TetZooMCon 2021 Tickets Are Live

Yes, once again we’re holding a zoom-based annual convention, structured much like the very successful event of last year. I give you: TetZooMCon 2021, happening Friday September 3rd…

Given that we organisers (myself and John Conway) live in the UK, we’re working in UK time zones. Our apologies to those of you on the other side of the world. Things kick off at 4pm, and we intend to run until late with both a palaeoart workshop, an informal discussion session and an unstructured after-party occurring during the evening. Speakers include Kannan Raja (on citizen science and the herpetofauna of Singapore), Riley Black (on the palaeobiology of the predatory fossil mammal Patriofelis), Elsa Panciroli (on mammal evolution and her new book Beasts Before Us), and myself (on the dinosauroid and its backstory).

Myself and Duane Nash (yes, we’re different people) will be having a discussion about Duane’s ideas as portrayed in his book Dinosaur Enlightenment. There will also be a few surprise announcements. One or two other things have yet to be confirmed: for breaking news, check the comments here or follow #TetZooMCon on Twitter.

Caption: art shown here is (l to r) by Raven Amos, Gabriel Ugueto and John Conway.

As you’ll recall if you were there, last year’s TetZooMCon was a huge success and ran surprisingly smoothly. I wrote about it here. It’s difficult to predict whether as many people will attend as did last year (over 350), but already tickets are selling well. Get yours here.

That about sums things up for now. We look forward to seeing you on September 3rd!

The Sixth TetZooCon

The sixth TetZooCon – the annual TetZoo-themed meeting of people relevant to the TetZooniverse – happened on the weekend of the 19th and 20th October, 2019, and was held at University College London’s The Venue. As predicted, this year’s was the biggest and best so far, and that opinion isn’t just down to me but also to many of the people in attendance. As per usual, this article is going to include a brief review of what went down at the meeting as well as more general thinkings on where TetZooCon is heading and what the future holds.

Caption: TetZooCon 2019 was merchandise heaven… or maybe hell if you wanted to limit your spending. Here’s a shot of just some of the palaeoplushies on sale at Rebecca Groom’s stall. I’m now the proud owner of a Yellow-legged gull. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

Caption: it was a busy event: here’s a scene from the palaeoart workshop. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

My intro out of the way, we were into talks proper, the first being Ellen Coombs’s brilliant review of her work on stranding records of whales and what they tell us about whale distribution, population trends, and biology. Ellen’s recent publications include those on True’s beaked whales Mesoplodon mirus in the Bay of Biscay (Robbins et al. 2019) (recall that I myself was watching beaked whales – albeit not True’s – in the Bay of Biscay back in August) and the life history of Hope, the Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus currently on display in the main entrance hall of London’s Natural History Museum (Trueman et al. 2019).

Caption: Ellen Coombs talks whales at TetZooCon 2019 - a fantastic talk. Image: Darren Naish.

Jack Ashby was next and discussed natural history museums, specifically on biases in what gets put on display. He also focused on various remarkable animals with really interesting histories, including echidnas, walruses and beavers, and finished with a book signing (the first of several). Jack’s book is Animal Kingdom: A Natural History in 100 Objects (Ashby 2017), and very nice it is too. We followed with our roundtable event on dinosaur and pterosaur palaeobiology, involving myself, Chris Barker, Jordan Bestwick, Dave Hone and Rebecca Lakin. Topics covered included the biology of ‘super-powered’ extinct animals, the reliability (or not) of phylogenetic bracketing, the dinosaur sex wars, and the All Yesterdays movement.

Caption: a dinosaur and pterosaur palaeobiology discussion roundtable. It went alright.. Left to right: Chris Barker, Jordan Bestwick, Dave Hone, Rebecca Lakin, Darren Naish. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

Mike Dickison followed up with his ‘What Is a Native Bird?’. Birds in places like New Zealand are conventionally regarded as either ‘native’ or ‘introduced’, but things are actually much more complex and this dichotomous view is not accurate nor representative of historical events. Mike’s talk included diversions on Haast’s eagle and its life appearance and much else. Alice Pawlik discussed Adventures in Native Amphibian Conservation and told us about her work on Pool frog Pelophylax lessonae reintroduction to the UK.

