Nearly two years ago we received the long awaited revival of the Jurassic Park franchise in the form of the blockbuster, Jurassic World. With record openings across nearly all countries shown and a sequel rapidly approaching, it’s no wonder how the classically styled Jurassic Park “retrosaurs” have made a reappearance in popular culture. However, one of these reptilian retirees seemed a bit off. It seemed as though the Stegosaurus featured in various scenes in the Gyrosphere tour had managed to become even more of a relic in the latest films when compared to its Lost World compatriot. With a tail seemingly dragging along with its plodding gallop, Jurassic World’s interpretation of the creature wouldn't be lost in a Zdeněk Burian painting or a Charles Knight work. When you compare the pungent posture to the earlier appearance in The Lost World it seems especially erroneous. With a tail that mostly stayed parallel with the spine (except for the original clay model) somehow the depiction from the early 90’s manages to come up on top. Overall, I think the Stegosaurus is indicative of a more widespread issue when it comes to prehistoric life and the popular culture; the media doesn't change with the science. Despite decades of research and a new understanding of dinosaur anatomy, Hollywood and media as a whole remains steadfast. Instead, we get retrosaurs with the excuse of genetic modification (somehow a strand of frog DNA manages to break ever dinosaur’s wrists but I digress). Unfortunately we’re at the age where dinosaurs are no longer animals, but monsters to rival King Kong.
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For years, I’ve had issues with the way paleontological studies are pilfered and violated by the mainstream media. Generally you have two “iconic” headlines that plague these pungent publications:
Between these two lies a common thread tying them together; hype culture. Hype culture has long been a cancer in our news outlets often raising a story into an almost god-like status. When looking at this phenomenon I think it’s best to rip the rotting band-aid off our hearts and look at last year’s release of the game, No Man’s Sky. With an intriguing concept of a nearly limitless universe, immersive Star Wars esque dogfights, and Sony backing them up the whole way what could possibly go wrong? Many things. Many things could go wrong dear reader. So why do we apply such disastrous practices to scientific discovery? In one word, “clicks”. For all intents and purposes, Siats is an intriguing genus of theropod dinosaur from the Early Cenomanian of what is now the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah. The holotype specimen consists of a partial hip, fragmented tibia, several vertebrae, and a handful of pedal phalanges. If put to a similar scale as its closest relatives, estimates of length reach a hefty 11.9 meters in length; just barely missing Tyrannosaurus at 12.3 meters. However, while as impressive as this may seem the true cherry on top is the lack of ossification leading the original discoverers to hypothesize the holotype represented a juvenile specimen. That’s right; even at 11.9 meters, Siats still had some growing to do. But as impressive as this baby boomer really is, its size seemed to be the only thing that media and the populus even saw. It’s alright to find it cool based on how big it really is, however the other implications brought up from Siats’ discovery are not only more scientifically significant but manage to better paint a portrait of the transition between the reign of the giants in the Jurassic and the rise of the armored Cretaceous. Originally, it was believed that some time during the early Cretaceous the once dominant Allosauridae had its iron grip over North America sublimated as the recently evolved giant Tyrannosaurids were better prepared for the armor revolution in the Cretaceous with their crushing jaws. However, Siats is special. Siats is not a tyrannosaurid, but rather the last of the great allosaurids. With its discovery it would seem that the eventual coup d'état by the tyrannosaur peasants would be pushed back even further into the Cretaceous. You can probably guess by now how the media portrayed this. They completely ignored it. This is perhaps the root of the problem when it comes to the media and paleontology. Any nuance or hypothesis is strangled and buried beneath the pedestal on which size or relation to Tyrannosaurus proudly show their participation trophies. Hopefully with the introduction of new forms of news like the excellent PBS online series Eons and Thagomizers; nuance and science can once again return to piss on the graves of hype culture and all of its cancerous factors. Art provided by Randomdinos: https://randomdinos.deviantart.com/art/Mussentuchit-707977048 |
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