Walkin' with Dinos

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

Got a chance to see the website: ugh!

As noted, plenty of typos and just plain wrong stuff (_Postosuchus_ is an
eosuchian?  News to Mike Benton...).

The consultants did all we could to keep things as close to accurate (c.
late 1997) as possible: however, we did not have final say on the models nor
on the script: there was stuff in the former I would definitely change if I
had the chance.  The consultants were some of the top guys in their fields:
not only dinosaur paleontology, but also marine reptile workers, pterosaurs,
Triassic amniotes, and paleobotany (if you remember that this is a BBC
production, you may be able to figure out who the marine reptile, pterosaur,
and Triassic amniote guys were...)  I don't know who they had to write the
website, but it clearly didn't get check out by a paleontologist (or a text
editor, as some of you noted).

Also, don't expect comments like "this was the biggest theropod ever found"
to be central to the show.  This isn't about dinosaur discoveries and
bearded guys digging in the badlands.

P.S. As for the _T. rex_: it might look "sluggish", but it is definitely
portrayed as active.  However, one item I encourage the animators to do:
remember that this is a 5000 kg animal - it is got to look like there is a
sense of mass to it as it moves.  (Part of the problem with older computer
graphics is that there is no sense of gravity acting upon the objects).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796