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| YIKES. Promotional still from When Dinosaur Roamed America, Discovery Channel 2001 |
Showing posts with label dino TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dino TV. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
You're Doing It Wrong: CGI Feathered Dinosaurs
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wrong for the Right Reasons
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| Outdated restoration of a Protoceratops andrewsi nesting ground. Painting by Charles R. Knight, 1922. |
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Debate: Newt Gingrich vs. Jack Horner
This is something I had completely missed until my wife found it linked to on a political blog a few weeks ago. Filmed in 1998, it's a pretty awesome hour-long video of a debate held between paleontologist Jack Horner and then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. The topic: "Were Tyrannosaurus rex active hunters or pure scavengers?" What else?
The debate is actually a follow-up to a previous forum Gingrich did with Horner, both as fundraisers for the Museum of the Rockies. Gingrich, it seems, is an avid armchair paleontologist.
It looks like C-SPAN doesn't let you embed videos, so here's a link to the full debate: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/111009-1
What's fascinating about this debate is how it illustrates almost point-by-point a lot of issues I've seen cropping up online lately about the nature of scientific hypotheses, and in particular Horner's approach to them. As some of you may know, Horner recently backpedaled on the whole tyrannosaurs-as-pure-scavengers hypothesis, saying that, from the start, it was merely an attempt to illustrate how the scientific process is supposed to work as opposed to how it often goes in paleo. (Horner explicitly renounced the pure scavenger theory in, among other places, an October 2009 interview on the outstanding Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast).
Watching this debate unfold, two things surprised me more than I thought they would. First, wow, Gingrich really did his research for this! He comes fully prepared with several examples and analogues to modern ecosystems, many of the same arguments I've seen used in forum debates on this topic, including the fact that there are few if any pure scavengers among modern animals, that hyenas will often take live prey, that vultures can get away with it due to their ability to fly over enormous areas in search of carcasses, etc. Newt knows his stuff, and handily pummels Jack in the debate (though Horner appears to be acting as sort of a gracious host, lobbing him a lot of softballs and overall "letting" Gingrich win.)
The second thing, though, is in Horner's closing arguments. Gingrich easily beats Horner by throwing out analogy after analogy, employing simple logic to demonstrate why his hypothesis "T. rex were not pure scavengers" is superior. But Horner points out, in a way, that it doesn't matter. Debates are antithetical to science. Empirical science is in no way about who has the better argument. It's about who has a more rigorous, testable and ultimately falsifiable hypothesis and can support it with more data, not better analogies.
I have been a T. rex as predators booster since I was 6. But after watching this debate, it is clear to me that Horner has always had a better, more scientific hypothesis and overall approach to the science of paleontology. He is correct that the default assumption has always been that T. rex were active hunters. But at the end of the day, assumptions are not science, and it's a little bit appalling that this assumption has been made an implicit basis of so many statement published in peer-reviewed scientific papers without question. You can never, ever disprove the hypothesis that T. rex were active hunters without a time machine, because it's logically impossible to prove a negative. That's why in science, if we have a positive statement as our hypothesis, it's often necessary to take the null hypothesis (the opposite statement to the one we are testing) and attempt to disprove that in an attempt to support the actual hypothesis. Like string theory, T. rex-as-hunters is an idea that makes logical sense on paper but is unfalsifiable, and therefore not science--just educated speculation.
However, Horner's hypothesis can and has been disproved. We now have evidence of healed-over T. rex bite wounds that show that at least occasionally, they bit living prey species. Does this prove T. rex were active hunters? Not necessarily, but it's a major piece of data against Horner's scavenging hypothesis, and that is actually the strength of Horner's position--that it can be tested and shown to be wrong. In science, it's not always better to be right than it is to be rigorous.
So while he may have won the debate, Gingrich was right for the wrong reasons, while his opponent Horner was wrong for the right reasons.
The debate is actually a follow-up to a previous forum Gingrich did with Horner, both as fundraisers for the Museum of the Rockies. Gingrich, it seems, is an avid armchair paleontologist.
It looks like C-SPAN doesn't let you embed videos, so here's a link to the full debate: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/111009-1
What's fascinating about this debate is how it illustrates almost point-by-point a lot of issues I've seen cropping up online lately about the nature of scientific hypotheses, and in particular Horner's approach to them. As some of you may know, Horner recently backpedaled on the whole tyrannosaurs-as-pure-scavengers hypothesis, saying that, from the start, it was merely an attempt to illustrate how the scientific process is supposed to work as opposed to how it often goes in paleo. (Horner explicitly renounced the pure scavenger theory in, among other places, an October 2009 interview on the outstanding Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast).
Watching this debate unfold, two things surprised me more than I thought they would. First, wow, Gingrich really did his research for this! He comes fully prepared with several examples and analogues to modern ecosystems, many of the same arguments I've seen used in forum debates on this topic, including the fact that there are few if any pure scavengers among modern animals, that hyenas will often take live prey, that vultures can get away with it due to their ability to fly over enormous areas in search of carcasses, etc. Newt knows his stuff, and handily pummels Jack in the debate (though Horner appears to be acting as sort of a gracious host, lobbing him a lot of softballs and overall "letting" Gingrich win.)
