The Palaeodoodler

I'm one of those people who often doodles little cartoony pictures, but rarely anything serious. I don't think I could ever be a serious palaeo-artist, however, I have decided to try my hand at some palaeo-themed comic stuff. I got the idea whilst doodling in a lecture and ended up doing a scene involving a crinoid. Sadly I don't have a scanner so I had to take pictures of them with a digital camera, so they are not amazing quality.

This was the doodle that got me started (I simply call it "Crinoid pub crawl"). For the record, crinoids are not flowers but are often mistaken for them. They are echinoderms, but we like to wind up a friend who is besotted with crinoids by calling them flowers. If I have no ideas I am likely to make a crinoid joke. I haven't gone for accuracy in most of the pictures, but I may do so in future. Articulate crinoids can actually move, there are free swimming types, but even the sessile articulate crinoids can crawl slowly along the deep sea floor. This one here, judging by my random choice of other organisms (the ammonite, the wannabe trilobite and the random filter feeder) would make it Palaeozoic and therefore not a member of the Articulata. Out of view at the top was a random Odontogriphus  which would put the scene in the Cambrian and make it incredibly inaccurate.

This is "Ediacaran Guess Who?" and I did actually draw a lot of semi-accurate Ediacaran organisms on the game board. You might be able to see them by zooming in. I've been getting quite interested in early metazoan evolution, so many doodles will likely be set in the late Precambrian and early Cambrian.

Another doodle from a lecture (you can tell as it is on lined paper). Also simply another joke about crinoids being mistaken for flowers.

In case it is not obvious, those are stromatolites. I don't think it is possible to go wrong with stromatolites really. If anyone points out that stromatolites cannot talk then they might get a slap.

I have a few more ideas to come, some of which are not as simple to draw. My main issue at the moment is that I don't have internet access in my house, so if I need to look anything up (particularly Ediacaran and small shellies) then I have to wait. Ah well, enjoy.