:01 AM

I've been using that LBT glossary for my fanfiction, but in this case it didn't really help when I didn't even know the scientific name to begin with.

Thanks Pangaea....and Malte

The Chronicler · **Reply #458 on:** April 22, 2011, 10:05:16 PM

This isn't really a question, but I figured this would be the best place to post this. Knowing how interested you are in paleontology (is that the right word?), I figured you might be interested in reading these articles I came across a few days ago.

The largest fossil spider ever found:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/larges...ndinvolcanicash

How dinosaurs got so huge:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/201104...osaursgotsohuge

Dinosaurs may have hunted at night:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/201104...vehuntedatnight

What do you think of these articles I found?

Pangaea · **Reply #459 on:** April 26, 2011, 11:18:36 PM

Yep, paleontology is the right word.

I had seen another version of the nocturnal dinosaurs article before on Not Exactly Rocket Science (one of the best science blogs on the Net, in my opinion), and I recall seeing articles with the theme of explaining how sauropods reached such huge sizes, but the spider one is brand new to me. I was very interested to learn about this discovery; I had been wondering what the largest fossil spider was, now that Megarachne has been reclassified as a eurypterid.

The subject matter of all three of the articles is fascinating to me. Thought-provoking, too, especially the latter two. The explanation that sauropods could exist at a lower population density than large mammals because they produced more offspring got me wondering whether perhaps some sauropods were more solitary as adults than they have often been portrayed, their size affording them protection from predators and the absence of other individuals nearby enabling them to feed with less competition. I know there is evidence from fossil trackways, nest sites, etc. that at least some sauropods lived in groups for at least some of the time, but it's food for thought nonetheless. And the study on dinosaur eyes determining which species were nocturnal/diurnal/crepuscular really surprised me, especially its conclusion that some pterosaurs such as Rhamphorhynchus were nocturnal. It also makes me wonder about the color vision of these creatures; would some of them have had monochromatic vision, like many nocturnal animals today? And would their other senses, such as smell and hearing, have been stronger, to compensate for reduced visibility?

Thanks for sharing these, Chronicler!