Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]






Shoot a firework rocket ~ Winners!
Make a forum zoo!

Welcome to The Round Table. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
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 (256,414 Views)
Deleted User
Deleted User

Not being able to fully enjoy certain museums because the dinosaur exhibits show reconstructions sans feathers on species that certainly had them. I mean... at least put up a sign or a display... "Recent research indicates that...." It just takes me out of the experience, I guess. I just went to the Museum of Natural History in NYC and while their dino exhibits were pretty nice, most of the "reconstructions" were leathery, scaly bald monstrosities. I get that they can't dump money into one section to revamp everything, but would a sign noting the updates have killed 'em?

I just think of all the kids passing through those exhibits and having a certain image of what dinosaurs looked like stamped in their heads. Obviously that image can be changed, but why set them up for cognitive dissonance when a simple note or display could have planted the idea?
Quote Post Goto Top
 
CyborgIguana
Member Avatar


The dinosaur exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History was constructed long before it was known that dinosaurs had feathers, but I agree that they could at least have renovated the exhibit to be more accurate. They were able to do that with the Royal Ontario Museum (my closest museum to have a decent dinosaur exhibit), though even it still has a few errors: such as the sign for the Quetzalcoatlus display claiming it was a scavenger. But overall the exhibit is pretty up-to-date compared to the one at the AMNH (though to be fair, that one is still a great exhibit too even if outdated).

EDIT: Also, the fact that I often get legitimately offended by people who don't like dinosaurs, even though I know it's silly. Guess it comes with having aspergers.
Edited by CyborgIguana, Jan 29 2014, 03:09 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
extremos
Member Avatar
Where's Mr Pig?

CyborgIguana
Jan 15 2014, 07:30 AM
While not exactly an annoyance, I always feel sorry for the Allosaurus specimen nicknamed Big Al when I see a picture of him online or in a book. While he may not have lived or died exactly the way he was shown to in WWD, his skeleton shows that he very clearly had a rough life. At least now he rests in peace at the University of Wyoming.
Surely a better end than poor Ebenezer, who will be forever doomed to live up wqith the disgrace that his Fossil will be exhibited in the Creationist museum...
Anyways, that "Paleontology speaks" pic, I mean it's so inaccurate! It's really like if parents would speak like that to their children! Instead of saying "When did you start making these Temnospondyl Cladistics?" they'd surely say "Why the hell are you drawing these weird frogs in these weird colored lines! Are you drawing rainbows? You are not gay! Go watch some movies with your friends and date some girls man! Be normal you fucking retarded kid, you're fucking 16!"
Ugh...
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
CyborgIguana
Member Avatar


It's obviously meant to be a joke. Of course no parent treats paleontology like some sort of drug (or so I'd like to think at least), that's the point. ;)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
extremos
Member Avatar
Where's Mr Pig?

CyborgIguana
Jan 30 2014, 01:07 PM
It's obviously meant to be a joke. Of course no parent treats paleontology like some sort of drug (or so I'd like to think at least), that's the point. ;)
I think you didn't see my point, I'm sorry if my post seemed like I was saying I thought it was inaccurate, I actually think it s very funny and not inaccurate at all. My point wa sto say that, in case someone's parents found out Temnospondyl Cladistics and reacted negatively they would probably say something like that rather than "Since when did you start making Temnospondyl cladistics?" since most people don't know what "Temnospondyl" means and would probably think they were giant frogs on a rainbow (When I say rainbow I am refering to the fact that some cladistic charts use different colors for different groups)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
CyborgIguana
Member Avatar


Oh, sorry. Guess I misunderstood your point, but now that you've clarified I agree with you. Perhaps it's in some parallel dimension where knowledge of paleontology is more widespread. :P
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hananas59
Member Avatar
Evolving creatures from earth.

That we don't know on which places some extinct animals had lose skin which is quite neccesari to draw a realistic picture of an animal ;)
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
CyborgIguana
Member Avatar


To quote Mark Witton: "In the absence of proper data, speculate wildly".
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
hananas59
Member Avatar
Evolving creatures from earth.

Yeah I love that quote but then its more like speculative evolution (Which is really fun) but thats just something I think. You may think it's stupid but I think its more like you draw spare skin on a giraffe which isn't like it in any way ...

But yeah speculating things is really fun and I really like it
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
DinoBear
Member Avatar


The whole T. rex/T-rex/Trex/T-Rex thing annoys me way more than it should.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
CyborgIguana
Member Avatar


Agreed, it's not like anyone says C-Lupus, so why T-Rex?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Similis
Member Avatar


Because some H-sapiens are too wilfully ignorant to learn.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Jannick
Member Avatar
Papua merdeka!

Or maybe because vernacular names are not the same as scientific names even if they may be based on them (Mastodon for instance is invalid as a genus name but is still used to refer to the genus Mammut).
Edited by Jannick, Feb 1 2014, 07:50 AM.
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Similis
Member Avatar


Jannick
Feb 1 2014, 07:49 AM
Or maybe because vernacular names are not the same as scientific names even if they may be based on them (Mastodon for instance is invalid as a genus name but is still used to refer to the genus Mammut).
Mastodon has simply become a junior synonym to Mammut, therefore running out of use in scientific naming. In case of "T-rex", T-Rex", "Trex" we deal with wrong notation of the commonly accepted scientific name of the animal, and people swallow it and repeat, allowing the confusion to spread. I'd not be bothered much if the animal was called "Tyrannosaur", because it'd be remotely proper. Endorsing mispronounciations and mistake notations only furthers the decomposition of the actual name of the animal, furthering the notion of Tyrannosaurus rex from fossil record being known as T-rex from various movie and game franchises that didn't bother to look up how to write down a shortened scientific name of an animal.
Edited by Similis, Feb 1 2014, 08:03 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Chase
Member Avatar


I think the main problem lies in the fact that people don't get that it an abbreviation of the scientific name. For most it's a nickname, and we don't usually have a period in the middle of a name where as a hyphen is much more common.

Plus, T-rex T-shirt same difference right?
Edited by Chase, Feb 1 2014, 11:14 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
4 users reading this topic (4 Guests and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Free Forums. Reliable service with over 8 years of experience.
Learn More · Register for Free
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Extinct Animals & Evolution · Next Topic »
Add Reply