Today I've got a human osteology exam, so while I'm trying to make sure I know all my processes, foramina, and sutures things are going to be a bit light here. Still, I've got a few items of interest to unload here before trying to cram more of White's Human Osteology into my brain;
- The next edition of the Boneyard is coming up this Saturday and will appear at Familiarity Breeds Content. Get your submissions in to me or Nick soon! Two weeks after that the carnival will be back here with a special edition where participants will have a chance to win some paleontology books from my own library. Details will be announced after the Boneyard #19 goes up this weekend. (And don't forget to check out #18 if you haven't seen it already!)
- Right now there's a reader's poll up on Page 3.14 about the best Hollywood film involving science (although all but one of the choices are science fiction). My vote goes to Jurassic Park, a movie that definitely made "hot-blooded" dinosaurs real and reinvigorate my interest in paleontology. On that topic, I'll ask a somewhat narrower question; what's your favorite movie featuring dinosaurs?
- After finishing the informative (but plodding) book Men Among the Mammoths, I picked up David Quammen's The Boilerplate Rhino, a collection of his essays about nature. I'm only a few essays in, but it is a delightful read and I recommend it to anyone who might be looking for a good summer book.
- ERV is now on ScienceBlogs! Head on over and say "Hi."
- It ain't over in Florida. Under the guise of the "Academic Freedom Act," same state officials are trying to sneak creationism into the classroom. Florida Citizens for Science has been keeping track of the story, and NPR ran a piece on the story today. What bothers me, though, is that the creationists are given lots of attention and airtime; where are the scientists and opponents of the legislation?
- The Yellowstone bison population has been reduced to less than half of what it was last year, 700 dying of starvation or natural causes during a harsh winter and 1,600 being slaughtered under the auspices of disease control. (Keep in mind that the Yellowstone population is the only continuously wild stock in existence, the living animals being the descendants of about 23 individuals.) Previously any bison found outside the park boundaries was shot for fear that it carried a bacteria called Brucella abortus (often referred to as brucellosis), which is mild in effect but sometimes causes cattle to abort their fetuses and reduce milk production. Now this program has been suspended since the population number has plummeted.
What dangers a bison carrying the bacteria presents to cattle is largely unknown, however, as known instances of cattle catching brucellosis from bison are rare (the primary example being in a captive situation where the animals were in closer than they would be in the wild). If the link is so tenuous, why kill the bison? It's all about money. According to David Wilcove in his book No Way Home, if any of the cattle in Montana contract brucellosis then the state loses it's designation as bucellosis-free, which would require ranchers to quarantine their cattle before shipping them. This makes bison that leave park boundaries a perceived threat to ranchers, and while bison do not migrate over long distances, their home ranges have been drastically cut while their inner drive to make short migrations remains. Sadly, it seems that money is slowly choking the last genetically pure population of bison to death.
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Good luck on your exam!
Dang if that Boneyard doesn't come quicker every fortnight. I shall have an epic post prepared, sir. Possibly involving drepanosaurs. I would also vote for Jurassic Park, although my favorite dinosaur movie in general is probably...well, it's probably Jurassic Park. :-) I do have a soft spot for Baby: Secret of a Lost Legend, though.
True hollywood movie would have to be Jurassic Park The Lost World. Sure the human bits of the movie were weak (though I still like the commentary on hunting and poaching), but it has way more and better Dinosaur bits than JP 1.
If I could pick any onscreen incarnation it'd be the BBC Walking with entries. The best of which in my opinion was Sea Monsters. Prehistoric Park with Nigel Marvin is a must see too. Love their T-Rexs, and it's the first time in the modern era Triceratops has gotten a descent part (unlike their sick or 20 second parts in the JP movies).
For old movies it'd have to be 1 Million Years BC. I'd also nominate Godzilla. He was my favourite singular Dinosaur when was I was a kid. In grade 3 I even told my class when I grew up I was going to be Godzilla... too bad that didn't work out.
I found that the BBC's "Walking With..." series kind of sloped downhill after Beasts. And even Beasts was better than Dinosaurs, honestly. By the time "Monsters" or whatever the hell it was called (pre-Triassic critters) came out, accuracy took an shotgun shell to the foot, the animation was weaksauce, and some of the behavioral leaps of faith were too spacious to make sense out of.
Baby Dimetrodons could climb trees? And hatched with full sails? Please.
The Rite of Spring segment of Fantasia is awesome. It's inaccurate, sure, but it perfectly captures the spirit of the time - big lugs lounging around in swamps and duking it out with lightning in the background.
Zach-
I totally agree with you on the baby Dimetrodon segment. It is one of the stupidest things they've done.
Some of their behavioural stuff is a little whacky, but hey whose to say their wrong. Besides it's engaging kids and adults a like. Both when I was an educator at the Tyrrell, and these days in the classroom teaching my kids can't get enough of it. More to the point they ask questions and get books which they probably won't if not stimulated.
Their a million times more accurate and researched than the movies we watched when we were kids.
My only other thing is that their modelling and animation is second to none. Believe me I play with 3D enough to know really good when I see it, making a 3D anything is hard (a bunch of my new efforts are up at www.prehistoric-insanity.blogspot.com). Considering their working with 1/10 the budget of Jurassic Park and a 1/4 of the staff and are putting out stuff that is at times better (you need to watch their mosasaurs from chased by sea monsters... there's two shots that are unbelievably real) is impressive.
That and their stuff isn't as tacky or over the top as say Dinosaur Planet. Though Scott Sampson talking about the science in between was a leg up for Planet the animation, stories, and especially their models were second rate compared to the BBC efforts.
Besides where else are you going to see an Anomalocaris animated and on TV? ;p
Good point, Traumador. I haven't seen Sea Monsters, but I really want to! I wonder if it's on DVD...I also want to see that Discovery Channel "movie" about Mesozoic marine reptiles. I've seen the companion book, and it looks pretty kick-ass.
Zach-
I think you mean the National Geographic movie (or if the Discovery Channel has one I GOTTA see it!). It was outstanding! It combined the outstanding effects of the BBC shows with cuts inbetween the prehistoric clips to show real fossils and palaeontology stories like Dino Planet. Among these with a clip of my favs of all time the Sternbergs!!!
As for the BBC Sea Monsters (annouying they both have the same name) you can get it with 2 other BBC Dino specials on a DVD set called Chased by Dinosaurs. Their a lot different than the Walking with series in that they stick in a human naturalist Nigel Marvin (Britains answer to the Croc Hunter, he is awesome) who runs around their simulated Mezesoic environments exploring them. In all seriousness the only outstanding effort of the 3 is Sea Monsters. The Chinese Dinosaur ep is alright, and the South American one is meh. Sea Monsters with his travels through the 7 most deadly seas of all time is a must see though.
Awesome! Netflix'd!