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Questions: BBC’s Prehistoric Planet, Episode 2
Sightreader posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Hello everyone! I’m relatively new to the world of dinosaurs and was watching BBC’s “Prehistoric Planet”. As David Attenborough states before every episode, “we now know SO MUCH about the world of dinosaurs… this is their story”. The confidence of that statement - combined with Attenborough’s formidable reputation amongst laymen - makes me hopeful that the show doesn’t contain complete speculation without disclaimers. However, they show a lot of stuff that I’ve never seen in my limited reading. Does anyone know what sorts of evidence might they have for this these behaviors? Episode 2 - “Deserts” - begins with a massive group of male Dreadnoughtus - portrayed walking with necks relatively erect, like brachiosaurs - wandering far from their forests, plodding through the desolate South American desert to where a large group of females awaits them - in the middle of nowhere - to breed. Rows of what the show itself acknowledges to be “bizarre” balloon-like “gular air sacs” inflate up and down along the length of those immense necks, each allegedly connected to a series of “bellows” inside their neck bones. Battles for mating competition amongst males seems to be based on (what looks to me) like walrus behavior, with the massive creatures rearing up on their hind legs, falling forward until they slam into each other, followed by their relatively vertical necks slapping into each other as heads bite at each other’s necks. In the meantime, grappling forelimb spikes stab at each other’s torsos. What sort of evidence would be required to ascertain such behavior? Are there fossil finds of mass mating gatherings of Dreadnoughtus in South American deserts? I know that titanosaur vertebrae were extensively pneumaticized, but what’s the evidence that it was as a “bellows” system for inflating gular air sacs along the neck? If these sacs are self-described as “bizarre”, then wouldn’t the “extraordinary claims, extraordinary evidence” standard have to be applied in regards to their portrayal? As for the body-slamming, is there osteological evidence of inter-species impacts and injuries of the sort portrayed here? In the next segment, what looks to me to be a spectacularly GORGEOUS rendering of a Mononykus darts about through the desert to come to dead branch where it uses its specialized hearing adaptations to detect the sound of termites within. Specialized claws punch through the dead wood and a tongue - “twice the length of its head” - darts into the branch’s interior to grab up termites. Can we identify the length of tongues from the structure of the skull and neck? Anyway, the fidgety little creature absolutely suspends all disbelief in its rendering - especially when its feathers get soaked in a rare desert downpour - until it zips around a corner without banking at all. Not as severe as the sharp turns seen by the “compys” of Jurassic Park II, nevertheless, I find myself wondering whether such a small, agile theropod might have to LEAN INTO their turns as opposed to taking them utterly upright? A tantalizing glimpse of a flock enantiornithines appears in the foreground, completely blurred in front of our Mononykus stalking from the background. Our hero’s attempt to catch one completely fails - along with any hope of a closer look at a rendering of an “anti-bird”. What, specifically, was backwards about these birds? I never fully figured that out. There’s a brief segment of a desert watering hole in which an enormous variety of dinosaurs are gathered shoulder-to-shoulder, reaching over and under each other to take a sip. Even the arrival of a Tarbosaurus doesn’t break up the gathering; the Tarbosaurus is shown having to scoop water into its lower jaw to drink. Is there evidence of such mass gatherings of all sorts of species in the same watering hole? There must, I assume, be evidence that Tarbosaurs didn’t have a tongue or any other alternate, more efficient means of drinking. Barbaridactylus are shown congregating in isolated desert cliff plateaus, landing on their hind legs and competing for females. Have massive congregations of these creatures on desert plateaus been found? One male is shown chasing a competing male and “shooting it down” by nipping and tearing at its legs and wings until it falls from the sky and crashes in a heap. Have such injuries been established? They also make the assertion that females seek the maximum number of sexual partners in order to breed the fittest young. Are there statistics of this sort to back this up? Wouldn’t such a lack of selectivity would be a disadvantage? The final segment takes place in the gypsum dunes of South America. The hadrosaur Secernosaurus is shown with round pupils. I found this curious; I would assume these dinosaurs would have open range, herbivore lifestyle that would lead to the sort of horizontal pupils you see in cows, horses and lambs. I suppose this could be tested: these sorts of eyes require muscles that allow the eyes to rotate so when the animal tilts its head for feeding, it can keep the horizontal slits aligned with the horizon. Perhaps such muscles would result in attachment sites on skulls? Anyway, the Secernosaurs, like most of the dinosaurs in the series, have inner eyelids that blink at right angles to their outer eyelids. Wikipedia says it appears to be likely - but not yet a sure thing - that Secernosaurus lived in these vicious deserts, and along with that the show asserts their ability to migrate using stars for navigation. They also talk about their ability to hear ultra-low frequency sounds: clearly the skulls of hadrosaurs display all sorts of mysterious adaptations; would such hearing manifest itself osteologically? Finally, they show Secernosaurus licking their own skin for evaporated moisture as they move from arid air to the moister air of the coast. Thanks for any feedback you have on the questions I’ve posed here! Clearly I have a lot to learn… -
Today was the first day of the Syracuse Gem & Mineral Show. I work at the show the entire day and it was a blast. Unfortunately for fossil lovers this years show did not have a good fossil turnout. While there were some nice fossils to be had, we lost a major fossil dealer, who in my opinion carried the largest variety of goods. I did not get any pictures of the show today as I was very busy, but will make a point of doing so tomorrow as I will be there all day for day #2. I did want to show what I purchased. I always tell myself not to by anything but it gets very hard to resist. So I managed 3 nice trilobites. The last one did not have much information, only that it was from Morocco.
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Today I stopped at the 2021 Chicagoland Gem and Mineral Show that is being held today and tomorrow at the Kane County Fairgrounds. This is the first show that I have been able to attend in about 18 months. The show was not as big as it normally is, but it was pretty close. At the beginning there were not a lot of attendees, but with in 1 hour, the place was packed. Here are a couple random pics of the show. The line to get in- The crowd- Some pics of the various fossils that were for sale. I did not take the amount of pictures that I normally would have because it is a lot of work to block out prices, as the admins request. I did buy 2 flats of fossils for $40 each, this first flat contained various items and I got it because I liked the first item pictured below. I will include the id that came with each piece. Cassie fimbriata Middle Eocene Roe Plains, Madura Western Australia Giant Tortoise Shell Geochelone sp. Withlacoochee Formation Florida Exogyra ponderosa Taylor Formation Cretaceous Ladonia, Texas Lyticoceras Lower Albian Lower Cretaceous Huanzala, Peru Leptosolen Cretaceous McNairy Co., Tennessee Conus spurus Pliocene Desoto, Florida Knightia Green River Formation Wyoming Unknown Gastropods Unknown Location Amethyst The next flat contained something that I really like fossil echinoids from Texas. This flat contained 232 pieces which came out to about 17 cents a piece. It looks like there are two different species, I have to figure out what they are. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If I am bored tomorrow, I might take a drive out to check it out again.
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I'll be moving in a few months or so . I was informed there are some rock shows where i'll be moving too, so i might check those out. However my question is how can i know what i'm getting is real? Even if a vendor says they are real but i know it's not always the case. What can i look out for? Besides the obvious perfect placement of some fossils?
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This past weekend the 3rd and 4th the 49th annual Geo Fair was held here in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show is sponsored by the Cincinnati Dry Dredgers and the Cincinnati Mineral Society. We hear about the larger shows, so just wanted to inform the Forum about a great small venue right here in the heart of it all Ohio.