Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying: Difference between revisions

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In any case, one may begin to suspect that, in fact, [[They Just Didn't Care|the only "research" some dinosaur fiction creators did]] was... watching other dinosaur movies. Goes hand-in-hand with [[Stock Dinosaurs]], where only the popular species of dinosaurs (or "dinosaurs") show up. And with [[Prehistoric Monster]] as well, where dinosaurs are always portrayed as [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|non-cute things]] regardless how they looked in [[Real Life]]. One [[Egregious]] subtrope overlapping with [[Special Effect Failure]] is the [[Slurpasaur]].
In any case, one may begin to suspect that, in fact, [[They Just Didn't Care|the only "research" some dinosaur fiction creators did]] was... watching other dinosaur movies. Goes hand-in-hand with [[Stock Dinosaurs]], where only the popular species of dinosaurs (or "dinosaurs") show up. And with [[Prehistoric Monster]] as well, where dinosaurs are always portrayed as [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|non-cute things]] regardless how they looked in [[Real Life]]. One [[Egregious]] subtrope overlapping with [[Special Effect Failure]] is the [[Slurpasaur]].


See also [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs]], [[Raptor Attack]] and the grandchild trope, [[Somewhere an Ornithologist Is Crying]] (and its cousin trope, [[Ptero-Soarer]]). If you want some idea of what would make a palaeontologist happy, see [[Useful Notes/Dinosaurs|Dinosaurs]], [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs]], [[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs]] and [[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life|Prehistoric Life]].
See also [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs]], [[Raptor Attack]] and the grandchild trope, [[Somewhere an Ornithologist Is Crying]] (and its cousin trope, [[Ptero-Soarer]]). If you want some idea of what would make a palaeontologist happy, see [[Dinosaurs (useful notes)|Dinosaurs]], [[Stock Dinosaurs True Dinosaurs]], [[Stock Dinosaurs Non Dinosaurs]] and [[Prehistoric Life]].


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* ''[[Clash of the Dinosaurs]]'', which ''really'' [http://svpow.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/lies-damned-lies-and-clash-of-the-dinosaurs/ caused grief to one of the paleontologists they interviewed] by ''[[Quote Mine|QUOTE MINING]]'' him.
* ''[[Clash of the Dinosaurs]]'', which ''really'' [http://svpow.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/lies-damned-lies-and-clash-of-the-dinosaurs/ caused grief to one of the paleontologists they interviewed] by ''[[Quote Mine|QUOTE MINING]]'' him.
* ''[[Animal Armageddon]]'', while not a bad program when it comes to explaining science, had some of the worst and most ugly-looking CGI dinosaur recreations imaginable, almost all of which suffer from anatomical inaccuracies.
* ''[[Animal Armageddon]]'', while not a bad program when it comes to explaining science, had some of the worst and most ugly-looking CGI dinosaur recreations imaginable, almost all of which suffer from anatomical inaccuracies.
* ITV's ''[[March of the Dinosaurs]]'' had dinosaur-freaks up in arms with just its preview images. While feathered tyrannosaurs and arctic [[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life|mosasaurs]] might have looked awesome, the not properly feathered, small-winged (they should have actual wings with wing feathers) ''Troodon''s worked as horrible eye-sores for them. Indeed, we live in a time in which popular dinosaur restorations are forced to take a middle route between being too feathered for the general public's comfort, but not feathered enough to please dino-maniacs.
* ITV's ''[[March of the Dinosaurs]]'' had dinosaur-freaks up in arms with just its preview images. While feathered tyrannosaurs and arctic [[Prehistoric Life|mosasaurs]] might have looked awesome, the not properly feathered, small-winged (they should have actual wings with wing feathers) ''Troodon''s worked as horrible eye-sores for them. Indeed, we live in a time in which popular dinosaur restorations are forced to take a middle route between being too feathered for the general public's comfort, but not feathered enough to please dino-maniacs.
