Burgess Shale animals
13 messages in this thread
I saw your upload of the Burgess Shale organism. Which other
creatures are you working on? Lately, I've been waxing more
paleontological, and re-reading Gould's book. Several years ago,
when I was working as a computer journalist, I interviewed a guy who
was using an Amiga 3D program to re-create the Burgess organisms. I
may try to track him down to see if he'll part with him recreations.
I bet Gould et al would *love* to see videos of these creatures. I
got to spend an evening with Gould when I was in college, it was
amazing. If you make some animations, let's send them to him!
No more than ten days ago, I was checking out sites in the Silurian
formations near hear that also preserve soft-bodied fauna. It's no
more than 30 miles from me – amazing, considering that the only other
known sites are so rare and far from me.
>>I saw your upload of the Burgess Shale organism. Which other creatures are
you working on? <<
I've got my sights on Marella ("lace crab"), Yohoia, Opabinia, Dinomischus,
Aysheaia, Sidneyia, Leanchoilia and Anomalocaris. I'm working my way up through
the simple (to model) to the more complex but most of my problem is obtaining
clear drawings of recreations, esp. in plan & elevation form. Uh-oh. I think
that last sentance gave me away <g>. I work as an architectural modeller and
the Burgess animals give me a chance to work on things that don't have 90
degree angles or flat planes.
I live in Toronto, not far from the Royal Ontario Museum, which has done a lot
of work on the Burgess Shale. In fact, that was where I first saw the fossils
and a slightly nightmarish painting of an artists recreation of the fauna. I'm
thinking of contacting them to see if I could get some monographs and if they'd
even be interested in my work.
>>I bet Gould et al would *love* to see videos of these creatures.<<
I'd be interested in finding out what he thought of them. I am doing some
animations but as I'm not trained in biology or paleontology I'm just guessing
at the way the creatures would move. I've spent some time staring at fish tanks
<g>. I'd love to get some idea of what Gould and others thought of colouring,
movement, etc.
I'll keep uploading Burgess Critters as I build them but as this is done in my
dwindling spare time, they may evolve slowly <g,d&r>.
Bruce Meikle
I've always wanted a cuttlefish. Anomalocaris reminds me of them.
I'm so pleased to find other 3DS folks who are turned on by Stephen
Jay Gould's work & writings, especially about the Burgess Shale. He
is such a fine & accessible science writer (check out his book,
"Bully For Brontosaurus", if you havn't already.. another great
read).
After looking at the drawings & descriptions of those fascinating
creatures, I too saw the possibilities of recreating them in animated
form, habitat & all. But then (being an aspiring artist at this
stuff) I thought hey, what if we "rewound the tape" back to before
the beginning, & this time _we_ are in charge of the composition of
the tune, so to speak, instead of random natural forces! After all,
we do have the tools, in a virtual sort of way..
I propose a kind of "contest", to see who can come up with the most
viable life forms, along with an ecology for them to exist in. I've
heard that there is a already a crude game where one can simulate
such a thing, but this effort would be based on the realism that the
powers of 3DS can muster.
I already have several "prototypes" I designed which have no "home"
yet.. the idea was that they evolved on a planet with an environment
somewhat different than ours, but I never fully developed the
concept, & put it on the "magnetic shelf", so to speak.. Wouldn't
this be fun? Perhaps we could get Mr. Gould himself involved, using
his considerable reasoning powers to evaluate the viability of the
entries; he might even be amused by such a game.
Here's hoping.. John Gummere =SP=
John,
<< game idea.. >>
It sounds great! I'd like to see some of it make it on to the
siggraph reel.
jonas[adesk]
Jonas- Great, I'll put it in the queue for priority development– I
havn't yet looked at the SIGGRAPH reel notice, tho. If it requires
an already rendered-to-tape entry, it'll slow me down as I don't have
access to that equipment w/out some time & expense.
It would probably be a good idea to have some way of explaining what
these creatures are & the world where they came from along with the
visuals. Which is why I like multimedia so much (I know some GRASP,
as well).. It really lends itself to being a whole show, with text &
animations in an interactive package.
Perhaps for now I'll concentrate on getting something like that
together; meanwhile I'll look at uploading just a GIF or something,
along w/ explanatory text, & see if it sparks any interest.
Best regards, John Gummere =SP=
John,
<< sun dog >>
Don't you have some IPAS routines for sale? I don't
think I saw your routines in the IPAS.txt file in section 9.
jonas[adesk]
Sundog's IPAS routines aren't shipping yet as far as I know. Anyone
else with IPAS routines for sale, AFTER they are shipping, please get
me some info in the format of IPAS.TXT for inclusion in the update!
You've got me mixed up with the other sundogs in this forum. They work out of
California, so just think of me as the East Coast version..<g> (also, theirs is
spelled "SunDog", whereas mine is "Sundog"). Popular name, I guess.
(oh jeez, I was afraid this would happen…sigh).
John Gummere =SP=
P.S.- I'm putting finishing touches on an illustration of my own imaginary life
form models; look for a title "Neozoics" soon in lib 9.
There are several computer-based evolutionary programs out there. One of the
most well-known is called Tierra. You can get Unix and PC binaries from the
Internet at tierra.slhs.udel.edu [128.175.41.34] and life.slhs.udel.edu
[128.175.41.33] in the directories: almond/, beagle/, doc/, and tierra/.
There's also a Tierra mailing list, subscribe through a message to
tierra-request@life.slhs.udel.edu.
Perhaps I should 'ftp' these and upload them to the Science Forum. There's a
bunch of amateur paleontologists there.
Yeah that's probably the one I was thinking of.. (I havn't gotten around yet
to even THINKING about taking on that Internet medusa, tho– my hands are full
enough just with old CIS..<g>).
That would be super if you could upload it into the SCIENCE forum lib.
Thanks, John Gummere =SP=