RE: So I was watching Jurassic Park III last night... (SPOILER ALERT!)

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Robert G. Tuck Jr.
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> >One of the
> > best things the JP series had going for it was at least the attempt to
> base
> > its dinosaurs on paleontology rather than simply the imaginations of the
> > animators (as in older dino-flicks).  I hope they don't do too much more
> of
> > this in possible future iterations.
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> Point taken. However, I personally find it a bit too convenient that every
> mosquito-borne bit of genetic material just happened to have come from a
> specimen of a *known* taxon.

Fair enough.  (In fact, it would be great if they found a site of (for
example) Santonian amber from New Jersey, so that ALL the genera and species
are unknown from bones, even though they might all be relatively close
anatomically to other known Laurasian groups).

> > _Thaumatoraptor  nublarensis_
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> !?!

"Wonder raptor of Isla Nublar": my pet name (since the first movie) for the
Jurassic Park raptors.  They clearly AREN'T _Velociraptor_, and they do not
seem to match any other named dromaeosaur, and they express some really
complex (and occasionally suicidal (as in the end of JPI)) behavior, so I
figured they were a new taxon.

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> > *And of course the dangers of trying to get some serious measurements of
> > thermoregulation...
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> With Gary Larson lugging a giant thermometer, of course.

But of course.  Getting the masks over their faces to measure respiration
might be a bit tricky, too...

                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