The second thing, though, is in Horner's closing arguments. Gingrich easily beats Horner by throwing out analogy after analogy, employing simple logic to demonstrate why his hypothesis "T. rex were not pure scavengers" is superior. But Horner points out, in a way, that it doesn't matter. Debates are antithetical to science. Empirical science is in no way about who has the better argument. It's about who has a more rigorous, testable and ultimately falsifiable hypothesis and can support it with more data, not better analogies.
I have been a T. rex as predators booster since I was 6. But after watching this debate, it is clear to me that Horner has always had a better, more scientific hypothesis and overall approach to the science of paleontology. He is correct that the default assumption has always been that T. rex were active hunters. But at the end of the day, assumptions are not science, and it's a little bit appalling that this assumption has been made an implicit basis of so many statement published in peer-reviewed scientific papers without question. You can never, ever disprove the hypothesis that T. rex were active hunters without a time machine, because it's logically impossible to prove a negative. That's why in science, if we have a positive statement as our hypothesis, it's often necessary to take the null hypothesis (the opposite statement to the one we are testing) and attempt to disprove that in an attempt to support the actual hypothesis. Like string theory, T. rex-as-hunters is an idea that makes logical sense on paper but is unfalsifiable, and therefore not science--just educated speculation.
However, Horner's hypothesis can and has been disproved. We now have evidence of healed-over T. rex bite wounds that show that at least occasionally, they bit living prey species. Does this prove T. rex were active hunters? Not necessarily, but it's a major piece of data against Horner's scavenging hypothesis, and that is actually the strength of Horner's position--that it can be tested and shown to be wrong. In science, it's not always better to be right than it is to be rigorous.
So while he may have won the debate, Gingrich was right for the wrong reasons, while his opponent Horner was wrong for the right reasons.
Monday, August 29, 2011
All Aboard!
Readers of this blog will definitely be familiar with all the standard complaints about dinosaur documentaries these days. Even old classics like Walking With Dinosaurs were heavily criticized by paleontology enthusiasts at the time for being too heavy on drama and too light on science. As a paleoartist, I love shows that attempt to reconstruct prehistoric life in a natural way, and all the necessary speculation that entails. But people are justified in pointing out that this doesn't exactly do wonders for public understanding of science.
Sure, shows like WWD or even more sensationalist 'monster movie' type programs like Jurassic Fight Club create plenty of interest in paleontology and foster enthusiasm in young paleo fans, who can certainly be forgiven for being into the 'cool factor' and less into the hard science, which may well come with time. But these documentaries also blur the line between science, educated speculation, and pure fantasy. Use of talking head segments helps, but without weaving the science behind the entertainment into the body of the program, many people simply disregard it.
Worse, producers have a tendency to edit the token scientist sound bites in a way which fosters stereotypes of scientific authority - talking heads are shown explaining that "yes, what you just saw is true" rather than explaining how we know this stuff in the first place, which is where the actual science is. Science is a process, not a set of facts spouted off by guys sitting in labs. Most dinosaur documentaries pay lip service to science as an excuse to sell entertainment, plain and simple.
There is one very surprising exception: By far, the best dinosaur show produced in the last ten years in terms of actual science content is a cartoon aimed a preschoolers.
If the show itself doesn't amply demonstrate scientific concepts to children, each episode is followed by an epilogue featuring paleontologist Scott Sampson (who also has a blog, The Whirlpool of Life) explaining the main points again and giving some additional facts (some aspects of the show that rely heavily on anthropomorphism are sometimes hilariously shot down by a debbie-downer type stickler who pops out and says, for example, "Fact: Troodons did NOT play hockey!" followed by a chorus of disappointed kids).
Sure, shows like WWD or even more sensationalist 'monster movie' type programs like Jurassic Fight Club create plenty of interest in paleontology and foster enthusiasm in young paleo fans, who can certainly be forgiven for being into the 'cool factor' and less into the hard science, which may well come with time. But these documentaries also blur the line between science, educated speculation, and pure fantasy. Use of talking head segments helps, but without weaving the science behind the entertainment into the body of the program, many people simply disregard it.
Worse, producers have a tendency to edit the token scientist sound bites in a way which fosters stereotypes of scientific authority - talking heads are shown explaining that "yes, what you just saw is true" rather than explaining how we know this stuff in the first place, which is where the actual science is. Science is a process, not a set of facts spouted off by guys sitting in labs. Most dinosaur documentaries pay lip service to science as an excuse to sell entertainment, plain and simple.
There is one very surprising exception: By far, the best dinosaur show produced in the last ten years in terms of actual science content is a cartoon aimed a preschoolers.
Produced by Craig Bartlett with the Jim Henson Company for PBS and first airing in 2009, Dinosaur Train has now clocked in 40 episodes over two seasons. The aim of the series is to present science to young children in a way that is accessible and entertaining, and in that DT succeeds where pretty much every other dinosaur TV show in the past has failed.
