Dinosaur George can bite me!
Okay, I know all I am doing is fueling the perpetuation of this kind of crap on TV.
That said, I was bored, and one of the few cool things about The History Channel is that it allows folks to watch their shows online.
The latest one was called: Bloodiest Battle; the story of the Cleveland Lloyd Quarry.
Well, the JFC version of what happens.
Anyway, there were, as usual, a host of annoying offenses in the show. Besides the ever annoying “loud dinosaurs” (i.e. all the dinosaurs couldn’t stop roaring), there was also the requisite rampant speculation on the social life of Allosaurus, the ecological relationship between Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus, and various anatomical flubs that continue to send out the message that The History Channel only hires the “talking heads” so they can appear scientifically legitimate.
Anyway, the only reason I am bringing this one up is because the most egregious error in the entire program (in my mind, at least) was the absolute statement from “Dinosaur George” Blasing that “all the evidence points to these animals being warm-blooded.”
That is bull-shit with a capital B.
Er…Bull-Shit.
There is no, I reiterate NO consensus on the thermophysiology of dinosaurs. That is true for all dinosaurs. All the evidence used so far has been ambiguous at best.
Furthermore, a “cold-blooded” Allosaurus is going to have the same overheating problem as a “warm-blooded” Allosaurus.
The problem has nothing to do with thermophysiology. It has to do with big animals over-exerting themselves in a hot environment. Dinosaurs were reptiles, and like all reptiles, they had a very limited means of removing heat. No sweat glands, and no real bare skin.
One thing that Allosaurus and other saurischian dinosaurs may have used to keep cool is their air sac system. Air sacs in birds do not lead to their high aerobic capacity. That is accomplished through the flow through system that the air sacs created, where oxygen is sent only one way (vs. the dead end bellows way that mammals and reptiles use). The perfusion of extra air sacs all over the body does nothing to add to endurance in birds. What it does do, though, is lighten the body and provide a spot for heat to dump from deep in the body. It is honestly quite likely that this is was the main impetus for air sac evolution in dinosaurs, and its consequent exploitation by their avian descendants.
This explanation would certainly have been a more scientific answer to how Allosaurus kept cool instead of pulling that antorbital fenestra radiator idea out of wherever “Dinosaur George” found it.
I don’t like absolutism in science programs anyway, but this type of absolutism is what lead to the general public thinking, erroneously, that scientists have discovered dinosaurs to have been warm-blooded. All this winds up doing is creating a false concept of dinosaurs that winds up getting shot down when new students enter the field and find that dinosaurs weren’t the super hot-blooded beasts they thought they were.
Plus, it’s just annoying when some fanboy says that being “warm-blooded” is one of the fundamental differences between dinosaurs and other reptiles.
Okay, I’m done venting.
Next episode involves some mythical beast called a “megalodon” (they must mean Carcharocles/Carcharodon megalodon). I hear that, at 15 meters (50ft) in length, it was the size of a jumbo jet and had to eat a tonne of meat a day to keep going.
Yeah, definitely sounds like something worth missing!
Still outgassing
~Jura
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Man, you sound like a typical nerd. It’s a TV show dude…don’t you get it? I guess your comment about “Dinosaur George can Bite Me” is the typical scientific response to people you dissagree with? Let’s see, this guy has his own tv show with several million viewers, and you have this……….blog.
Wow, your parents must be proud of you.
What a fucking worthless turd. No wonder you are a loner. Who wcould stand being around you!
Comment by David Ryes — 29 August, 2008 @ 6:17
Heh, you are seriously overestimating the amount of people who watch The History Channel. If this was just a show I would have no problem letting things slide. The problem is that this is a show that is masquerading around as an educational piece. As such, it gets held to a higher standard than an episode of Sliders, or King Kong.
Comment by Jura — 29 August, 2008 @ 12:09
Wow, what a worthless piece of crap you are. If you start making lots of money dedicating your life to something more worth while, then maybe that might make you feel better about yourself. I don’t see a “doctor” next to your name, so who the FUCK are you to discount what George Blasing is saying? Find something better to do with your time.
