Ricky Rok

LEVEL 6: NEW ANIMAL

2012-07-20T01:09:00.004+03:00

Meet HADROCODIUM, the smallest mammal that ever existed!

This is the first WIND Animal you encounter in this game. Wind Animals are very useful from now on, since you can use them to STEAL EGGS for you!

The "STEAL AN EGG" stage is under construction (July 2012), but you will be able to play it next week!
We will talk about eggs then.

Right now, if you have reached Level 6, start building the EGG THIEVES House.
Don't be a sucker, use Antarctopelta to build this House, since it's your strongest builder so far.

Hadrocodium is a very weak animal, but also a very cute one!

Buy it now in the STORE for only 25 Golden Shells, and wait for the "STEAL AN EGG" stages to begin.
It will be worth the waiting...

(P.S. Thank you for your patience, the game progress is very slow at the moment, since I have to deal with lots of stuff in my day job these last couple of weeks, but my mind is on the Game 24/7.

P.S.2 Join the Facebook Fan Page if you like Ricky Rok)

Free Dinosaur Sketches: Meganeura

2012-07-19T19:25:00.000+03:00

Well, ok, you got me here! It's not a Dinosaur, but I didn't want to create a new label for this...

Here's a picture of Meganeura, the prehistoric dragonfly!

You can use it freely wherever you want.

Giannis Nikolaou

Antarctica was lined with trees 15M years ago

2012-07-17T20:11:00.002+03:00

An unexpectedly warm period about 15 million years ago temporarily thawed Antarctica, turning the continent green around its edges, a new study says.

Antarctica developed its ice sheets about 34 million years ago. But during the more recent warm period, the interior landscape would've resembled tundra found in parts of modern-day Chile and New Zealand, and the coasts would've been lined with beeches and a type of conifer.

The surprising evidence comes from "abundant" remains of leaf waxes in sediment cores taken from deep beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf, said study leader Sarah Feakins, a biogeochemist at the University of Southern California.

The sediments had blown off Antarctic soils into the ocean during the Miocene, a mild period in Earth's history between about 15 and 20 million years ago. (Explore a prehistoric time line.)
Not only were the leaf wax remnants numerous—suggesting many plants were growing on Antarctic coasts—but an analysis of their chemistry revealed the continent was warmer than thought, Feakins said.
Previous research from sediment cores hinted that Antarctica was about five degrees Fahrenheit (three degrees Celsius) warmer on average during the Miocene than it is today.

But the new study revealed that Antarctic temperatures were 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) warmer—which means the Antarctic coast would have been about 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) on a summer day.
"We knew the Miocene was a warm period, but it was a surprise to see how warm it got," Feakins said.

Leaf Waxes Reveal Ancient Climate

When a plant dies, most of it decomposes, except for pollen grains and the waxes on its leaves. The leaf wax can then get trapped and preserved in sediment as a kind of "molecular fossil," Feakins said.

For the new study, Feakins and colleagues extracted plant waxes from the Miocene sediment cores and put them in a mass spectrometer, which separates out isotopes—variations of chemicals that have different masses.
Leaf waxes keep climate records by capturing the ratios of water isotopes that a plant "drank" while it was alive, said Feakins, whose study was published online June 17 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Normally the lightest element on the periodic table, hydrogen has a stable isotope called deuterium that's twice as heavy as regular hydrogen.
When it rains, water made from deuterium falls out first, leaving the lighter isotope in the cloud.

"Today the precipitation that falls over Antarctica is some of the lightest, isotopically speaking, because evaporation happens in the subtropics, and the cloud is almost all rained out by the time it gets to Antarctica," Feakins explained.

But the team found more deuterium preserved in the ancient plant waxes.
Combining that data with atmospheric models, the team concludes that the Miocene's warmer oceans led to increased evaporation, so that clouds were more water-laden, and thus produced more rainfall, by the time they traveled to the Antarctic coast.

