Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you all are enjoying February 14th with someone special. And to help celebrate, I have the results of our latest poll. So, which crurotarsan clades do my lovely readers love? Rauisuchians (43%), followed by crocodylomorphs (25%)! A readership after my own heart. I almost feel a little bad for phytosaurs (7%), but that's what they get for being so tricky.

What is your favorite crurotarsan clade?

New Poll

I have two feature posts in the works, both of which are Mesozoic crocodylomorphs. With that in mind and after reviewing my earlier posts, I thought it would be fun to get your opinions on your favorite crurotarsan clade, both for fun and so I can better gauge my readership, so check out the poll to the left and cast your vote. And of course, not every crurotarsan fits into the five clades I list, but it's just a poll. Also, since 4 out of 5 clades listed in the poll lived only in the Triassic, there may be some bias. I'll probably do a "crocodylomorph" poll and maybe even a "crown group" poll in the future.

Enjoy and stay tuned for those Mesozoic crocodylomorphs!

No Love for the Paleogene

The results for the second poll are in. So, which Crurotarsan time period was your favorite? No surprise, it was the Triassic. But the rest of the results were a little more interesting. In second place was the Cretaceous Period (which I am going to somehow blame on Tom Holtz). Really surprising was the time period in 3rd place, which wasn't actually a period, but an era, and it wasn't even a Crurotarsan era. It was the Paleozoic! I'm just wondering, who comes to a Crurotarsan themed blog and votes in a poll for an option that starts with the phrase "screw Crurotarsans"? Well, we're glad you're here anyway, even if we're not sure why. The Jurassic came in 4th place with a measly 5%. Tied for 5th were the Neogene and anything-but-the-Phanerozoic (same question to these people: you do realize this is a blog about critters from the Phanerozoic?). And for whatever reason, the Paleogene got no votes. NONE! Nada. Niet.

Well, I'm pretty perplexed at some of you, but as I said, I'm glad to have you anyway. Stay tuned for more polls and more hot Crurotarsan action!

And the winner is...

The poll for "which name do you prefer?" is closed and the results are in. Crurotarsi wins by a landslide with 72% of the votes, followed up by Pseudosuchia with a modest 22%, and Crocodylotarsi with a mere 6%. Obviously, this doesn't resolve any of the issues in the nomenclature, but it gives me a nice view of the readership. Surely, these results are biased. How many people who dislike the term "Crurotarsi" are going to come to a blog with such a name in the title? But clearly there are enough, since 28% of the votes were anti-Crurotarsi. Although the results of this poll may show a bias, I feel a review of the literature may reveal similar skewing in favor of "Crurotarsi", but we shall see.

In other news, I arrived home on Wednesday, after a Cinco de Mayo get together with 2 of my favorite Paleontologists, to a wonderful sight. In my front hallway was a book-shaped package from Amazon and inside was my copy of Triassic Life on Land: The Great Transition by H-D Seus and Nicholas Fraser.

It came out at the end of last month and I have been dying to get my hands on a copy. I have only had the time to browse through it, but it looks pretty Trias-tastic. It is definitely more technical than Fraser's previous book Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Life in the Triassic, without all the pretty paintings by Douglas Henderson, but with the benefit of more up-to-date information.

FYI, if any of you buy one of the above books (or any Amazon product linked to on this website, like on the Resources page) from a link on this website, I get a small portion of the sale. So start buying some Triassic literature and support your favorite crurotarsan-themed blog!