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DINOSAUR ATTACK
I have been getting really cranky about all sorts of minor things for the past week or so (maybe once the cramps let up it will improve?) ranging from why the lay/lie thing makes me angry to why Sherlock fans annoy me to evo-psych hate. I got out the Sherlock gripe on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
asexual_fandom, and we're probably all glad the essay on lay vs. lie is staying safely on my hard drive, but then there was this one, which I decided was best expressed as Dinosaur Comics fanart, see below:
ETA: This image is freely available to anyone who wants to repost or remix!
Because we have known about feathered dinosaurs for longer than I've been alive, we've known that nearly all theropods probably had some sort of feather-like structures for at least a decade, and yet young kids are still learning it the wrong way from new books, there is positively no excuse for people to be doing new illustrations of these creatures and ignoring that. It goes beyond 'Wrong on the Internet' to 'What Is Wrong With Humanity'? Grrr. Arrgh. Hisss. (And yes, Sue in the Dresden Files is part of the problem, though I can fanwank it that she was at least 90% a construct and shaped by what Harry expected her to look like.)
Transcript:
A standard "Dinosaur Comics" six-panel strip, with pixellated clip-art coelurosaurs conversing. Except that the dinosaurs all have feathers.
PANEL 1:
T. Rex: So I was re-reading my contract and it turns out that I was supposed to have feathers all along! SOMEBODY'S getting fired!
PANEL 2:
T. Rex: Fear my awesome pinions! I bet you feel silly about all those "tiny arms" comments now!
PANEL 3:
T. Rex: And all the other coelurosaurs had feathers too! That means you, Dromiceiomimus!
Dromicieomimus (covered in what looks like a dirty dust mop): These are NOT the right feathers.
T. Rex: Your name means "I look like an emu." Deal with it.
PANEL 4:
Utahraptor:You know, T-Rex, proto-feathers don't always mean mighty pinions.
PANEL 5:
T.Rex: They don't?
Utahraptor: Nope! If they're real, Tyrannosaurid feathers are likely hairy or fluffy, more like rheas or phorusracids or ostriches or other large flightless birds!
PANEL 6:
T.Rex: Or DROMICEIOMIMUS?
Dromiceiomimus (from off-panel): SHUT UP SHUT UP THESE ARE NOT MY FEATHERS
GOD (from off-panel): OH GO CRY EMU KID
SCIENCE NOTES:
1. T-Rex's feathers are based on the classic reconstructions of Archaeopteryx. Utahraptor's are based (loosely) on the Utahraptor illustration in Wikipedia. Dromiceiomimus's are based on ... well, on an emu.
Also, Utahraptor is correct in that a feathered Tyrannosaurus rex wouldn't actually look like that; the feathery dinosaurs that have been found in T.Rex's clade have much less feathery feathers. In fact, a lot of evolutionary biologists don't like using the term "feather" or "proto-feather" because it implies that the structures are part of some sort of inevitable chain leading up to the perfection of bird feathers, which is bad biology, but alas 'filamentous integumentary structures' wouldn't fit it the panels.
A lot of people believe that the largest coleurosaurs, like T.Rex, would have been scaly, like the old reconstructions; there are some Tyrannosaurus rex skin impressions that imply they were scaly at least in places, and by analogy with large mammals, they might have re-evolved nakedness separately. On the other hand, dinosaurs aren't mammals, so who knows? Especially if they were used primarily for social display, which is totally how T.Rex the character would use them.
I have no idea if Dromiceimimus is accurate as drawn here, but Dromiceiomimus does mean "looks like an emu", and that could be how she looked.
In other news, I was attacked by a dinosaur last weekend! I was lying in my tree, taking a nap, and listening to my mp3 player, when this dinosaur just swooped down at me from above, all feathery and stuff! It landed right next to me, and then jumped onto my chest and just sat there, right on me, and stared at me for awhile with its cold eyes.
I think it was one of these. Possibly simultaneously one of the most awesome and terrifying things that has ever happened to me. :D
In possibly related news: TetZoo is my current favorite blog. If only because, if someone as amazing as Darren Naish can get constantly distracted by shiny things and keep promising to do a certain post for years before he finally gets around to it, there's hope for people like me. Also, as witness my dinosaur attack earlier, I am ashamed to say I am really ignorant on common passerines. TetZoo almost manages to make them interesting.