* While not specifically about prehistoric life, ''[[The Most Extreme]]'' messed up big in episode 65, ''Awesome Ancestors''. Just what did they screw up on, you may ask? [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]] was more closely related to ''your standard chicken'' than it was to the Komodo dragon. A more appropriate anscestor for the Komodo dragon would be the 50-foot long mosasaur, a predatory sea-going lizard that lived around the same time as the last dinosaurs and are thought to be distantly related to modern-day monitor lizards.
* While not specifically about prehistoric life, ''[[The Most Extreme]]'' messed up big in episode 65, ''Awesome Ancestors''. Just what did they screw up on, you may ask? [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]] was more closely related to ''your standard chicken'' than it was to the Komodo dragon. A more appropriate anscestor for the Komodo dragon would be the 50-foot long mosasaur, a predatory sea-going lizard that lived around the same time as the last dinosaurs and are thought to be distantly related to modern-day monitor lizards.
** Not to mention that ''T. rex'' had many traits similiar to those modern-day birds and was most-likely warm blooded, unlike the cold-blooded Komodo dragon which has more standared reptilian traits. [[Did Not Do the Research|Oops]].
** Not to mention that ''T. rex'' had many traits similiar to those modern-day birds and was most-likely warm blooded, unlike the cold-blooded Komodo dragon which has more standared reptilian traits. [[Did Not Do the Research|Oops]].
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* The back cover of the [[Doctor Who Novelisations|novelisation]] of ''[[Doctor Who]] and the Silurians'' boasts that the story contains "a 40 ft. high ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', the biggest, most savage mammal which ever trod the earth!" No ''T. rex'' fossil ever found has been that big; the largest one is 40 feet ''long'' from nose to tail. And then there's that other bit -- while most of us aren't experts on the subject, we could probably tell you that T. rex was not a mammal.
* The back cover of the [[Doctor Who Novelisations|novelisation]] of ''[[Doctor Who]] and the Silurians'' boasts that the story contains "a 40 ft. high ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', the biggest, most savage mammal which ever trod the earth!" No ''T. rex'' fossil ever found has been that big; the largest one is 40 feet ''long'' from nose to tail. And then there's that other bit -- while most of us aren't experts on the subject, we could probably tell you that T. rex was not a mammal.
* The Land that Time Forgot series by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] has a [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]] ''running on all fours''. Even though this was written around WWI, I don't think [[Science Marches On]] quite covers ''this'' one...
* The Land that Time Forgot series by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] has a [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]] ''running on all fours''. Even though this was written around WWI, I don't think [[Science Marches On]] quite covers ''this'' one...
* There is a children's book called ''[http://www.amazon.com/Day-Dinosaur-First-Time-Books/dp/0394891309 Day of the Dinosaur]'' which commits this sin in spades. None of the dinos are illustrated correctly and [[Anachronism Stew|they all are depicted as living around the same time.]] Also, ''[[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life Non Dinosaurian Reptiles|Dimetrodon]]'', ''Mesosaurus'' and '''''[[Useful Notes/Prehistoric Life Other Extinct Creatures|Eryops]]''''' of all things are called dinosaurs. (For those who don't know, ''Eryops'' was an amphibian that was roughly contemporary of ''Dimetrodon''. It's portrayed as a land animal in the book. Also, the three foot-long ''Mesosaurus'' resembled a crocodile and lived at the same time as ''Dimetrodon'' and ''Eryops'', but farther south. A filter-feeder, it was the first reptile to return to an aquatic existence. A related coloring book [[Critical Research Failure|makes it out to be a predator about thirty feet long]].) To be fair, the book was from the sixties, so some of this is [[Science Marches On]], but the the rest is simply inexcusable, as [http://www.amazon.com/review/RSJQ7KJ0HH8RW/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RSJQ7KJ0HH8RW this review] points out.