Caption: Mike Dickison’s talk on New Zealand’s birds was full of up-to-the-minute science and surprises from the world of palaeontology and genetics. Image: Darren Naish.

Another excellent talk on extant British wildlife was given by Amy Schwartz who told us about Project Splatter, a citizen science project devoted to the monitoring of roadkill. The project has accrued tens of thousands of records and revealed significant new information on how wildlife is being affected by roads, and which species are being affected in particular. A technical publication on this work is due to appear soon.

Caption: this picture conveys some idea of how much palaeoart-themed stuff there was at TetZooCon 2019. Look: poster boards with actual art, people like Steve White (with glasses, on left), and stands and stalls covered in art for sale. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

Palaeoart at TetZooCon. Two parallel sessions happened after lunch on the Saturday. Away from the main hall, our Palaeoart Workshop occurred, with short talks from Joschua Knüppe, Agata Stachowiak, Rebecca Groom and Jed Taylor. These were followed by a practical session in which people were invited to create art in a given style. As ever, I was unable to attend, so missed out. 3D art was a theme for part of the workshop: Rebecca discussed the making of her palaeoplushies (which, as usual, were on sale this year), Jed spoke about the contruction of theropod models, and Agata’s talk was on the construction of her amazing Megaloceros model. The look of this model is very much inspired by 2018’s TetZoo article on the life appearance of this animal. Several depictions of Megaloceros, actually, are based on the information provided in that article. I’ll write about them here, in time. Finally as goes the palaeoart session, Joschua spoke about his #Paleostream project.

Caption: I absolutely adore Agata Stachowiak’s Megaloceros model, and was extremely pleased to see it at TetZooCon 2019. Images: Darren Naish.

I should add that palaeoart was a major theme of this year’s TetZooCon. We not only had a ton of palaeoart-themed stalls, we also had an evening event on the Saturday – featuring, in cases, original art (Luis Rey’s many originals being especially memorable) – as well as a set of models and a diorama brought along by film-maker Paul Glynn.

Caption: Luis Rey original artwork was on show at TetZooCon 2019 (actual, physical, painted artwork). Luis himself appears in the image at right. Images: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

Caption: a small section of Paul Glynn’s excellent and enormous Cretaceous diorama. We hope to see more of Paul’s models and model landscapes at future events. Image: Darren Naish.

Several of our palaeoartists sold and signed books. Luis’s new book is Extreme Dinosaurs 2: the Projects, Steve White’s is Thunder Lizard: The Art of Steve White, and James McKay’s is Trilobites, Dinosaurs and Mammoths: An Introduction to the Prehistory of the British Isles. Mark Witton was also selling copies of The Palaeoartist’s Handbook, and Gareth Monger A Disarray of Palaeoart. John bought along a stack of All Yesterdays to sell but, as usual, forgot about them and left them under a table or something.

Caption: more artwork: a John Conway print of a mega-giant Barosaurus standing alongside other dinosaurs. Some of you will know that this image is based on finds discussed over at SV-POW! Image: Darren Naish.

Having mentioned stalls, I must also add that Dougal Dixon was in attendance as were Breakdown Press (publishers of the new edition of After Man), so here was a chance to get signed copies of Dougal’s books. I’m extremely happy to have Dougal as a guest at TetZooCon, and the word on the street is that he’ll be in attendance next year too.