Comment by AndriaaaAAndria — 13 September, 2008 @ 14:58
Funny, I don’t see a Dr. by George Blasing’s name either. Maybe you should look up just how much formal training Mr. Blasing really has.
Comment by Jura — 13 September, 2008 @ 15:18
If their is no doctor next to your name, then you have no right attacking someone who does not have Doctor next to their name. I HAVE done a tremendous amount of research since the show started and he seems to be right on the mark. Just how much FORMAL training do you have? Just because he has no degree, you can not discount everything he is saying. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, he however bases his on FACT. You seem to be nothing more than a faceless asshole who likes making other peoples like hell. like the first guy that wrote, your parents must be proud of this website you have. It seems you have nothing more.
Comment by Andria — 14 September, 2008 @ 8:26
We just watched a few episodes of “Jurassic Fight Club” last night and both had the strangest feeling that “Dinosaur George” was a quack. Neither of us are in the biology field, no less paleontology, but too many of his claims just sounded so imaginative and/or made-up. When we saw his description as “paleontology expert” (rather than “paleontologist”), we headed to the internet.
Thanks for posting your observations. I wouldn’t worry about those earlier comments, either. They sound like they’re all from the same person.
Comment by Anonymous — 6 January, 2010 @ 21:45
…Man, you are a bitter son of a bitch…It is a tv show, like “Walking with Dinosaurs” was a tv show…one with a considerable amount of errors in it also. What Blasing’s credentials are is of no matter, information is information. Do you think that sitting in a classroom, paying ungodly amounts of money for a piece of paper and a title all of a sudden makes someone better? Anyone can learn the information needed to study and discuss and form ideas, NOT everyone has the opportunity to attend Yale or Harvard or John’s Hopkin’s or any other grad school for that matter. You are a very ignorant, closed minded individual. How someone learns something does not matter, what matters is that they do learn it. Being a doctor makes no difference in most sciences, access to information and specimens does. It is a person’s willingness to learn and understand that makes the difference. Peter Larson isn’t a PhD either, but is considered an authority, because he studies and collects and communicates…He doesn’t sit around, bitter and trying to pick on other people for their POSITIVE efforts. Whether or not the person that tells me that Allosaurus was an endotherm has a doctorate or not does not matter…NOONE can prove it was or wasn’t…ANYONE can look at the evidence, read about the differences between warm and cold blooded and figure it out as best as possible with the evidence available…and dude, the overt usages of BIG words or alternate names that the lay person isn’t aware of or doesn’t understand(white pointer? seriously, just fucking call it a Great White)in your blog and you profile information doesn’t make you sound smart, it makes you sound pretentious…
Comment by Eric Warren — 6 January, 2010 @ 22:05
@Anonymous: I guess Discovery is re-running episodes of JFC again. I’m glad the main message of these blog posts has gotten out there. Mainly that paleontologists are getting sick of having their field misrepresented on television. The internet gives us a chance to set the record straight. Thanks for the reply.
Comment by Jura — 7 January, 2010 @ 11:26
Anon from earlier again, Jura. We actually streamed the videos online.
Also, have you checked the IP addresses of these angry commenters? I can’t help but wonder if it’d turn up something interesting.
Comment by Anonymous — 9 January, 2010 @ 10:25
I looked into this before. The IPs are all different. I doubt there is any real spoofing going on. It just that (for better, or for worse) Dinosaur George has a popular following.
Comment by Jura — 11 January, 2010 @ 20:01
“Dinosaur” George is nothing but a blowhard. I have seen all of the episodes and wondered where they got this guy so I looked him up and he is “self-taught”. Meaning has no education in these fields and he certainly is no scientist. He is a self promoter. They show would have been a lot more enjoyable without him constantly telling us things that have never been proven. Having said that, I did enjoy the show. It is great entertainment. But it is not “education”. Go to school “Dinosaur” George…….
Comment by Send George Home... — 13 February, 2010 @ 10:35