Re: Dino-bird..duck with long tail?

[Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette <dinosaur@dinosaur.org>]

Well, ummm....

We can take nasty insults with the best of them.  The following is meant in 
good natured humor in case you miss the little grinning, winking "emoticons" 
that would tell you that we are trying to be humorous and funny.

a) If you look at Mick Ellison's "reconstruction" of what the birdie might have 
looked like, you may notice (unless of course your glasses are dirty, that it 
has a sort of "ducklike beak."  It's at the top of this page. 
http://www.dinosaur.org/news/news01-04-25bird.html
and also all over almost every newspaper in the world.  We were thinking of 
publishing a picture of Daffy right next to him. And, hmmm, now that it has 
become an issue, maybe we will.

b) The qualifier "a bit like" in English means.... that it is NOT an exact 
analogy, but rather one to convey an impression. By the way, the EXACT quote is 
"The "dino-bird" looks a little bit like a large duck with a long tail."   
"little bit" is even more tentative, isn't it?

c) Our magazine is for the general public. How many 8 year olds in Arkansas 
have heard of Anatidae and are out there with their tape measures checking the 
relationship of the pelvis and hindlegs? We have this notion that anything that 
helps "laymen" (is that anything like calling non-scientists
"Mongo?") is a good idea given the incredible growth of anti-science and 
superstition in the world. There are LOTS of really good magazines for the 
science minded. We don't try to compete. Rather we try to intrigue people to 
look more deeply.

d) We're sorry if we've offended anyone's highflown, elitist notions of 
science. God help us! We have this dumb idea that getting people who hate 
science interested in it is a good thing.  Given that we have readers now in 
158 countries we do often stoop to the lowest common denominator. Mea Culpa.

e) Dinosaur is spelled D I N O S A U R not Dinosur.

f) The name of the magazine is Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette not Dinosur 
Gazette

g) Oh... sorry, forgot to mention it, but the description "a bit like a duck 
with a long tail" came DIRECTLY from the American Museum of Natural History and 
a conversation with the artist who drew the picture. The exact quote from the 
AMNH press release is "Entombed in two slabs of fine-grained
rock, the dinosaur's skeleton resembles that of a large duck with a long tail 
and an oversized head (indicating that the animal was a juvenile)."  We thought 
we were being even more tentative than they were.  Would you like us to convey 
your complaint to them as well?

We'd welcome a fine description of the technical differences between "Anatidae" 
and "Dromeosauridae" if Mr. Omtvedt or anyone else would like to write one. 
Provided it is clear and accessible to the average reader of English age 10 or 
older, we'd be glad and pleased to publish it. That would be both
informative and educational and would fulfill our goals of getting 
non-scientists to look at things that they normally wouldn't give a second 
glance to.

ES


Erik Omtvedt wrote:

> "...looks a bit like a duck with a long tail..."
>                 -from The Dinosur Gazette news website
>
> What the? Where in the world did they get that formulation? The position of 
> the pelvis and length of hindlegs doesn't even come close to anything of 
> Anatidae! Whatever. Resembles a compsognathus if anything. Don't you just 
> love it when science is translated into poorly depicted layman analogies?
>
> ........................................................
> iWon.com       http://www.iwon.com     why wouldn't you?
> ........................................................

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