* There is a children's book called ''[http://www.amazon.com/Day-Dinosaur-First-Time-Books/dp/0394891309 Day of the Dinosaur]'' which commits this sin in spades. None of the dinos are illustrated correctly and [[Anachronism Stew|they all are depicted as living around the same time.]] Also, ''[[Prehistoric Life/Non Dinosaurian Reptiles|Dimetrodon]]'', ''Mesosaurus'' and '''''[[Prehistoric Life/Other Extinct Creatures|Eryops]]''''' of all things are called dinosaurs. (For those who don't know, ''Eryops'' was an amphibian that was roughly contemporary of ''Dimetrodon''. It's portrayed as a land animal in the book. Also, the three foot-long ''Mesosaurus'' resembled a crocodile and lived at the same time as ''Dimetrodon'' and ''Eryops'', but farther south. A filter-feeder, it was the first reptile to return to an aquatic existence. A related coloring book [[Critical Research Failure|makes it out to be a predator about thirty feet long]].) To be fair, the book was from the sixties, so some of this is [[Science Marches On]], but the the rest is simply inexcusable, as [http://www.amazon.com/review/RSJQ7KJ0HH8RW/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RSJQ7KJ0HH8RW this review] points out.
* A [[Thomas the Tank Engine]] picture book was actually about Thomas and Stepney finding a ''[[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]'' skeleton on Sodor, despite that dinosaur being native to North America (they really should've uncovered a ''Proceratosaurus'', ''Eotyrannus'', ''Yaverlandia'', ''Megalosaurus'', ''Eustreptospondylus'', ''Neovenator'' or ''Baryonyx'', all of which are actually theropod dinosaurs that are native to England). Well, at least the dinosaur skeleton the Narrow Gauge locomotives found in the show is actually that of a ''Dacentrurus'' (a small stegosaurid native to England).
* A [[Thomas the Tank Engine]] picture book was actually about Thomas and Stepney finding a ''[[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]'' skeleton on Sodor, despite that dinosaur being native to North America (they really should've uncovered a ''Proceratosaurus'', ''Eotyrannus'', ''Yaverlandia'', ''Megalosaurus'', ''Eustreptospondylus'', ''Neovenator'' or ''Baryonyx'', all of which are actually theropod dinosaurs that are native to England). Well, at least the dinosaur skeleton the Narrow Gauge locomotives found in the show is actually that of a ''Dacentrurus'' (a small stegosaurid native to England).
* Several very cheap kids' dinosaur books suffer from this, ''badly''. Probably the worst is [http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Mission-Xtreme-Chris-Madsen/dp/1902626842/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305751385&sr=1-3 this one], which is just one big [[Critical Research Failure]] from beginning to end. For starters, it has ''herbivorous plesiosaurs'', states that ''Ceratosaurus'' was a tyrannosaur (right, and you're a [[wikipedia:Tarsier|tarsier]]), claims that [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]] grew to 65 feet long (try 42 feet), has naked raptors, claims that ''Oviraptor'' lived on eggs (discarded in the nineties) has ''aquatic sauropods'' (disproven in the sixties, while the book was written in 2003), says that ''Archaeopteryx'' evolved after the raptors and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|has really lame 3D]]. Somewhere a paleontologist is committing suicide by jumping in a mosasaur-infested pool.
* Several very cheap kids' dinosaur books suffer from this, ''badly''. Probably the worst is [http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Mission-Xtreme-Chris-Madsen/dp/1902626842/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305751385&sr=1-3 this one], which is just one big [[Critical Research Failure]] from beginning to end. For starters, it has ''herbivorous plesiosaurs'', states that ''Ceratosaurus'' was a tyrannosaur (right, and you're a [[wikipedia:Tarsier|tarsier]]), claims that [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]] grew to 65 feet long (try 42 feet), has naked raptors, claims that ''Oviraptor'' lived on eggs (discarded in the nineties) has ''aquatic sauropods'' (disproven in the sixties, while the book was written in 2003), says that ''Archaeopteryx'' evolved after the raptors and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|has really lame 3D]]. Somewhere a paleontologist is committing suicide by jumping in a mosasaur-infested pool.
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