Pollen grains also found in the sediments revealed two tree species: the beech Nothofagus fusca and a shrubby conifer in the genus Podocarpidites.
Tree species vary in how far their pollen grains can be transported from the plant. Neither N. fusca nor Podocarpidites grains can travel far, which shows that the trees must have grown on Antarctica and not, say, on the more distant coasts of New Zealand.

And if the trees had grown far inland on Antarctica, the pollen would not have been found in coastal sediments.

Modern Warming Insights

Although the Miocene was generally warmer than it is today, the new research may have some relevance to the current trend of global warming, Feakins noted.
Earth's average global temperature has increased by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) since 1880, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Two-thirds of that warming has happened since 1975.

Understanding Miocene rainfall patterns may help scientists figure out how much wetter it will get as the world gets hotter, the study authors say.

Overall, warming-related changes to the global water cycle are "really troubling [because] it's just not easy or inexpensive for societies to adjust to big changes in water supply," Mark Pagani, a biogeochemist at Yale University who wasn't on the study team, said via email.
And the new research suggests there will be "substantial" shifts in the water cycle—making areas either rainier or drier—due to current temperature changes, he said. (See a map of global warming's effects.)

"I realize that for most folks, stories about the Earth 20 million years ago sound very abstract," he added.
"But in terms of the Earth and climate, this [Antarctic warming] was not very long ago, and the distribution of the continents and chemistry of the atmosphere was actually not very different than today."

news.nationalgeographic.com

Did most dinosaurs have feathers ?

2012-07-17T20:00:00.000+03:00

The fossil of an ancient theropod found in Germany
indicates that feathers were widespread in dinosaurs

Feathers didn’t start with birds. Plumage of various sorts — from simple fuzz to the complex structures used for flight — adorned dinosaurs first, and was only later inherited by birds. And if a beautifully preserved juvenile dinosaur unearthed in the Jurassic strata of Germany is any indication, it is possible that all dinosaurs bore patches of filamentous feathers.

Since the discovery of the fluffy theropodSinosauropteryx in 1996, palaeontologists have recognized more than 30 types of feathered dinosaur. Most of these are coelurosaurs — a disparate group of theropods that includes not only the fearsome tyrannosaurs, sickle-clawed deinonychosaurs and bizarre therizinosaurs, but also birds.

However, there are exceptions to this rule. Palaeontologists have also discovered simple, feather-like structures along the vertebral columns of the dinosaurs Psittacosaurus and Tianyulong. These ornithischians are about as distantly related to birds as dinosaurs can be, and the discoveries hinted that swaths of simplified protofeathers were a common feature among dinosaurs. The discovery of the most recent fossil indicates that feathery body coverings were widespread in these creatures.

Ancient adornment

The 150-million-year-old theropod Sciurumimus albersdoerferi unearthed in Germany and described today¹ was coated in a form of plumage. The filamentous structures have been seen before in other dinosaurs, but what makes Sciurumimus so noteworthy is that this dinosaur was a megalosauroid.

Megalosauroids were a group of archaic sharp-toothed dinosaurs near the base of the theropod family tree, and greatly removed from the various types of feathered dinosaur and early birds recognized so far. According to first author Oliver Rauhut, a palaeontologist at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, this means that simple feathers were a very ancient dinosaur trait. The filaments of Sciurumimus, Rauhut says, are very similar to the simple structures seen in Psittacosaurus, Tianyulong and even pterosaurs — extinct flying reptiles that were the closest cousins that dinosaurs had. The wide evolutionary spread of this characteristic means that protofeathers are probably as old as the Dinosauria itself.

Palaeontologist Paul Barrett of London’s Natural History Museum agrees that the structures on Sciurumimusare probably protofeathers. Although additional geochemical work is needed to study the features' details, Barrett says, the fossilized wisps are very similar to the fuzz seen on other dinosaurs. But he notes that the presence of these filaments among all dinosaurs is “speculation”. Feathery structures might be a common feature of dinosaurs, but it’s also possible that they evolved multiple times. “We need more examples in both non-coelurosaurian theropods, and particularly in the other big dinosaur groups, before we can really speculate that these features are a character of dinosaurs as a whole,” Barrett says.