Each episode features two separate stories, all following the adventures of a Pteranodon family (included their adopted sibling, Buddy the T. rex, which is, based on the opening credits sequence, apparently the first recorded instance of nest parasitism in a non-avian theropod). The adventures consist of daily rides on the Dinosaur Train, a Doc Brown-esque vehicle which is capable of travelling to any time or place in the Mesozoic era (even under water in later episodes). Right off the bat, this provides ample opportunity to teach kids the basic (yet still occasionally missed or messed up in other media) idea that dinosaurs were often separated from each other by huge spans of time. I particularly liked the clever bit in one episode where the kids go to visit the one of the first dinosaurs, Eoraptor; reaching the end of the track somewhere in the Late Triassic, they have to get out and transfer to an old-style push-handle rail cart to go the rest of the way!
The geographic separation of different dinosaurs is also emphasized, and in another cute touch dinosaurs are often given accents based on their country of origin. This theme of, essentially, biostratigraphy was the subject of an entire episode in which the Pteranodons attend a block party with their immediate neighbors (the ones featured on the show in their home time, before getting on the train). The neighbors include a Styracosaurus, Lambeosaurus, Daspletosaurus, a Euoplocephalus and Hesperornis. Savvy readers will probably recognize this as the Dinosaur Park Formation fauna, and while Pteranodon itself is the only one out of place there by a few million years, it's impressive to see a kid show try to get this kind of detail right while teaching a more basic lesson (that every member of a community has a role or niche).
Each episode features two separate stories, all following the adventures of a Pteranodon family (included their adopted sibling, Buddy the T. rex, which is, based on the opening credits sequence, apparently the first recorded instance of nest parasitism in a non-avian theropod). The adventures consist of daily rides on the Dinosaur Train, a Doc Brown-esque vehicle which is capable of travelling to any time or place in the Mesozoic era (even under water in later episodes). Right off the bat, this provides ample opportunity to teach kids the basic (yet still occasionally missed or messed up in other media) idea that dinosaurs were often separated from each other by huge spans of time. I particularly liked the clever bit in one episode where the kids go to visit the one of the first dinosaurs, Eoraptor; reaching the end of the track somewhere in the Late Triassic, they have to get out and transfer to an old-style push-handle rail cart to go the rest of the way!
The geographic separation of different dinosaurs is also emphasized, and in another cute touch dinosaurs are often given accents based on their country of origin. This theme of, essentially, biostratigraphy was the subject of an entire episode in which the Pteranodons attend a block party with their immediate neighbors (the ones featured on the show in their home time, before getting on the train). The neighbors include a Styracosaurus, Lambeosaurus, Daspletosaurus, a Euoplocephalus and Hesperornis. Savvy readers will probably recognize this as the Dinosaur Park Formation fauna, and while Pteranodon itself is the only one out of place there by a few million years, it's impressive to see a kid show try to get this kind of detail right while teaching a more basic lesson (that every member of a community has a role or niche).
It's also funny to watch how the later plays out in the middle of an anthropomorphic, cartoon universe. On one hand, it's refreshing to the large theropods treated as characters who are friendly with the herbivores and not background monsters like in Disney's Dinosaur. On the other, this fact makes it even funnier/weirder in episodes that discuss the defensive tactics of some herbivores; for example, a group of stegosaurs have to group up and fend off a comically insane-acting, marauding allosaur. This kind of kid's-TV-paradox becomes even more acute in the episodes on marine fauna. I have to hand it to the producers for featuring such obscure critters as ancient fish and ammonites as characters, but it's also disconcerting in that almost every episode features the pteranodonts devouring heaps of these same fish! A bit like the Simpsons episode with Homer in an "Under the Sea" musical number gobbling down horrified anthropomorphic sea cucumbers? The producers do a good job keeping this kind of thing segregated, and I doubt the target audience would ever notice the inconsistency.
The best thing about the format of Dinosaur Train is that nearly every episode highlights and explains the scientific process in a really very deft and simple way that I think small children can understand, or at least in a way that gets them thinking scientifically at an early age. Buddy, the main T. rex character, is a very curious type who is always bugging the smart, train-conducting Troodon to answer questions his explorations raise. In case the show made it too charming and understandable to notice what's going on here, these are the first two steps of the scientific method--Buddy explores the word and forms questions based on what he sees. With the help of the conductor, the kids then do some research for background information on the topic, and then--get this--the kids explain to each other (and the audience) what a hypothesis is: "an idea you can test!"
I don't want to sound condescending, but I've met adult science enthusiasts who seemingly have not yet grasped how science really works. Many casual dinosaur fans seem to think they need to find an idea and defend it to the death. Dinosaur Train teaches children that they should think about the world around them, then ask questions. They should think of possible answers to their questions, and then try to prove themselves wrong! This is done so brilliantly it's almost sad to realize how easy it is to teach scientific thinking to people, most of whom have no idea what science is or how it operates, let alone to little kids.
My favorite example of the show's handling of the scientific process is in the episode where the kids travel to Jurassic Germany to visit an Archaeopteryx. The conductor explains to them that Archaeopteryx is the first bird, and Buddy develops an hypothesis: if she is a bird, he reasons, she can fly and lives in a nest, like other the birds he's seen in his own time period. The conductor knowingly encourages him to test his hypothesis by talking to the Archaeopteryx. To Buddy's surprise, despite the fact that she is a "bird", and has wings, she does not have a nest and can't fly! Instead, the Archaeopteryx demonstrates how she can use her wings to run up a tree (first instance of WAIR portrayed in a dinosaur show?) and then can glide down after insects. Buddy's hypothesis was disproved, but he learned some even more interesting things by testing it. If only this kind of message could somehow be applied to standard, "adult" dinosaur shows.