Caption: Dougal Dixon (at left) and Tom of Breakdown Press, both selling books. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

Natural History Film-Making. Meanwhile, an entire afternoon dedicated to natural history film-making occurred in the main hall. Amber Eames spoke about her award-winning film Swans: Mystery of the Missing, dedicated to the plight and decline of Europe’s Bewick’s swans Cygnus bewickii. This was followed by a roundtable event involving several members of the BBC Natural History Unit, namely Paul Stewart, Nick Lyon, Zoe Cousins and Amber Eames again. I asked Paul questions about my favourite TetZoo-relevant TV series – 1992’s The Velvet Claw – before talking to him about his work on birds-of-paradise and bowerbirds (the newest of which is featured in the brand-new Netflix show Dancing With the Birds) and the iguanas vs snakes segment from Galapagos. Nick and I mostly discussed Dynasties (Nick was director and producer of the wild dogs episode), Zoe and I spoke about her films on pigeons, squirrels, wildcats and Australia, and Amber and I spoke about swans.

Caption: Amber Eames talks about Swans: Mystery of the Missing at TetZooCon 2019. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

Everyone was then involved in some general questions about natural history film-making and things were then opened things up to the floor. We watched Jedi chipmunks, the opening sequence of episode 1 of The Velvet Claw, and some raw background footage from the field, provided by Nick. It was a brilliant event if I say so myself.

Caption: participants in the Natural History film-making discussion event. Left to right: Nick Lyon, Paul Stewart, Zoe Cousins, Amber Eames, Darren Naish. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

Dinosaur and Pterosaur Palaeobiology. Sunday morning opened with a block of talks on dinosaur and pterosaur palaeobiology (Mike Dickison also ran a workshop on Wikipedia as a parallel session). Chris Barker looked at palaeopathologies in fossil theropods and wondered if the ever-present threat of predation might have a psychological and even physical impact on prey species (yes, there’s science behind this somewhat radical idea). He was followed by Dave Hone, who looked at the terminology we use when talking about dinosaur behaviour and ontogeny, the main takehome being that things aren’t as specific as they should be and that more precision is needed.

Caption: Jordan Bestwick spoke about his PhD work, soon to appear in print. Image: Darren Naish.

Rebecca Lakin was next, and discussed her research on reproductive strategies in dinosaurs and other archosaurs, and the session finished with Jordan Bestwick, who discussed his work on how tooth morphology and microwear can be informative with respect to diet and lifestyle. Jordan’s results are exciting and shed much light on pterosaur feeding ecology. The more intriguing and novel of the results can’t be shared yet and we look forward to this work being published soon.

Caption: Rebecca Lakin at TetZooCon 2019, another excellent talk. Image: Darren Naish.

Of Eagles, The Missing Lynx, and Life After Walking With Dinosaurs. My personal highlight of the entire meeting was Lauren McGough’s ‘When Eagles Go Bad!’. That title is a homage to the very first TetZooCon article, published way back in 2006. An experienced falconer since her teenage years, Lauren has flown Golden eagles Aquila chrysaetos in Mongolia, and used this knowledge to learn about eagle-primate interactions in Africa and rehabilitate injured Crowned eagles Stephanoaetus coronatus in South Africa. Her descriptions of eagle behaviour, predatory power, anatomy and ferocity were phenomenal and I can’t stop thinking about them. It’s a great honour to have any speaker at TetZooCon, but hosting Lauren at the event feels like an especially great honour since her research and adventures have been so integral to much of what I’ve written about and thought about since instigating this whole TetZoo thing more than a decade ago. To top it all, Lauren herself is something of a TetZoo fan; what a thrill.

Caption: Lauren McGough, eagle expert and all-round superstar. Image: Darren Naish.

Following Lauren was palaeomammalogist and ancient DNA researcher Ross Barnett. Ross’s work spans an enormous number of animals living and extinct, but I think it’s fair to say that he’s best known for his studies of lions and sabretooths.  His talk at TetZooCon was a broad-bush take on Britain’s lost mammal fauna as reviewed in his new book The Missing Lynx (Barnett 2019). He spoke about hyenas, cave bears, beavers, lynxes and rewilding and the potential for future change and reintroduction. Ross’s talk was followed by a signing event and very successful it was too.