Rauhut is sure there are many more feathery dinosaurs yet to be found. The trick will be finding specimens in the sorts of fine-grained sediments capable of preserving feather fossil. But on the basis of findings fromSciurumimus and other feathery dinosaurs, Rauhut notes, “all dinosaurs had at least this kind of simple, hair-like feathery integument”. Instead of being a novelty that evolved among particularly bird-like dinosaurs, “feathers seem to be an ancestral dinosaurian trait”, Rauhut says. If so, we will have to start thinking about what kind of feathery covering these creatures display when we depict them in art and film.

nature.com

LEVEL 5: THE ARMORED ANTARCTOPELTA

2012-07-16T18:41:00.000+03:00

If you have reached Level 5, you find yourselves against the first BIG animal, the armored Antarctopelta!

It may be a peaceful vegetarian dinosaur, but if you attack it, it can be very aggressive. It might stomp you with its feet, or hurt you with its spikes. So, you'd better stay above ground and fight from a safe distance.

If you win, you earn a baby Antarctopelta. Take it to your house and help it grow. When you have a grown up Antarctopelta, you can use it to BUILD for you, since it's a very strong animal.

You also have to build a WEAPON FIXERS House, where you can place your Weapon-Fixers.
If you haven't got such an animal, you can buy one in the Store.

Good luck!

FIRST FOUR LEVELS COMPLETE!

2012-06-12T19:24:00.000+03:00

Finally, every little detail of the game is ready!
You can play the first 4 levels without any more bugs and problems!

You might want to START OVER in the SETTINGS panel of the game, to start a proper game from scratch.

Thank you all for your patience, the best is yet to come!

Currently working on the SHOP and the Fifth Level. See you soon!

Dinosaur Profile: CERATONYKUS

2012-06-02T13:22:00.004+03:00

From wikipedia

Ceratonykus (meaning 'horned claw') is a genus of alvarezsaurid theropod dinosaur that existed in the late Cretaceous period. The discovery of a fragmented skeleton in Mongolia in early 2009 has led scientists to question where alvarezsaurids fit taxonomically into Theropoda.

Ceratonykus was a small, long-legged dinosaur that appears to have been be adapted for running in the desert. They belong to the family Alvarezsauridae, whose members ranged in size from 0.5–2 m (20–80 inches) in length, but may have been significantly larger - 2.5 m (8 ft).

Originally thought to be one of the earliest members of flightless birds, alvarezsaurids have recently been regarded as more basal theropods. Skeletal remains suggest that they had tiny but stout forelimbs and compact birdlike hands. The skeletal structure also suggests that this dinosaur possessed significant breast and arm muscles that were likely adapted for tearing and digging. They had elongate jaws with minute teeth and a tubular snout that suggests they could have been adapted to feed on insects such as termites.

Kingdom: Animalia

Class: Reptilia

Clade: Dinosauria

Clade: Theropoda

Family: Alvarezsauridae

Subfamily: Parvicursorinae

Node: Ceratonykini

Genus: Ceratonykus

Species: C. oculatus

Binomial name: Ceratonykus oculatus

Free Dinosaur Sketches: Olorotitan

2012-06-02T13:08:00.002+03:00

Here's another Dinosaur sketch, this time of the giant Olorotitan!
Feel free to use it wherever you like.

Free Dinosaur Sketches: Tyrannosaurus

2012-05-30T18:19:00.000+03:00

Here's a Tyrannosaurus sketch!
Feel free to use it wherever you wish.

I did it last year, and I have lots more in my stash.

More free sketches coming soon!
Giannis Nikolaou

Your Game is SAVED!!!!!

2012-05-26T19:38:00.000+03:00

At last!!!!