The best thing about the format of Dinosaur Train is that nearly every episode highlights and explains the scientific process in a really very deft and simple way that I think small children can understand, or at least in a way that gets them thinking scientifically at an early age. Buddy, the main T. rex character, is a very curious type who is always bugging the smart, train-conducting Troodon to answer questions his explorations raise. In case the show made it too charming and understandable to notice what's going on here, these are the first two steps of the scientific method--Buddy explores the word and forms questions based on what he sees. With the help of the conductor, the kids then do some research for background information on the topic, and then--get this--the kids explain to each other (and the audience) what a hypothesis is: "an idea you can test!"
I don't want to sound condescending, but I've met adult science enthusiasts who seemingly have not yet grasped how science really works. Many casual dinosaur fans seem to think they need to find an idea and defend it to the death. Dinosaur Train teaches children that they should think about the world around them, then ask questions. They should think of possible answers to their questions, and then try to prove themselves wrong! This is done so brilliantly it's almost sad to realize how easy it is to teach scientific thinking to people, most of whom have no idea what science is or how it operates, let alone to little kids.
My favorite example of the show's handling of the scientific process is in the episode where the kids travel to Jurassic Germany to visit an Archaeopteryx. The conductor explains to them that Archaeopteryx is the first bird, and Buddy develops an hypothesis: if she is a bird, he reasons, she can fly and lives in a nest, like other the birds he's seen in his own time period. The conductor knowingly encourages him to test his hypothesis by talking to the Archaeopteryx. To Buddy's surprise, despite the fact that she is a "bird", and has wings, she does not have a nest and can't fly! Instead, the Archaeopteryx demonstrates how she can use her wings to run up a tree (first instance of WAIR portrayed in a dinosaur show?) and then can glide down after insects. Buddy's hypothesis was disproved, but he learned some even more interesting things by testing it. If only this kind of message could somehow be applied to standard, "adult" dinosaur shows.
If the show itself doesn't amply demonstrate scientific concepts to children, each episode is followed by an epilogue featuring paleontologist Scott Sampson (who also has a blog, The Whirlpool of Life) explaining the main points again and giving some additional facts (some aspects of the show that rely heavily on anthropomorphism are sometimes hilariously shot down by a debbie-downer type stickler who pops out and says, for example, "Fact: Troodons did NOT play hockey!" followed by a chorus of disappointed kids).
To follow in the stickler's footsteps (would it be Dinogoss if I didn't?), I did see some missed opportunities in the premise of the show. It's impossible and silly to criticize a cartoon for accuracy ("Daffy Duck does NOT fold his wings correctly!"), but paleo fans will no doubt notice some glaring ones in the main cast. The Troodon are conspicuously lacking in feathers, and the Pteranodon appear to have bat-like wings (a condition not shared by other pteorsaurs in the show). This is a little baffling as the science consultants must have a very big hand in the production--most aspects of each episode, from colorful, feathered Velociraptor to Styracosaurus using their spikes for display rather than combat, are obviously based on the kind of up to the minute research only people active in the paleo community could provide.
I'm betting that the main cast were designed and set in place before the consultants effectively took over--some later episodes show that the conductor is feathered, his feathers are just under is hat. His catch-phrase is the rather belabored "Bless my scales and feathers!", probably modified at the behest of Sampson or another consultant taken aback by a Troodon, of all species, exclaiming "Bless my scales!" The family life of the pteranodonts rings false not for blatant inaccuracy, but for the fact that it's just the kind of interesting facts the bulk of the episodes would fall over themselves to include--the sexual dimorphism that could have been present between mom and dad, the fact that the eggs were likely buried rather than laid in a bird-like nest, etc. But none of this really takes away from the core value of the show as a tool for teaching science.
For paleo fans, there seem to be some 'inside joke' type moments as well. Buddy was elated in one episode to be inducted into the "Theropod Club" . The club basically consists of a bunch of theropods getting together and patting themselves on the back for being by far the coolest dinosaurs - to the consternation of his friends. Nick Gardner could sympathize! Even here, though, the educational message is clear; it not only teaches kids what a theropod is, but often makes a point to explain why birds are also considered to be members. Buddy, apparently a budding comparative anatomist, is also prone to getting really excited over "comparing features", to the point that in at least one episode, when the kids were suggesting games to play during a long train ride, his suggestion to compare features with other dino passengers was met with groans and eye-rolls (maybe the pterosaur kids are more in the geological school--they do like to collect rocks, and at least one entire episode has been dedicated to geology rather than dinosaurs themselves).
At any rate, this is in my opinion the best science show made for young kids, at least those still too young for Bill Nye, and I'd encourage any dinosaur fans to check it out. Despite the target age range, it's fun to see how the new discoveries we follow on a day to day basis are being communicated effectively to the next generation.
