Zegh's Dinosaur Thread

Atomkilla said:
Have there been any good modern dino documentaries in recent years?
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Not that I know of, really... I think dino-nerds are still watching that BBC one from ages back

However, on a similar subject, the game Saurian is available from Steam, it's yet unfinished, but will feature the Hell Creek fauna (a particular paleontological/geological formation in the US, known to hold Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops fossils) in a non-story survival game. The dinosaurs are highly realistic, being designed and modelled by very driven paleontography enthusiasts themselves, with no "middle men" between them.

 
I'm too lazy to go back in the thread to see if it's already been mentioned, but does anyone remember that 90's TV series Dinosaurs? That ending was dark.
 
Black Rose said:
I'm too lazy to go back in the thread to see if it's already been mentioned, but does anyone remember that 90's TV series Dinosaurs? That ending was dark.
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Yeah, it was a really cool show, and the ending was harsh.
 
zegh8578 said:
Not that I know of, really... I think dino-nerds are still watching that BBC one from ages back

However, on a similar subject, the game Saurian is available from Steam, it's yet unfinished, but will feature the Hell Creek fauna (a particular paleontological/geological formation in the US, known to hold Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops fossils) in a non-story survival game. The dinosaurs are highly realistic, being designed and modelled by very driven paleontography enthusiasts themselves, with no "middle men" between them.

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I'm aware of that game, but it seems largely unfinished to me and I tend to avoid Early Access for the most part. Still, it's in my wishlist.

Hassknecht said:
Yeah, it was a really cool show, and the ending was harsh.
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Is that the one sitcom about dino family? How does it end?
 
Put this in spoiler tags for the off chance that someone hasn't seen this and wants to without being spoiled. Consideration!

Basically, bombs are dropped into the world's volcanoes in the hopes that rain will be created to revive dying plant life. Instead it brings nuclear winter and the beginning of the ice age.[spoiler/]
 
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It was basically a mixture of Scientology's Xenu story and climate change.
 
zegh8578 said:
Not that I know of, really... I think dino-nerds are still watching that BBC one from ages back

However, on a similar subject, the game Saurian is available from Steam, it's yet unfinished, but will feature the Hell Creek fauna (a particular paleontological/geological formation in the US, known to hold Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops fossils) in a non-story survival game. The dinosaurs are highly realistic, being designed and modelled by very driven paleontography enthusiasts themselves, with no "middle men" between them.

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Looks very nice. I like how the plants and trees etc. are also period correct I presume. A lot of work would go into getting all that stuff 'just right'. Then again, why couldn't there be like, academic 3D-models of all kinds of plants etc. available for game makers? Would help a lot with the game world creation etc.
 
MutantScalper said:
Looks very nice. I like how the plants and trees etc. are also period correct I presume. A lot of work would go into getting all that stuff 'just right'. Then again, why couldn't there be like, academic 3D-models of all kinds of plants etc. available for game makers? Would help a lot with the game world creation etc.
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Not even period correct - but location correct! Everything is meant to reflect the fossil record of Hell Creek, and nothing outside of it! :D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Creek_Formation

As for academic 3D-models, I'm not sure what you mean, except it'd be impossible :v
Some efforts have been made to scan dinosaur remains for public viewing, even since the 90s there have been Quicktime renders of dinosaur skulls and skeletons for rotating and viewing, available on the internet.
Lately, there are 3D PDF files, I aquired and downloaded one showing the (absolutely shattered) fossil remains of a sauropod dinosaur. To laymen this is worthless, they are enormous files, take forever to open, and you get a mono-colored (blue in my case) bone, full of cracks and fractures, for you to rotate at your leisure.

If-ever you want to see a reconstruction - a living plant - a living animal - then you need *artistry*
Researchers research, many of them are artistic just for being who they are, but many are not.
You need the exact combination though - of skilled artistry + understanding of the latest research.

Most active researchers do not have the time to sit for weeks on end, letting paperwork gather dust, while they meticulously model an extinct plant in Blender or 3D Studio Max.
Instead, they publish the latest information, and non-professionals do the interpreting: The best dino art is made by the best combination of good skills + good research.

