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What annoys you about paleontology?; Rant on about moronic theories, complaints, or just animals that annoy you.
Topic Started: Sep 28 2013, 05:04 PM (256,213 Views)
Paleop
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Paleopterix

DinoBear
Aug 3 2015, 12:00 PM
When the "NO SHRINK-WRAPPING" thing goes too far and we end up with mosasaurs looking like ichthyosaurs. Especially when you apply similar amounts of flesh to skeletons of modern animals and then we get hippos that are so fat they can't lift their bellies off the ground and you wouldn't be able to tell where the animal's head ends and where the body begins.
to be fair, hippos spend time on land (witch requires legs touching the ground)and aren't marine reptiles called mososaurs.

also
DinoBear
 
you wouldn't be able to tell where the animal's head ends and where the body begins.

how is that a problem?
examples
Edited by Paleop, Aug 3 2015, 12:16 PM.
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DinoBear
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Because you can see that real hippos have necks
Spoiler: click to toggle


And yes, some marine reptiles are called mosasaurs, but that is just one group out of many.
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Okeanos
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He wasn't asking 'Aren't marine reptiles called Mosasaurs?', but rather saying 'Hippos aren't marine reptiles called Mosasaurs' ;)
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Serpyderpy
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Ambassador of The Little Guys™

The Beeg One
Jul 25 2015, 12:50 AM
Posted Image
Poor Velocidrome honestly looks starved, and he's not surrounded by his cronies.

Friendly reminder that if you see any more that look similar in style, they'll be the various Bird Wyverns from the Monster Hunter series. I can see why, from an outsider's perspective, however, that it would look like a weird, malformed prehistoric beast. That thing does NOT look healthy by any means.
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BossAggron
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Formerly Dilophoraptor

DinoBear
Aug 3 2015, 12:00 PM
When the "NO SHRINK-WRAPPING" thing goes too far and we end up with mosasaurs looking like ichthyosaurs. Especially when you apply similar amounts of flesh to skeletons of modern animals and then we get hippos that are so fat they can't lift their bellies off the ground and you wouldn't be able to tell where the animal's head ends and where the body begins.
Mosasaurs looking like ichthyosaurs is kinda what happened in life as far as i can recall, We know that they had tail flukes and probably had a dorsal fin, though it might look more like a whale's dorsal fin being very tiny.
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DinoBear
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Mosasaurs are still very elongated animals, not the compact look later ichthyosaurs have. Dorsal fins, as far as I know, are completely unknown in mosasaurs.
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Paleop
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Paleopterix

DinoBear
Aug 3 2015, 12:40 PM
Because you can see that real hippos have necks
Spoiler: click to toggle



I wasn't being specific, I just meant "what's wrong with animals having hidden necks( especially marine life)?"


Okeanos
 
He wasn't asking 'Aren't marine reptiles called Mosasaurs?', but rather saying 'Hippos aren't marine reptiles called Mosasaurs' ;)

indeed :)

DinoBear
 
Mosasaurs are still very elongated animals, not the compact look later ichthyosaurs have. Dorsal fins, as far as I know, are completely unknown in mosasaurs.


true

but a whale like fin would be more likely than a ichthyosaurs' fin
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CyborgIguana
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saurianne
Aug 2 2015, 11:42 PM
As someone who's studying to become a paleontologist I understand, way too well. The amount of times I have to explain to people that a paleontologist and an archeologist are not the same thing, and that I am NOT becoming an archeologist is just... UGH.

I've also been annoyed by: people who claim dinosaurs didn't really exist just to pick on people who like them, people who make up dinosaurs to offend people who like dinosaurs, and people who try to impress girls who are into paleontology by attempting to demonstrate a preschooler's knowledge of T. rex and Triceratops.
Oh God, the second paragraph was my LIFE until just about last year or so. Those kids were probably just jealous of me because I was a teenager capable of pursuing my own independent interests instead of just being a mindless drone who follows the hive-mind of youth culture.

Also, people who think T. rex and Tyrannosaurus were two different animals.
Edited by CyborgIguana, Aug 3 2015, 04:10 PM.
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

DinoBear
Aug 3 2015, 02:40 PM
Mosasaurs are still very elongated animals, not the compact look later ichthyosaurs have. Dorsal fins, as far as I know, are completely unknown in mosasaurs.
Weeell...

Bog Standard Dolphins:
Posted Image
Posted Image

Southern Right Whale Dolphin:
Posted Image
Posted Image

Platecarpus:
Posted Image

Point of this is that dolphins, even the really slim ones without dorsal fins, have A LOT of soft tissue over their skeletons. What that Platecarpus skeleton shows is, not what the fossils actually fully indicated, but a more likely minimalist outline based off the fragments we got and the preserved posture of the spinal column (compared to the old school eel-lizards with the perfectly horizontal spinal columns and rather varanoid integument).
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CyborgIguana
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Isn't the varanoid integument based on the fact that we have mosasaur skin impressions (as well as the fact that they WERE varanoids)?

It's also worth noting that reptiles in general (while not shrink-wrapped) still tend to differ from their skeletons a lot less than mammals do.
Edited by CyborgIguana, Aug 3 2015, 04:26 PM.
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Incinerox
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Their skin was superficially shark like. Not knobbly like normal monitor skin.

I also blame the fleshed out mammal condition on the fact that they rely a lot more on cartilage support (like for external ears and fleshy nostrils, for instance). They also have a lot more muscles that deal with things like facial expression, more mobile but weaker tails, and proportionally smaller ribcages and weaker spines (compare a cat with any similar sized sauropsid to see what I mean).

Mammals are terribly constructed organisms, is what I'm saying.
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CyborgIguana
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Hate to disagree, but these scale impressions (from a Tylosaurus) look more lizard-like than shark-like to me:

Posted Image

EDIT: Unless you're referring to how they're keeled like shark skin.
Edited by CyborgIguana, Aug 3 2015, 05:35 PM.
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Yi Qi
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CyborgIguana
Aug 3 2015, 05:32 PM
EDIT: Unless you're referring to how they're keeled like shark skin.
Not only keeled but rather diminute, to the point that they wouldn't be readily visible from a distance, like in a shark really.
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Incinerox
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Precisely that. The scales of Platecarpus (referring to LACM 128319 for this) are barely millimetres across on a specimen that was about 4.3m/14ft, were keeled, and overlapped slightly too.

And you'll also find that mosasaurs weren't anywhere near as wrinkly as any living monitor lizard.
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Anas Platyrhynchos
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The Quacky Canine

Posted Image

I think the picture says it all
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