For paleo fans, there seem to be some 'inside joke' type moments as well. Buddy was elated in one episode to be inducted into the "Theropod Club" . The club basically consists of a bunch of theropods getting together and patting themselves on the back for being by far the coolest dinosaurs - to the consternation of his friends. Nick Gardner could sympathize! Even here, though, the educational message is clear; it not only teaches kids what a theropod is, but often makes a point to explain why birds are also considered to be members. Buddy, apparently a budding comparative anatomist, is also prone to getting really excited over "comparing features", to the point that in at least one episode, when the kids were suggesting games to play during a long train ride, his suggestion to compare features with other dino passengers was met with groans and eye-rolls (maybe the pterosaur kids are more in the geological school--they do like to collect rocks, and at least one entire episode has been dedicated to geology rather than dinosaurs themselves).
At any rate, this is in my opinion the best science show made for young kids, at least those still too young for Bill Nye, and I'd encourage any dinosaur fans to check it out. Despite the target age range, it's fun to see how the new discoveries we follow on a day to day basis are being communicated effectively to the next generation.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Brilliant New Anchiornis, the Bone Wars, and More
A few quick news items while I finish up a post exploring the extent and structure of beaks in theropods...
"Dinosaur Wars" on PBS's American Experience
I haven't had a chance to check out this new PBS special on the Bone Wars (darn you, unreliable internet connection!) but the whole thing can be seen here.
"Dinomorphosis" on National Geographic's Naked Science
Airing next week, this special explores current knowledge of feathered dinosaurs. You can see the trailer here (not bad, aside from the rampant bunny hands and baffling statement that all feathered dinosaurs were carnivorous), and a related article from the magazine with photo gallery.
Be sure to check out the image of an undescribed Anchiornis specimen in the photo gallery. The preservation is utterly phenomenal, and even the previously-described color pattern is visible to the naked eye.
Also exciting is a new paper on sexual dimorphism and reproduction in the pterosaur Darwinopterus. Check out the great article summarizing the findings at New Scientist, and this skimpier Discovery article highlighting an awesome new restoration of male and female specimens by Mark Witton.
"Dinosaur Wars" on PBS's American Experience
I haven't had a chance to check out this new PBS special on the Bone Wars (darn you, unreliable internet connection!) but the whole thing can be seen here.
"Dinomorphosis" on National Geographic's Naked Science
Airing next week, this special explores current knowledge of feathered dinosaurs. You can see the trailer here (not bad, aside from the rampant bunny hands and baffling statement that all feathered dinosaurs were carnivorous), and a related article from the magazine with photo gallery.
Be sure to check out the image of an undescribed Anchiornis specimen in the photo gallery. The preservation is utterly phenomenal, and even the previously-described color pattern is visible to the naked eye.
Also exciting is a new paper on sexual dimorphism and reproduction in the pterosaur Darwinopterus. Check out the great article summarizing the findings at New Scientist, and this skimpier Discovery article highlighting an awesome new restoration of male and female specimens by Mark Witton.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Reign of the Dinosaurs
Above: Promo image via Slashfilm.
Man, I picked the wrong time to move out of San Diego.
At Comic Con this Friday, Discovery Channel is hosting a panel consisting of artists who are working on a new show called Reign of the Dinosaurs, a Walking With Dinosaurs style drama/documentary being produced by a company called Creative Differences, including several former Pixar animators (some initial reports erroneously said Pixar itself was producing the show). It's currently scheduled to debut in 2011. Scott Hartman announced this on the DML today, and I'm assuming this is the project he's been waxing mysterious about on the message boards lately. Along with Scott, the project is working closely with several notable artists including paleoart/sculpture god David Krentz (and it sounds like he's even getting his mosasaur sequence so heinously excised from the aborted, naturalistic version of Disney's Dinosaur).
In my opinion these kind of top grade dinosaur shows need to happen at least once per decade, for the good of humanity (or just my personal sanity). WWD was hugely influential, but it's now 11 years old so it's also hugely outdated. Many casual paleo fans may not be aware of this, and a good high-profile TV special like this can help inject some new discoveries into the public consciousness the way press releases on the AP via Google News just can't. Looking at the talent involved, it would take some MAJOR intentional meddling to screw up the accuracy of this show. Just reading the press release, found here, is getting me amped for this thing, especially assuming it follows the WWD pattern of featuring one ecological community per episode. You've got the old standbys like T. rex and Therizinosaurus (though it is kind of amazing Therizinosaurus can be considered an old standby these days), but it also promises to feature a "giant, dinosaur eating frog" (i.e. Beelzebufo, and presumably the rest of the LK Malagasy fauna like Rahonavis and Masiakasaurs, all of which have never appeared in animated form as far as I know, except maybe on Dinosaur Train), and, get this:
A "Jurassic flying squirrel."
Hear that? That's Volaticotherium. We're getting the bloody Daohugou Biota on TV. Castorocauda, Scansoriopteryx, Tianyulong, Darwinopterus, Anchiornis, and Daohugocorixa (though maybe I'm the only one excited about that last one). Eat it, Yixian. Though there does appear to be a Caudipteryx on the promo poster, so maybe we're getting both? A man can dream...
Oh, and given the Allosaurus featured on the poster and the involvement of Scott Hartman, could this be the first television appearance of a certain Morrison formation troodontid?