Caption: the crowning achievement of Ross Barnett’s career, surely: having his research written about in The Daily Mash. Such accolade. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

The final talk of the day was by Tim Haines and discussed the ups and downs of ‘digital dinosaur’ projects, namely Walking With Dinosaurs, Sea Monsters, Walking With Beasts and so on. It was titled ’20 Years Since Walking With Dinosaurs’, and the timing was pretty uncanny since October 2020 is almost exactly twenty years since Walking With Dinosaurs first aired. Regular readers might know that I’ve had a long-term involvement in Tim’s projects, initially because my PhD supervisor (Dave Martill) was one of WWD’s consultants. This relationship led to Dave and I’s co-authoring of Walking With Dinosaurs: The Evidence (Martill & Naish 2000), and ultimately to my stint at Impossible Pictures and more recently to my involvement in Dinosaurs In The Wild. It was obvious from our audience’s reaction that Tim had a pretty substantial fanbase at TetZooCon and that his talk was both well-received and much anticipated.

Caption: Tim Haines - with assistant - talks digital dinosaur projects at TetZooCon 2019. Image: Georgia Witton-Maclean.

The Denouement. Talks out of the way, we ended with the famous/infamous quiz, this year won by Richard Hing. Albert Chen and Kelvin Britton were joint runners-up. Prizes included a fantastic array of top-notch animal models provided by our friends and supporters at Everything Dinosaur, not least of which was the brand-new Rebor Komodo dragon, as well as various books, art prints, some leftovers from Dinosaurs in the Wild and a mystery gift in an envelope which was definitely not a dead rat.

And that was that. We had a conference meal later on the Sunday evening, went drinking afterwards, and a bunch of us went on a Monday fieldtrip to ZSL London Zoo, all of which was great.

Caption: a selection of great animals seen at ZSL London Zoo on our post-TetZooCon field trip (clockwise from top left: Dumeril’s salamander, Galapagos giant tortoise, Splendid sunbird, Pygmy hippo). Images: Darren Naish.

Despite a few hiccups, TetZooCon 2019 ran smoothly overall and seems to have been enjoyed by everyone who attended. We had a good contingent of friends from the continent and even several North Americans: thank you all so much for coming! And I’m pleased that things worked out despite our venue – The Venue – double-booking the room and messing us around at the last minute. As ever, we really do need a different venue, but we haven’t yet succeeded in getting one that gives us what we need and is affordable.

Caption: he is the One and Only John Conway. Allegedly.

It only leaves me to say huge and heartfelt thanks to everyone who assisted or attended or helped: to John, Jenny, Will, Tilly and Arty for help, to Kate and Alice for chairing sessions, to Georgia for photography, to Everything Dinosaur, Sheila, Dinosaurs in the Wild, Johan, Mark and others for donating gifts for the quiz, to all our amazing speakers and presenters, to everyone who staffed stalls and sold things, and to all our attendees. As per usual, we aim for next year to be bigger and better!

Several reviews of TetZooCon 2019 have already appeared online…

• TETZOOCON 2019 – DAY 1 at Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs

• TetZoo.Con 2019… a throwback to better times looking into​ the future at Luis V. Rey Updates Blog

• TetZooCon 2019 at Talita Bateman’s blog

• #SciFri: TetZooCon 2019 at Steve’s Herpetological Blog

 For previous TetZoo articles on TetZooCon meetings, see…

• The events of TetZooCon 2014, July 2014

• TetZooCon 2015 Is On, July 2015

• The Events of TetZooCon 2015, November 2015

• Coming Soon: TetZooCon 2016, September 2016

• The Day After TetZooCon, October 2016

• The Fourth TetZooCon, September 2017

• The TetZooCon of 2017, October 2017

• Reasons to Attend TetZooCon 2018, September 2018

• TetZooCon 2018: Best TetZooCon So Far, October 2018

• Announcing TetZooCon 2019 – the Biggest Yet, August 2019

• Final Call For TetZooCon 2019, October 2019

 Refs - -

Ashby, J. 2017. Animal Kingdom: A Natural History in 100 Objects. History Press, Cheltenham.

