PROJECTILE URINATION?

[Tetanurae@aol.com]

Or... what bothered me about Walking With Dinosaurs..

Let me start off by saying that I really did enjoy Walking With Dinosaurs, 
and it is by far one of the best specials ever made about dinosaurs.  There 
were a few things that really did anoy me.  Not the least of which was the:

Projectile urination in Postosuchus.  Ok, lets believe for a moment that 
somehow Postosuchus developed some sort of mammalian urination method etc, 
but come on... it shot the pee about 4 m away... since when did archosaurs 
come equiped with supersoakers in their butts?

Muttaburrasaurus is not an iguanodontid.  But apparently it looked just like 
one.  Additionally, there are some 'carnosaurs' running around Australia, 
even though the "Allosaurus" astragulus has been shown to be probably 
coelurosaurian.

There was no parental care shown except in Tyrannosaurus, yet the interviews 
with paleontologists repeated again and again that since crocodiles and birds 
cared for their young it can be expected that ALL dinosaurs did too.  Even if 
that's not the case, the interviews contradict the CGI...  In my opinion the 
show could have used more demonstrations of it.

And my number one nit to pick, is that not a darned one of those dinosaurs 
had any speck of feathers.  I understand scientific conservitivism and trying 
to be accurate, but all of those coelurosaurs should have had feathers on 
them, or at least some dinofuzz.  Actually, the show was quite liberal with 
its interpretation of behaviors, such as the sentries and viscious rival 
gangs of Laealynnosaura portrayed as TRUTH, one wonders why none of the 
dinosaurs were given feathers even though feathering dinosaurs was considered 
quite a viable theory when the show was in its infancy.

In other news, the US treasury announced that it is designing a completely 
new series of banknote to be released in 2003 that will abandon the 
traditional black on front, green on back pattern that has been on US cash 
since the 1800's.  Instead the notes will be colored.

Pete Buchholz
Tetanurae@aol.com