From now on, your game progress will be saved, and when you come back here later, you will be able to continue, from the same spot, with the same scores!
WhooooooHooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

It took me the whole day to accomplish that, thanks to the tutorial I found here:

http://as3gametuts.com/2012/02/28/actionscript-saving-and-loading-tutorial/

Thank you for your patience, my friends. Take a look at the RICKY ROK facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ricky-Rok/293688497390347

Dinosaur Profile: SORDES

2012-05-24T01:12:00.002+03:00

From wikipedia

Sordes was a small basal pterosaur from the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian - Kimmeridgian) Karabastau Svita of Kazakhstan.

The genus was named in 1971 by Aleksandr Grigorevich Sharov. The type species is Sordes pilosus. The genus name means "filth" or "scum" in Latin, a reference to evil spirits in local folklore. The specific name is Latin for "hairy"; despite sordes being feminine, it has not yet been emended to pilosa.

The genus is based on holotype PIN 2585/3, a crushed relatively complete skeleton on a slab. It was found in the sixties at the foothills of the Karatau in Kazakhstan. The fossil shows remains of the soft parts, such as membranes and hair. This was the first unequivocal proof that pterosaurs had a layer of fur.

The integument served as insulation, an indication the group was warm-blooded, and provided a streamlined flight profile. The hairlike structures (pycnofibres) are present in two main types: longer at the extreme part of the wing membrane and shorter near the body. In the 1990s, David Unwin argued that both types were essentially not hairs but reinforcing fibres of the flight membranes. Later he emphasized that "hair" in the form of fur was indeed present on the body, after the find of new specimens clearly showing this.

Sharov had already referred a paratype or second specimen: PIN 2470/1, again a fairly complete skeleton on a slab. By 2003 another six specimens had been discovered.

Sordes had a 0.63 m (two feet) wingspan. The wings were relatively short. It had a slender, not round, head with moderately long, pointed jaws. The skull was about eight centimetres long. Its teeth were widely spaced, small and slanted. It had a short neck. It had a long tail, accounting for over half its length, with at the end an elongated vane. Unlike many pterosaurs, it had no head crest. Sordes had, according to Sharov and Unwin, wing membranes attached to the legs and a membrane between the legs.

Sordes has been assigned to the family Rhamphorhynchidae. These were among the earliest of the pterosaurs, evolving in the late Triassic and surviving to the late Jurassic. According to Unwin, within Rhamphorhynchidae Sordes belonged to the Scaphognathinae. Other researchers however, such as Alexander Kellner and Lü Junchang, have produced cladistic analyses showing that Sordes was much more basal, and not a rhamphorhynchid.

Sordes probably ate small prey, perhaps including insects and amphibians.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Pterosauria
Suborder: Rhamphorhynchoidea
Family: Rhamphorhynchidae
Genus: Sordes
Species: S. pilosus
Binomial name: Sordes pilosus

Level 1: Catch flying Sordes and collect Food

2012-05-23T21:44:00.004+03:00

So, the adventure begins!
You have to collect some food and Golden Shells, which are the game's currency.
The only place on the Map that you can visit, is the Sordes nest.

Inside the nest, there are falling objects that you can collect. You can feed Ricky apples and bananas after you exit the nest, and keep the milk bottles for the next levels.

Hunt the flying Sordes. For every 5 Sordes you catch, you earn one Golden Shell!
You can exit the nest by clicking on the EXIT sign up left, or when time runs out.

After that, when on the main page, click Ricky to feed him.

Welcome to Ricky Rok's world!

2012-05-23T19:50:00.001+03:00

Welcome to my new Flash Game!

It is still under construction, but I decided to publish it here, so that you will be able to play and review it, before it can be officially found in Facebook.

The game is about Ricky Rok, a caveman, and the wild creatures that surround him.

You start as a hungry, homeless and unarmed Ricky. Your missions are to wander around in the Map, collect food, beat up Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures and build Ricky a house.

RICKY ROK is free and made with Flash and Actionscript 3.

Let's keep in touch and help me with your comments, so I can make the game better for you.

You can find the game in the "The Game" tab, under the title.

Thanks in advance,

Giannis Nikolaou

BA Hons Animation