Barnett, R. 2019. The Missing Lynx: the Past and Future of Britain’s Lost Mammals. Bloomsbury, London.

Martill, D. M. & Naish, D. 2000. Walking With Dinosaurs: The Evidence. BBC Worldwide, London.

Robbins, J. R., Park, T. & Coombs, E. J. 2019. Supernumerary teeth observed in a live True’s beaked whale in the Bay of Biscay. PeerJ 7:e7809.

Trueman, C. N., Jackson, A. L., Chadwick, K. S., Coombs, E. J., Feyrer, L. J., Magozzi, S., Sabin, R. C. & Cooper, N. 2019. Combining simulation modeling and stable isotope analyses to reconstruct the last known movements of one of Nature’s giants. PeerJ 7:e7912.

Final Call For TetZooCon 2019

It’s time to remind you once more that TetZooCon 2019 – the sixth Tetrapod Zoology Convention – is happening on the 19th and 20th October, and this is essentially your last chance to book a place*, should you wish to come along….

Caption: scenes from TetZooCon 2018, our biggest and best meeting so far. The 2019 meeting is shaping up to be bigger and better. To those not attending, watch #TetZooCon for live coverage. Image: JCTArtStudio/Jed Taylor.

TetZooCon 2019 is, as per the last two years, happening at The Venue, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, a difference for this year being that we’re on a different floor from previous meetings and have more rooms in addition to the main hall.

* We don’t send out paper tickets; your name is added to a list.

If you’re seriously interested in prehistoric animals and their evolution, biology and behaviour, in palaeoart and in artistic depictions of animals in general, in the anatomy, ecology, behaviour and biology of such animals as swans, eagles, whales and amphibians, in human-wildlife interactions, in conservation biology, and in natural history film-making, you really should come along. Our talks and on-stage events this year are on a diverse range of tetrapod-themed subjects, but there’s a block on natural history film-making – featuring a range of very talented people from the BBC’s famous Natural History Unit – and another on the palaeobiology of extinct dinosaurs.

Caption: I went over to Instagram and…. here’s proof that things are really coming along with respect to merchandise for TetZooCon 2019. These are Rebecca Groom’s palaeoplushies. In previous years, they’ve all sold out within the first few hours of the meeting! Images: Rebecca Groom/palaeoplushies.

Caption: Jed Taylor is going to knock it out of the park this year, his stuff looks incredible. Here’s a shot of some of his merchandise. Image: JCTArtStudio/Jed Taylor.

As per usual, there’s a special palaeoart event led by John Conway (and running in parallel to part of the main event, sorry about that). This includes several talks by palaeoartists, the main theme of this year’s talks being the 3D construction of models. And – breaking news – it now looks like we’re hosting a big, dedicated palaeoart exhibition as well, featuring art by some of the UK’s leading palaeoartists. It should be hosted in its own special room.

Caption: this year is the 20th anniversary of the screening of Walking With Dinosaurs, so it’s especially fitting that Tim Haines - at far right in this image, with your humble blog-author - will be speaking at TetZooCon.

Merchandise, stalls, book signings and palaeoart wares are also a standard part of TetZooCon. Book signings this year include those devoted to Dave Hone’s The Tyrannosaur Chronicles, Jack Ashby’s Animal Kingdom: A Natural History in 100 Objects, Joschua Knüppe’s Palaeostream book, Luis Rey’s Extreme Dinosaurs Part 2: the Projects and Ross Barnett’s The Missing Lynx. Dougal Dixon’s After Man will also be on sale, and I’m pleased to say that Dougal himself will be in attendance on the Saturday.

Caption: Luis Rey’s brand-new book will be on sale at TetZooCon 2019. Image: (c) Luis Rey/Darren Naish.

TetZooCon ends with a quiz and a post-conference meal.

So that’s that, we look forward to seeing you in London in late October. For the first time, attendees can choose to buy a booking for one day only; there isn’t one flat fee for the whole event. The booking site includes more information, a list of speakers, and a draft timetable. If you’re on Twitter and/or Instagram, follow events at #TetZooCon. See you there!

