Post by auntym on Jun 13, 2015 14:03:51 GMT -6
www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/12/science/jurassic-world-deconstructed-by-paleontologist.html
A Paleontologist Deconstructs
'Jurassic World'
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
JUNE 12, 2015
A scene from "Jurassic World." Credit Universal Pictures
As “Jurassic World” hit theaters on Thursday with its gang of velociraptors and fictitious hybrid rex, paleontologists braced themselves for a wave of misinformation.
“I feel like paleontologists fear they may get a lot of dumb questions because of the dinosaurs in this film,” said bob Switek, a fossil enthusiast and author of the book “My Beloved Brontosaurus.”
Part of the reason the director Colin Trevorrow’s dinosaurs have such potential to confuse is because not everything about them is scientifically far-fetched. Although the Indominus Rex was invented for the film, Mr. Switek, who consulted on the “Jurassic World” website, noted that great care was taken with the subtleties of a number of other dinosaurs. The nostrils on the dying sauropod, for example, were accurately placed on the front of its snout, not the top of its head as was once thought. The triceratops in the petting zoo had stubby horns that curved backward, as represented by fossils.
But, as expected, the number of scientific inaccuracies in the movie rivaled the instances of product placement. To help us debunk some of the dino no-nos, we recruited Mark Loewen, a paleontologist at the University of Utah.
CONTINUE READING: www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/12/science/jurassic-world-deconstructed-by-paleontologist.html
A Paleontologist Deconstructs
'Jurassic World'
By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR
JUNE 12, 2015
A scene from "Jurassic World." Credit Universal Pictures
As “Jurassic World” hit theaters on Thursday with its gang of velociraptors and fictitious hybrid rex, paleontologists braced themselves for a wave of misinformation.
“I feel like paleontologists fear they may get a lot of dumb questions because of the dinosaurs in this film,” said bob Switek, a fossil enthusiast and author of the book “My Beloved Brontosaurus.”
Part of the reason the director Colin Trevorrow’s dinosaurs have such potential to confuse is because not everything about them is scientifically far-fetched. Although the Indominus Rex was invented for the film, Mr. Switek, who consulted on the “Jurassic World” website, noted that great care was taken with the subtleties of a number of other dinosaurs. The nostrils on the dying sauropod, for example, were accurately placed on the front of its snout, not the top of its head as was once thought. The triceratops in the petting zoo had stubby horns that curved backward, as represented by fossils.
But, as expected, the number of scientific inaccuracies in the movie rivaled the instances of product placement. To help us debunk some of the dino no-nos, we recruited Mark Loewen, a paleontologist at the University of Utah.
CONTINUE READING: www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/12/science/jurassic-world-deconstructed-by-paleontologist.html