I'm hoping the ComiCon panel will show up on YouTube, and I'll report any further details that may get leaked.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
CotD: The Saga Continues
Above: If Wedel had used the words "laser" and "armor" at any time during his interview, CotD would have looked like this. Not that I'd complain.Matt Wedel has posted his experiences trying to chase down what exactly went wrong with his infamous interview segment in the Discovery Channel and Dangerous, Ltd.'s special Clash of the Dinosaurs. You can read the letter where Dangerous, Ltd. admits that they quote-mined him like creationists and had him spouting nonsense discredited before he was born as if it were fact, here.
An excerpt of the good part:
"In your email, you said: ‘Someone in the editing room cut away the framing explanation and left me presenting a thoroughly discredited idea as if it was current science.’ In your interview you carefully set out a context in which you made your argument, a context that was perhaps not included in the show as carefully as it could have been. Whether this was in the interests of brevity or not, I entirely appreciate your position. We had no wish to suggest you were presenting an old, discredited argument, we were simply working on the show ever aware of the demands of our audience. This does not excuse a part of the program which was perhaps not edited with as much finesse as it could have been and consequently I will make your concerns clear to the production team in the hope that we may avoid such situations again."
Note that they don't apologize or say they'll fix this in future broadcasts of the show (and if it's like other Discovery shows, it will be running on a loop for months). The best part is that the lame excuse email makes clear Dangerous' motivations: They only wanted to accomodate the needs of their audience and hold everyone's attention. That means this was done ON PURPOSE, because the truth was TOO BORING.
Discovery Communications and their affiliate production companies don't care about science. Sorry if I sound like Kanye, but this is true and everybody needs to learn this fact. The only goal here is to keep eyeballs glued to the TV with whatever fake nonsense they can piece together from edited sound bites given by experts hired only to bring a veneer of credibility. They decide what they want to say and show, then hire experts and interview them until they've said enough vowels and consonants to piece together a convincing ransom-note narration.
Not that this wasn't already obvious, but there it is in print.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
CotD: More Ugly
Above: The modern conception of sauropods, as envisioned by Dangerous productions.In last week's post on Clash of the Dinosaurs, I discussed the pros and cons from a viewers perspective. To sum up, I thought it was decent but flawed, with too much repetitive CGI and science made palatable by the presence of real experts like Matt Wedel.
Matt has chimed in with his own post about the special, which points out some really, really troubling behind-the-scenes behavior on the part of the producers, and proves once and for all that Dangerous Ltd., a production company for venues like the Discovery Channel, are not interested in science. Well maybe initially, but when it comes time to air, snazzy gee-whiz-wow anti-facts are all that matters to them. From Matt's blog post:
"I said something like, 'There was this old idea that the sacral expansion functioned as a second brain to control the hindlimbs and tail. But in fact, it almost certainly contained a glycogen body, like the sacral expansions of birds. Trouble is, nobody knows exactly what the glycogen bodies of birds do.'"
...
"Somebody in the editing room neatly sidestepped the mystery of the glycogen body by cutting that bit down, so what I am shown saying in the program is this, 'The sacral expansion functioned as a second brain to control the hindlimbs and tail.'"
Matt is rightly extremely pissed about this and I'm right there with him. A show supposedly about science edited the words of a sauropod expert to espouse the idea, in a national TV program airing in the year 2009 (note: not year 1939!) that sauropods had a second brain in the tail.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Ok? Good. This is like the paleo equivalent of a documentary about Darwin, featuring Darwin on film, then editing Darwin's words to make it sound like he was a creationist. Did I just call Matt Wedel the Darwin of sauropodology? You decide.
To sum up, the only thing worse than science reporting in the news, are science "documentaries" on TV. I'd have no problem if Discovery Channel had called this a science fiction special, but they did not, and that's flat-out lying.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
The Baddest Dino You've Probably Heard Of
Above: CGI Spinosaurus from Monsters Resurrected.The "lesser known" conceit was the first in some bizarre choices, pseudo-errors, and misleading narration/imagery to come from this special. Altogether, I can't say it was "better" than CotD, but to me it was heaps more interesting because of all these little quirks, and some very cool paleontologist segments, not to mention CGI sequences that lasted more than 3 seconds apiece.
First, to call Spinosaurus little-known is a bit of a reach, isn't it? The narrator started nearly every post-commercial break segment with a line like "The most terrifying dinosaur you've never heard of." Yeah, Jurassic Park III wasn't as popular as the first film, but isn't Spinosaurus at least among Brachiosaurus in the ranks of well-known second-tier dinosaur stars nowadays? Or is it only among us dino fanboys? But who else is watching this show?
The next thing that struck me was the design of the CGI Spinosaurus. It is pretty darn inaccurate by today's standards. But... it isn't based on today's standards. It's clearly a direct copy of an older, very awesome drawing by Todd Marshall, down to the dewlap, the spikes, and the almost certainly inaccurate croc-like scale detailing. Whether Marshall was a consultant for the show, or they just ripped his design off after it turned up on Google Image Search, I don't know. Anybody know the scoop? Because if he wasn't involve, this is definitely a case of blatant plagiarism.