For previous articles on TetZooCon meetings, see…

• The events of TetZooCon 2014, July 2014

• TetZooCon 2015 Is On, July 2015

• The Events of TetZooCon 2015, November 2015

• Coming Soon: TetZooCon 2016, September 2016

• The Day After TetZooCon, October 2016

• The Fourth TetZooCon, September 2017

• The TetZooCon of 2017, October 2017

• Reasons to Attend TetZooCon 2018, September 2018

• TetZooCon 2018: Best TetZooCon So Far, October 2018

• Announcing TetZooCon 2019 – the Biggest Yet, August 2019

Announcing TetZooCon 2019 – the Biggest Yet

At last, tickets for TetZooCon 2019 are on sale. And you’re advised to buy one, and thus book a place, as soon as possible, since they’re selling pretty fast. This is the sixth TetZooCon, and we’re now in bigger, badder, faster, harder mode with two whole days of TetZoo-related stuff.

This year’s banner includes just some of the birds I’ve drawn for my in-prep textbook… but let’s not talk about that today.

As per the last two years, we’re once again at The Venue at Malet Street in central London on a weekend (Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th October). Things kick off at 10am both days. We have numerous talks but the schedule has been arranged this year such that – hopefully – there’s time for Q&A sessions, and also more time for roundtable events and other discussions, since they worked well at the 2018 meeting.

Beautiful Megaloceros model made by Agata Stachowiak. You might recognise the colour scheme if you’re a regular TetZoo reader. Image: (c) Agata Stachowiak, used with permission.

Palaeoart. Once again we’re running a dedicated palaeoart event which involves short talks (this time mostly revolving around the theme of making things in 3D: Rebecca Groom, Agata Stachowiak, Jed Taylor; Joschua Knüppe is speaking too), a discussion (led by Beth Windle) and a workshop. The palaeoart event runs in parallel to one of the main sessions: not ideal, but we can’t otherwise fit everything in. You have to pay separately for the palaeoart event if you intend to come along (I mean, in addition to the main entry fee). There will also be – we hope; none of this is confirmed and finalised yet – two palaeoart-themed exhibitions. Also, both Luis Rey and Mark Witton will be selling and signing palaeoart-themed books. I believe that Luis’s new book will be out in time, fingers crossed! Hey, that’s a lot of palaeoart-themed stuff.

Just two of our several palaeoart presenters for TetZooCon 2019, both - coincidentally - holding dromaeosaurids. Jed Taylor (of JCTArtStudio) at left; Rebecca Groom (of palaeoplushies) at right. Images: (c) JCTaylor, Rebecca Groom, used with permission.

Dinosaurs and other extinct archosaurs. One major theme this year is Mesozoic dinosaurs and kin, because why not. We have a block of talks on dinosaur palaeobiology (Rebecca Lakin on parental care, Chris Barker on pathologies in theropods, Dave Hone on social behaviour), as well as Jordan Bestwick on his work on inferring diet from tooth microwear analysis, recently published in Scientific Reports. There’s also a roundtable discussion on extinct archosaur palaeobiology as a whole. Dave Hone will be selling and signing his The Tyrannosaur Chronicles as part of this event.

Dr David Hone will be speaking at TetZooCon 2019, and signing his book The Tyrannosaur Chronicles. Image: (c) David Hone, used with permission.

Natural History Film-Making. A second theme involves film-making. I don’t so much mean the nuts and bolts of how one actually goes about ‘making’ a film, but the entire experience, the backstories to the people involved, and their various projects and adventures. Amber Eames will be talking about her award-winning film Swans: Mystery of the Missing, and we’ll be joined in an on-stage discussion by Paul Stewart (who’s filmed a vast number of mammals, birds and other animals worldwide, including a huge number of things featured in the BBC Attenborough documentaries), Nick Lyon (best known for the BBC Dynasties episode on African wild dogs), and Zoe Cousins (who’s worked on documentaries about the Tapanuli orangutan, urban wildlife and more). We’re hoping to show film segments and montages as part of this event.

