That’s not a comfortable kitty, but I love this illustration by Daniel Eskridge at Shutterstock.
Arguably, that would be a more likely coat coloration for Homotherium, which was widespread in the Arctic, as well as elsewhere on the northern continents, but:
- We know from the sad little cub mummy that, at an early age and in the general area of northern Siberia, at least, Homotherium had long brown fur.
- Dirktooth Smilodon — the only sabertooth that ever gets reconstructed outside Academia — likely prowled high mountain ranges, or at least their foothills, and it had to eat in cold weather as well as warm. Why wouldn’t some groups adapt to the higher-altitude setting?
Ahem…🌋🌋🌋
Ah, right.
Sabertooths are n❤️w a part of this blog, but the current emphasis is on volcanoes and my next big writing project is an eBook on supervolcanoes/large caldera systems (some experts do NOT like the “S” word).
The first step in returning to this fire-mountain focus was to update all the posts I could find here on restless volcanoes.
I just finished that — the permanently pinned “Restless Volcanoes” post is only a very basic thing, but it is something useful to keep updates on volcanoes in.
Fortunately the volcanoes gave me a break and did nothing major while I was setting it up.
The next step is to finish the VEI 8 post series. Those remaining posts will come out when they’re done, even if it’s not a Sunday.
Along the way, I will continue as I’m doing right now — noodling the book.
Can I do it?
This year’s sabertooth series took me farther into writing than I knew I could go.
That is because of what G. K. Chesterton calls the direct line between the eye and the heart.
Mauricio Antón’s art made those animals come alive, especially when combined with his text in Sabertooth and Alan Turner’s text in The Big Cats and their Fossil Relatives.
I became passionate, which was fun, and judging from stats, readers enjoyed that, too.
I want to continue in this mode and develop even further.
As the sabertooth series wound down, I asked myself if there is another topic I have such passion for.
There IS! The Precambrian.
This is a stock image, not hard science, but animals — the yellow line — probably did start during the Precambrian, and as you can see from the gray line, the microbes that both animals and plants evolved from go way back. (Image by Dimitrios Karamitros/Shutterstock)
Wait. What?
Well, I’m just fascinated by it, but that can wait. It is a huge topic that I am not yet ready to tackle, if I ever will be.
Right now the essential question is this: Can I write a similarly passionate series (the supervolcano eBook will be a collection of essays) on my own, without depending on another artist/creator?
We will see.
Meanwhile, thank you so much for your support, likes, and visits!
Flight To Wonder 