(Here's Naish on feathered dinosaurs from 2007, already somewhat out of date but a good overview of the work coming out in the last decade.)
asexual_fandom, and we're probably all glad the essay on lay vs. lie is staying safely on my hard drive, but then there was this one, which I decided was best expressed as Dinosaur Comics fanart, see below:ETA: This image is freely available to anyone who wants to repost or remix!
Because we have known about feathered dinosaurs for longer than I've been alive, we've known that nearly all theropods probably had some sort of feather-like structures for at least a decade, and yet young kids are still learning it the wrong way from new books, there is positively no excuse for people to be doing new illustrations of these creatures and ignoring that. It goes beyond 'Wrong on the Internet' to 'What Is Wrong With Humanity'? Grrr. Arrgh. Hisss. (And yes, Sue in the Dresden Files is part of the problem, though I can fanwank it that she was at least 90% a construct and shaped by what Harry expected her to look like.)
Transcript:
A standard "Dinosaur Comics" six-panel strip, with pixellated clip-art coelurosaurs conversing. Except that the dinosaurs all have feathers.
PANEL 1:
T. Rex: So I was re-reading my contract and it turns out that I was supposed to have feathers all along! SOMEBODY'S getting fired!
PANEL 2:
T. Rex: Fear my awesome pinions! I bet you feel silly about all those "tiny arms" comments now!
PANEL 3:
T. Rex: And all the other coelurosaurs had feathers too! That means you, Dromiceiomimus!
Dromicieomimus (covered in what looks like a dirty dust mop): These are NOT the right feathers.
T. Rex: Your name means "I look like an emu." Deal with it.
PANEL 4:
Utahraptor:You know, T-Rex, proto-feathers don't always mean mighty pinions.
PANEL 5:
T.Rex: They don't?
Utahraptor: Nope! If they're real, Tyrannosaurid feathers are likely hairy or fluffy, more like rheas or phorusracids or ostriches or other large flightless birds!
PANEL 6:
T.Rex: Or DROMICEIOMIMUS?
Dromiceiomimus (from off-panel): SHUT UP SHUT UP THESE ARE NOT MY FEATHERS
GOD (from off-panel): OH GO CRY EMU KID
SCIENCE NOTES:
1. T-Rex's feathers are based on the classic reconstructions of Archaeopteryx. Utahraptor's are based (loosely) on the Utahraptor illustration in Wikipedia. Dromiceiomimus's are based on ... well, on an emu.
Also, Utahraptor is correct in that a feathered Tyrannosaurus rex wouldn't actually look like that; the feathery dinosaurs that have been found in T.Rex's clade have much less feathery feathers. In fact, a lot of evolutionary biologists don't like using the term "feather" or "proto-feather" because it implies that the structures are part of some sort of inevitable chain leading up to the perfection of bird feathers, which is bad biology, but alas 'filamentous integumentary structures' wouldn't fit it the panels.
A lot of people believe that the largest coleurosaurs, like T.Rex, would have been scaly, like the old reconstructions; there are some Tyrannosaurus rex skin impressions that imply they were scaly at least in places, and by analogy with large mammals, they might have re-evolved nakedness separately. On the other hand, dinosaurs aren't mammals, so who knows? Especially if they were used primarily for social display, which is totally how T.Rex the character would use them.
I have no idea if Dromiceimimus is accurate as drawn here, but Dromiceiomimus does mean "looks like an emu", and that could be how she looked.
In other news, I was attacked by a dinosaur last weekend! I was lying in my tree, taking a nap, and listening to my mp3 player, when this dinosaur just swooped down at me from above, all feathery and stuff! It landed right next to me, and then jumped onto my chest and just sat there, right on me, and stared at me for awhile with its cold eyes.
I think it was one of these. Possibly simultaneously one of the most awesome and terrifying things that has ever happened to me. :D
In possibly related news: TetZoo is my current favorite blog. If only because, if someone as amazing as Darren Naish can get constantly distracted by shiny things and keep promising to do a certain post for years before he finally gets around to it, there's hope for people like me. Also, as witness my dinosaur attack earlier, I am ashamed to say I am really ignorant on common passerines. TetZoo almost manages to make them interesting.
(Here's Naish on feathered dinosaurs from 2007, already somewhat out of date but a good overview of the work coming out in the last decade.)