Amber Eames will be talking about her film devoted to the plight of migratory Bewick’s swans. Images: (c) Amber Eames, used with permission.

Wildlife film-maker, producer, author and qualified zoologist Dr Paul Stewart (in the middle; here with Sir David Attenborough and other team members) will be at TetZooCon 2019. Image: (c) Paul Stewart, used with permission.

Other talks, other events. And there’s tons more as well. TetZooCon 2019 also includes Ellen Coombs on whales, Amy Schwartz on her work on roadkill, Lauren McGough on eagles and adventures in falconry, Tim Haines on ‘20 years of popular digital palaeontology’, Ross Barnett on The Missing Lynx (another book signing), Jack Ashby on Unnatural History Museums (another book signing)…. and more! There will also be stalls and merchandise, we end with a quiz (with great prizes), and there’s a conference meal and a drinks reception too.

One of our many star speakers for 2019: the amazing Lauren McGough. Image: (c) Lauren McGough, used with permission.

As per last year, it’s likely that we’ll be sold out by the early weeks of October, so don’t leave things too late if you’re planning to come along. We’ve also changed the ticket sales so that you can pay for attendance on just one day. And that’ll do for now. Go here to book (and see more information), and see you there in October!

Reasons to Attend TetZooCon 2018

The end of September is approaching, which means we’re getting worryingly close to the start of October and hence to the TetZoo-themed event of the year: TetZooCon, this year happening on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October (at The Venue, Malet Street, London).

Our 2018 banner. It incorporates illustrations produced by participants in the palaeoart workshop of 2017 and looks pretty neat.

If you want to come along but haven’t yet bought a ticket, you’d better hurry up and do so, since time’s nearly up and we have to stop selling soon. Go here if you’re interested. This article is essentially a last call, and also a reminder of how much awesome stuff we have happening this year. It’s by far the biggest TetZooCon yet. So…

My god, we have some amazing merchandise on sale this year (read on for more). Once again, Rebecca Groom will be selling her palaeoplushies — last year, the WHOLE LOT sold out before lunch. Image: (c) Rebecca Groom/palaeoplushies.

Aron Ra – best known for his work as an atheist activist and his countering of creationists and other anti-science types – is joining us to talk about his Phylogeny Explorer Project. Aron has a vast international following and it’s a real coup to get him as a speaker.

Two of many TetZooCon 2018 speakers. Left: Ian Redmond; right: Aron Ra. Images: (c) Ian Redmond, (c) Aron Ra.

Ian Redmond – conservationist, primate and elephant expert, famous for his association with Dian Fossey, David Attenborough and the Rwandan gorillas – is speaking about his contributions to conservation and education. His talk is titled ‘The Reluctant Conservationist, 40 Years On: From Gorilla Parasites and Poachers to Virtual Safaris’.

We have an entire section of talks devoted to bird evolution – covering fossil history and phylogeny, the distribution and diversity of modern birds, and how birds are adapting to the human world – as well as a roundtable discussion on the same subject. Speakers and panellists are Robyn Womack, Albert Chen, Caitlin Kight, Hanneke Meijer and Glyn Young.

This image has no special relevance to any of the TetZooCon bird talks, but here it is anyway. It’s a (now somewhat dated) bird phylogeny, produced for my 2014 paper on bird palaeobehaviour (available here). Image: Darren Naish.

Katrina van Grouw is talking about her amazing new book Unnatural Selection and the work behind it; Katrina will also be selling and signing copies of the book, and copies of her previous work The Unfeathered Bird too. Unnatural Selection is about the themes and patterns of evolution as revealed through the variation we’ve discovered via the selective breeding of domestic animals, not about domestic animals per se, and it’s a phenomenal tour de force that I cannot recommend highly enough. Some previous comments on the book can be found here.

Katrina van Grouw (with duck), and the cover of her amazing 2018 book Unnatural Selection (to be reviewed here, hopefully soon). Images: (c) Katrina van Grouw.