Above right: Spinosaurus by Todd Marshall, blatantly plagiarized by me from Google Images. Left: Spinosaurus from Monsters Resurrected.
The main inaccuracy in their Spino model is the head. Now that we have decent skull material, we know Spino has a very narrow, thin snout with a distinct kink in the top and a huge rosette of teeth on the robust lower jaw (see accurate drawing, above). This is all thanks to dal Sasso and his team, who were featured extensively in the special (very cool to see) along with a life-sized model of an accurate skull. Does nobody notice the difference? Adding to the confusion, the special also featured segments with Lawrence Witmer in his famous anatomy lab (and Dr. Holtz's segments even super-imposed him into the lab via green screen, according to his comments on the DML!) . Witmer was shown using computer modeling to re-construct Spino based on the type specimens (destroyed in WWII) and with gaps filled in from the related Suchomimus. Unfortunately, the producers don't seem to have realized that the skull Witmer used was a stand-in, and anytime the skull of Spinosaurus was discussed (that is, every 2 minutes), the (very different) skull of Suchomimus was shown. Suchomimus skull also matches the one Marshall probably based his drawing on, so the accurate, dal Sasso restoration as briefly shown ends up looking very out of place.
Above: Not Spinosaurus.Also bizarrely, the (almost universally accepted) idea that Spinosaurus was primarily a fisher is only addressed briefly at the very end, along with the hypothesis that the sail could be used as a fish-luring shade as in modern herons. The rest of the time, the talking heads like Holtz discuss ways Spino may have dispatched their prey, probably thinking of fish and small/juvenile dinosaurs and other vertebrates, while the animation shows it picking up and eating a small Rugops like corn on the cob! Never mind that the hand articulation would make corn eating impossible for theropod dinosaurs.
The commentary throughout the episode is actually very good, and mostly accurate, as it's coming from the pros, which are given more talk time than in some other specials. However, the animation and narrator talking about how bad-ass the Spinosaurus is are clearly meant to make it look like a bigger, meaner version of t. rex, rather than a giant heron. Don't get me wrong, giant herons would be damn scary, but I doubt they'd be running around eating abelisaur shish kebab and gutting giant mesoeucrocodylians like fish (very gory and kinda cool, don't see that in a lot of docs!). Also, there was a lot of speculation treated as fact. The bite and feeding style of Spinosaurus is based on modern crocodiles, by experts, but it's just speculation, not the basis of studies, and I've already seen people trying to add this to Wikipedia in the mistaken belief that it's been demonstrated scientifically. It's not even really a well-reasoned speculation, as the snout of Spinosaurus itself is more like a gharial than a crocodile. But maybe the expert quoted was thinking of the broader- snouted Suchomimus.
All in all, an interesting, schizophrenic doc, and I'm really looking forward to the Acrocanthosaurus installment, as that's known from much better remains, not to mention footprint evidence of hunting behavior. However, Discovery needs to get the experts to help write those commercial break trivia questions, and provide pronunciation guides--the poor guy kept calling it SPIN-o-saur-us, as in the Spin Doctors.
Oh, and this is two in a row that got the sauropod feet (nearly) right! The show featured Paralatitan, and you could clearly make the hands out as fingerless stumps. SV-POW must be having some effect!
Above: Hooray for sauropod feet!Monday, December 7, 2009
Dinosaur Sunday: Good + Bad + Ugly
Above: The T. rex has not thought this through.Last night, the first part of a new Discovery Sunday special aired, Clash of the Dinosaurs--sort of a slightly more rigorous and scientific-sounding version of the horrible Jurassic Fight Club. Hopefully, any DinoGoss fans will know that these types of CGI action-fests are only loosely connected to reality. One of the main criticisms of these shows, often pointed out online by the very experts featured as "talking heads," is that the writer will latch onto any speculative aside a scientist might have tossed around, and then present it in the show as a concrete fact. Apparently, audiences don't want to know about the process of science or that there may be debate (or no solid evidence at all) for some of these hypotheses. It's more exciting if we just know, man!
Anyway, in this post I'll go over a few things I noticed watching the show, informed by chatter on the DML today from some of he scientists featured and what they thought of the show. I'll also talk about the (very cool if very inaccurate in some very weird ways) show that followed (which I hadn't heard about!) all about Spinosaurus.
First, Clash of the Dinosaurs:
This species tried a bit harder than others to illustrate why we think dinosaurs were the way they're portrayed based on anatomical studies. Each CGI model came with a see-through version to show off the bones, muscles, gastric system, etc. While not perfect, they looked ok, though the show seemed to only focus on the brain for most dinosaurs. It also missed a good opportunity to highlight little-known aspects of anatomy, like the air sac system (especially in the sauropod and pterosaur).
External anatomy was even better in most cases. The T. rex looked great, much better than the god-awful Walking With Dinosaurs or slightly less awful Jurassic Park versions. The sub-adult Triceratops were cool looking despite the extra front foot claw, and from what we saw of the ankylosaur, they obviously did their research (hey, Ken Carpenter was one of the talking heads) rather than just giving it a random arrangement of nodes and scutes. The Quetzalcoatlus was decent, about on par with the When Dinosaurs Roamed America version, but it was not only naked but scaly, a complete departure from known science. Nice to see the leapfrog launch and terrestrial stalking papers come to life. However, the wings looked too much like simple flaps of skin, as in a bat. And the "X-rays" and narration gave no indication that they were anything but skin. No mention of the complex system of muscluature, inflatable sacs, etc. that made these structures true organs, rather than dermis.
