Walking with Dinosaurs: Difference between revisions

** Apparently some paleontologists strongly criticized the scene from the first episode of ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' where ''[[Prehistoric Life/Non Dinosaurian Reptiles|Postosuchus]]'' was shown urinating in a way more similar to that of mammals than that of reptiles and birds, despite it was an ancient relative of both crocs and dinos - so strongly in fact, that one of the series' scientific consultants, Prof. Michael Benton, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120829030149/http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Essays/WWD/default.html decided to address their criticism]. The relevant bit: "Another category of WWD-haters, the fact checkers, began compiling lists of errors in the first week. These were gleefully circulated on the e-mail lists. For example, in the first programme, ''Postosuchus'' urinates copiously. There is no doubt that it does so in the programme, and this was a moment that my children relished. However, of course, birds and crocodiles, the closest living relatives of the dinosaurs, do not urinate; they shed their waste chemicals as more solid uric acid. Equally, though, we can’t prove that ''Postosuchus'' did not urinate like this: copious urination is the primitive state for tetrapods (seen in fishes, amphibians, turtles, and mammals), and it might have been retained by some basal archosaurs."