On Sunday, we have an on-stage discussion about Speculative Biology involving Gert van Dijk (of Furahan Biology and Allied Matters) and Dougal Dixon (After Man, The New Dinosaurs, Green World, The Future is Wild etc). Both will be discussing their own projects, their thoughts on SpecBio in general, and the past, present and future of the movement. Dougal will also be signing copies of the new edition of After Man and is also bringing along archive material relevant to some of his projects: I hope it will include some of the pieces brought to the recent After Man event at Conway Hall, but there will be other stuff too…

A SpecBio montage relevant to TetZooCon 2018. At left: the Vortex from Dougal Dixon’s 1981 After Man. At right: Gert van Dijk, here photographed at the LonCon 72nd World Science Fiction Convention in 2014. Images: Dixon 1981, Darren Naish.

World famous distinguished herpetologist and author Mark O’Shea joins us to talk about a detective story concerning the snakes of New Guinea and is also selling and signing copies of his brand-new, 656-page The Book of Snakes. Mark is also showing a short movie about reptiles. I’ve long hoped to have Mark as a TetZooCon speaker so am thrilled to have him with us this year.

We have Professor Mark O’Shea! Mark will be selling and signing his new book. Images: (c) Mark O’Shea.

Film-maker, zoologist and author Lucy Cooke is also with us, and will be speaking about her neat 2018 book The Truth About Animals (originally titled The Unexpected Truth About Animals), which she’ll also be selling and signing. I must remember to ask her if she any copies of her previous book, A Little Book of Sloth, because who doesn’t like books on sloths?

Lucy Cooke and equine friends, and the cover of her 2018 book The Truth About Animals (which I’m planning to review here later this year). Images: (c) Lucy Cooke, Darren Naish.

As per usual, John Conway is leading our Palaeoart Workshop: an interactive event in which – no doubt – something great is planned, I’m sure. The workshop occurs in parallel to some of the talks in a separate room. John is joined by Bob Nicholls, Mark Witton, Luis Rey and Steve White; Mark, Luis and Steve will be giving talks on (variously) the future of palaeoart (Mark), bringing dinosaurs back to life (Luis) and dinosaurs as portrayed in comics (Steve). There will also be palaeoart-themed book signings and a chance to meet the artists and see their latest projects.

The 2018 palaeoart workshop is going to be outstanding. We have Bob Nicholls (though he won’t be bringing the lifesized pliosaur head with him, alas); Mark Witton will be selling The Palaeoartist’s Handbook. I’ve been lucky enough to see a copy and…. it’s one of the most spectacular books I’ve ever seen, I love it. Images: (c) Bob Nicholls, Mark Witton.

While that’s not everything, I think that’ll do. For the first time, we’re having a drinks reception and conference meal (sold out, I’m afraid). There are additional talks on whales, extinct elephants, snakes, music in wildlife documentaries and – oh – the Dinosaurs in the Wild project (from me). There will also be a quiz (with numerous amazing prizes, as usual), additional book signings, and a substantial amount of merchandise on sale. I’m also intending to lead a post-conference fieldtrip to the Crystal Palace dinosaurs on the Monday morning.

An amazing display of merchandise will be on sale at TetZooCon this year, be sure to bring £££. These dromaeosaur-themed mugs will be there, and are by the inimitable Jed Taylor, what a star. Image: Jed Taylor.

And that, as they say, is that. Again: tickets and more information can be found here. I look forward to seeing many of you there. Watch #TetZooCon for tweeting. All I have to do now is find time to finish getting things ready.

For articles on previous TetZooCons, see…

• The events of TetZooCon 2014, July 2014

• TetZooCon 2015 Is On, July 2015

• The Events of TetZooCon 2015, November 2015

• Coming Soon: TetZooCon 2016, September 2016

• The Day After TetZooCon, October 2016

• The Fourth TetZooCon, September 2017

• The TetZooCon of 2017, October 2017