trexpad - Tumblr blog

[trexpad]

Xiphactinus audax

The head was as long or longer than that of a fully grown grizzly bear, and the jaws were deeper in proportion to their length. The muzzle was shorter and deeper than that of a bull-dog. The teeth were all sharp cylindric fangs, smooth and glistening, and of irregular size. At certain distance in each jaw they projected three inches above the gum, and were sunk one inch into the jaw margin, being thus as long as the fangs of a tiger, but more slender. Two such fangs crossed each other on each side of the middle of the front. Besides the smaller fishes, the reptiles no doubt supplied the demands of his appetite.

[trexpad]

Inner Space 1973

[trexpad]

morris kantor wounded bird 1946

[trexpad]

Dunkleosteus and Eurypterus, detail from Devonian seascape, Smithsonian Natural History Museum

[trexpad]

charles r. knight leaping laelaps 1897

Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the highest and most mendacious minute of “world history”—yet only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die. One might invent such a fable and still not have illustrated sufficiently how wretched, how shadowy and flighty, how aimless and arbitrary, the human intellect appears in nature. There have been eternities when it did not exist; and when it is done for again, nothing will have happened.

[trexpad]

skindiver and white pointer, coolangatta

In 1963 you were almost handed a medal for dispatching a man eater such as this. 

[trexpad]

martine frank Swimming pool designed by Alain Capeilleres, Le Brusc, France. 1976

This level of balance is difficult to achieve.

[trexpad]

john harding fathom issue #2 p.12 1971

[trexpad]

In a commercial world there are thousands of lives wasted doing things not worth doing. Human spirit is sacrificed, more and more things are produced without a will in the creation, and are consumed or "used" without a will in the consumption or the using. These things are dead. They pass, masquerading as important while they are before us, but they pass utterly. There is nothing so important as art in the world, nothing so constructive, so life-sustaining.

Robert Henri, Dorita

[trexpad]

charles r. knight mastodon 1897

[trexpad]

Zdeněk Burian’s reconstruction of Phorusrhacos. Its distinctive black-and-white color scheme has inspired quite a few imitations (read about some examples here).

[trexpad]

richard wagner Lohengrin act III prelude

willy pogany illustration from the tale of lohengrin knight of the swan after the drama of r. wagner by t.w. rolleston

The King calls for Elsa to answer Telramund's accusation. She enters, surrounded by her attendants. Knowing herself to be innocent, she declares that she will submit to God's judgment through ordeal by combat. Telramund, a strong and seasoned warrior, agrees enthusiastically. When the King asks who shall be her champion, Elsa describes a knight she has beheld in her dreams  and sinks to her knees, praying for God to send her relief.

Twice the Herald sounds the horn in summons, without response. Then Elsa herself makes the call. A boat drawn by a swan appears on the river and in it stands a knight in shining armour. He disembarks, dismisses the swan, respectfully greets the king, and asks Elsa if she will have him as her champion. Elsa kneels in front of him and places her honour in his keeping. He asks but one thing in return for his service: she is never to ask him his name or where he has come from.

[trexpad]

brian franczak albertosaurus c. 1990

That time we sat in the evening silence in the face of the mesa and heard the sudden howl of a pack of coyotes, and had a thrill and a dread which was not fear of the pack, for we knew they were harmless. Just what was that dread—what did it relate to? Something ‘way back in the race' perhaps? We have strange ways of seeing. If we only knew—then we could tell.

[trexpad]

genus Dieffenbachia of tropical America. 5x7 gelatin-silver contact print

[trexpad]

frederic edwin church cotopaxi 1862

"Cotopaxi" is the "Heart of the Andes," throbbing with fire and tremulous with life. It is a revelation of the volcanic agencies which make the landscape of Alpine South America what it is. The mountain is breathing; the waters which its central forces, at work far below the smiling plains, unloose and set in motion, are breaking from their gleaming reservoirs in capricious cascades.

[trexpad]

A window opened into unexplored depths

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - illustrated by alphonse de neuville & edouard riou 1866

[trexpad]

Yangchuanosaurus, an asian relative of Allosaurus. It hails from the Upper Shaximiao Formation