I'd like to see myself as approaching that end of the spectrum, drawing my whole life, and studying dinosaurs non-professionally my whole life. The makers of Saurian all identify in similar ways - they try their best to stay on top of the subject, dedicating their lives to it - while also having time in their lives to spend in 3D modelling programs all day long
 
7zKDm5r.gif
 
Atomkilla said:
7zKDm5r.gif
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Where is this from?
There's a couple of immediate issues, one is the large crocodile scutes on the tail, no such scutes are known in theropods (although skin-impressions from Carnotaurus come close)
The front limbs are also incorrectly posed, theropod hands would face inwards (imagine a pigeon flapping, its palms face in towards each others), while this shows the old trope of turning the palms backwards, facing the thighs (this would damage the dinosaurs wrist)

Besides these two nitpicks, this is a nicely intriguing depiction that could potentially fit such well established taxa as Tyrannosaurus, in combining naked/scaled skin, with feathered portions.
Tyrannosaurus is confusing, since skin-impressions thus far only show scales, while close relatives, like the rather large Yutyrannus, were completely feathered - even moreso than modern birds, in that Yutyrannus even had feathered toes.
 
Crni Vuk said:
Getting killed by something with feathered toes ...
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Well... people get killed by lions and tigers with fuzzy toes all the time, not to mention the super fluffy feetsies of grizzly bears :V

You mustn't imagine *feathers per se* in species such as Yutyrannus. Paleontologists tend to talk about "integument" in order to avoid confusion. Fur is integument, it's just a soft body covering. Most coelurosaurid theropods were covered with "integument", that structurally were sort of "proto feathers", they were often very primitively branched, resembling down or simply hairs. In some species, they were double-hairs, for example, in others they were little branched hairs

The advancedly branched pennaceous feather you typically associate with birds, wings and flight are only really observed in advanced Maniraptoran theropods (Oviraptorids, Velociraptor et al., and other close relatives)

/nerdz
 
Hey @zegh8578 !

I'm doing some research into Dinosaurs; squashing myths, depicting Dinosaurs as they actually looked, examining the timeline, etc...

Any good links you can offer?
 
TorontRayne said:
Hey @zegh8578 !

I'm doing some research into Dinosaurs; squashing myths, depicting Dinosaurs as they actually looked, examining the timeline, etc...

Any good links you can offer?
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Funny you'd mention, since I'm Tweet-following a buncha paleo-heads - some quite serious characters - and one thing that has become a bit of a pet peeve for me, is regular "myth busting", "all the things you are wrong about" etc, I personally find it a bit of a quarrelsome approach to learning and teaching - "how wrong you are!"
BUT - there's plenty of that in the community! I can't reaaaaally think of any other approach here, so... if you're on the Tweeter, try following @TomHoltzPaleo or Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. he is not only one of America's most promiment and prolific paleontologists (and Tyrannosaurid expert), but he is very active online, and has been ever since internet became a thing. He is down on the ground with everyone else, and is not above responding to noobs from time to time. With him, you'll find many other personalities who will often post little didya-know bits and memes and info-pieces, as well as regular links to actual paleontology papers (this is heavy tier shit though :D)
@albertonykus or Alberta Claw is another very active poster of paleo-news, big and small, @TheropodaBlog or Andrea Cau is an Italian theropod-expert who posts regularily, and has a blog that is unfortunately entirely in Italian.

If you're not on Twitter, then I don't really know where to turn to, other than perhaps go into DeviantArt and spend years of your time getting comfy with the resident dino-nerds there, many of whom overlap with the Twitter-sphere (such as Alberta Claw and @Skeletaldrawing / Scott Hartman)

For dedicated textual information, just go to Wikipedia, really.
Back in the day there were massive platforms for dino information, databases etc, but those have dwindled away by now, and Wikipedia really remains the only place to go. Information there is reliable and up to date, for the very most time. Now and then there will be some overzealous statement, like, T. rex had feathers coming out its eyes, but these are typically swiftly moderated.

Dino-specific wikis (of which there are a handful) are complete garbage, pretty much all of the time. They're ran by kids or rabid aspies (cough), and are worth less than shit drenched toilet paper
 
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