My Little Raptormaniacs Page V

Did you really think that this post was only a joke?

Besides Skull, Dinky probably would be the most unusual of the main cast from the perspective of sapient maniraptors from the Mesozoic. A euornithine whose size and spatial ecology are more typical of an enantiornithine? Sounds wrong. At least he's a granivore.

My Little Raptormaniacs Page IV

There was meant to be a sign explaining the K-Pg extinction in the background of the panel in which Remex talks about it, but there ended up being no room for it. I had to cut it out reluctantly, as it was one of the few times the museum setting is actually prominently depicted in this comic. In other news, this page also provides an initial sense of scale among the characters of this arc. My Little Maniraptors are not too little compared to some other maniraptors, even though they would be considered small animals by a human.

An unintentional callback I now recognize in hindsight is that Remex appears to have learned from experience with Zahavi.

Bonus: Why the K-Pg extinction will never occur in My Little Maniraptor. (For those unaware, Celestia controls the sun.)

My Little Raptormaniacs Page III

There are the pastel-colored dinosaurs you've been waiting for! Discord was too fun a character to not use in this story, even if only as a plot device. I had intended him to serve in this role ever since the initial conception of the storyline, so I was glad to see canonical confirmation that he was capable of accessing other dimensions. By the way, he's right to advise small dinosaurs not to walk behind sauropods.

In general, any references here to past events in MLP are meant to contextualize the story for other people who have watched the show and are not plot-essential. This page should be the most reference-heavy in the entire storyline, but I'm happy to answer questions if anyone is feeling lost.

If any MLP fans stumbled across this without prior knowledge of My Little Maniraptor and are wondering why Applejack doesn't have a show-accurate cutie mark, I explain it all here.

My Little Raptormaniacs Page II

My Little Raptormaniacs Page I

Coming Soon: My Little Raptormaniacs

Surprisingly (considering that this comic has a relatively small number of readers), I've been asked more than once whether I intend to do a crossover between Raptormaniacs and My Little Maniraptor, my unbridled parody of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. After sitting on a potential plot outline for the past few years, I have at last finalized the script and can now say that the answer is yes.

Will this be canon to Raptormaniacs? Yep. Good arguments can be made that this should have remained a non-canon venture, but my plans from the start were to have it influence the main plot in a number of significant ways, so too late. I have tried my best to provide enough background information where needed for readers who are unfamiliar with My Little Pony. But if any objections to this are solely on the basis of hatred or prejudice against the show, well... haters gonna hate.

South Dakota School of Mines Museum of Geology

Recently completed a field camp course hosted by the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. There were many magnificent sights to see out there in Wyoming and South Dakota, but having to regularly scramble up and down rock outcrops did not encourage the use of my good camera. Additionally, photography tends to take a backseat when you are being graded for your field work, the net result being that I only have a handful of relatively low-quality photos from field camp proper. However, once the course was done, I got the chance to visit SDSMT's own Museum of Geology, at which I was free to be more shutter-happy. Despite the small size of the display area, the museum's collection was quite impressive. It was also nice to see an exhibit on conservation paleontology.

A row of skulls showcases the evolution of that iconic North American megabeast, the American bison.

Most of the specimens displayed here were discovered at local fossil sites (some of which we worked at during field camp). Here is a skull of the nimravid Hoplophoneus with a painful-looking bite mark.

Smilodon compared to living cats, including (clockwise from top left) a house cat, a bobcat, a clouded leopard, and a mountain lion.

More Hoplophoneus skulls.

This is a specimen that had to travel some ways to get here, a juvenile Mauisaurus.

The centerpiece of the museum was a mount of another plesiosaur, Styxosaurus. It was so big that it was essentially impossible to fit it all in one shot.

The skull of Archaeotherium, a hell pig (but not really a pig).

The foot of the hornless rhino Subhyracodon.

The skull of Subhyracodon.

Protoceras, a member of an extinct radiation of North American artiodactyls with bizarre headgear.

How many universities have their own Tyrannosaurus rex?

A Mosasaurus mount. Spot the palatal teeth!

The skull of the amphicyonid Daphoenus.

A glass case showcased brontothere sculptures by Charles Knight.

A partial skeleton of an Oligocene snake.

A full-body mount of Archaeotherium.

Leptomeryx, a small ruminant.

An oreodont mounted with unborn young in its womb.

A gomphothere skull.

The brontothere Brontops.

Ah, a maniraptor! Procrax, a fossil cracid fowl.

A mount of Edmontosaurus (or is it Anatosaurus?).

Glad that they acknowledged that the mount is in an outdated posture.

Should be "femora"!

The skull of Triceratops.

Mosasaur stomach contents.

Considering the ubiquity of cannibalism among modern carnivores, "mosasaurs probably were NOT cannibalistic" is a bold claim to make.

A partial skull of the mosasaur Hainosaurus.

Mesosaurus, not a mosasaur.

There was a screen playing Valley of the T-Rex [sic]. Ehh.