Above: Nice pycnofibres, dork.The sauropod segments were especially good, and the show obviously benefited from having Matt Wedel of SV-POW! as a talking head. It did a good job explaining the age segregation of juveniles, and their "flood out the predators with food" reproductive strategy. Even the CGI models of Sauroposeidon were very good, with the correct number of fingers (though the back of the front feet were still elephantine and not concave as they should have been, but they're trying!).
Above: The role of Deinonychus is played by Heath Ledger. Why so serious?What I can't forgive is the Deinonyhcus models, which while better than usual (certainly leagues better than JFC) still looked like ugly, overgrown lizards rolled in glue with feathers slapped on willy-nilly, very unnatural, with artificially "mean" looking faces (and apparently, Joker makeup for that extra serial-killer punch). The wing feathers were barely visible, and for a while I thought the arms were naked. What's the point of retaining wings for display (as we know for a fact medium-sized dromaeosaurs did) if you can barely see them? Basically, while CGI animators are getting better at following the facts (raptors had feathers), they're not getting the implication (they should look like giant Archaeopteryx, not mini T. rex with fuzz).
Summing it all up is an excellent quote from Tom Holtz (also featured on the show):
"The documentarians often take anything that any of the talking heads speculated about, and transformed these into declarative statements of fact. In some cases this is particularly egregious, because I strongly disagree with some of these statements and believe the facts are against some of these (say, about tyrannosaurid cranial kinesis...) and they present these as facts rather than suppositions."
For the record, on that cranial kinesis point, dinosaurs could NOT flex their jaws open like pythons. Lawrence Witmer, another consultant on the show, has demonstrated this thoroughly in print, but was not given a say on the matter, which is especially bad since it implies all the experts agree with Dr. Bob on this. Really, I imagine the producers must have loved having Bakker as a talking head, since it gave them license to depict all kinds of zany speculation as fact. I owe a lot to Bakker and idolized him as a kid, but I'd hesitate to call what he does 'science' and not 'unsubstantiated speculation to hype science for kids.'
Above: Sauropods... in... space!One last pet peeve, then stay tuned for Spino. I'd estimate the CGI segments of the show totalled about 5 minutes of footage, with clips repeated over and over and over and over again to illustrate different points. I'd gladly accept lower-quality CGI if we could at least get some actual 'action' sequences that last more than 5 seconds apiece, and it makes me wish they'd bring back cheaper methods, even stop-motion. Some of the pieces showed even more skimping, like the baby Sauroposeidon with Walking With... Dimetrodon syndrome. That is, the hatchlings use the same model as the adults, making it look like they shrunk down, Mario style. Even worse, the Sauroposeidon hatching sequence takes place at night, on a wide sandy featureless field. With no sense of scale, it looks a herd of adult brachiosaurs emerging from the soil on the moon, which is actually pretty cool.
Oh well. At least they didn't put a Suchomimus head on their T. rex, but more on that later...
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The Up Side of Hype
Darwinus is not a dinosaur. I've gritted my teeth and resisted posting on the whole whirlwind of ridiculous media hype, fallout from said hype, shady purchases from private collectors, TV deals forcing incomplete science through the fast track, and online publications that laugh in the face of actually officially naming and describing new finds.For those who want to catch up, here's a few links, which have all unfolded in the bloggy goss-o-sphere (these are from The Loom, but check literally any paleo or science blog for more):
- Darwinius Changes Everything, Or Not
- Science Held Hostage
- Does Darwinius Exist?
- ...Not Yet
- Ok now it does
Anyway, the whole controversy over Darwinius not meeting ICZN standards for valid publication has implication for dinosaurs as well. Namely, Aerosteon and Panphagia, both of which were published in the same online journal, PLoS ONE. Now, you'd think an online journal would go out of its way to make sure species published in it were valid, however this does not seem to be the case. It's apparently on the authors to make sure their papers have proper printing and distribution to meet ICZN criteria. Aerosteon and Panphagia, as far as we know, do not meet these criteria and are not valid names. Their papers are unpublished manuscripts at this point. If and when the names are printed in 50 or more copies and made publicly available for sale or to libraries, then they'll be valid, but at least the year of publication for Aerosteon will need to be amended from 2008 to 2009, assuming it happens this year. The same goes for the early whale Maiacetus, which is a Stinking Mammal.
Because of all the hype and the potential PR fallout should somebody pull an Aeto-Gate on "Ida" (Rioarribasimius as Mike Taylor jokingly threatened), PLoS ONE has acted quickly and pushed Darwinius through the proper print channels, checked with the ICZN higher-ups, and gotten the green light. Who will think of the poor dinosaurs in all this?
So, a warning to anyone publishing online: Make sure you arrange for a print run of your paper. Think of poor Epidendrosaurus--there but by the grace of the ICZN go you.
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