careless editing

[Scott <hmwh@together.net>]

Reading *Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs* just sent to me by my daughter.
(Publications International Ltd, copyright 2002.) Got no further than page 7
when I found this: "...scientists have been trying to complete the picture
of dinosaurs and their lives. All we have left of these amazing creatures
are their fossil bones."

Well, even the compilers of this encyclopedia know that's not true because
on page 9 they talk about trackways. And that's the next inaccuracy, I
think. The writer [one of the writers?] says, "Dinosaur trackways, or
fossilized footprints, are more common than dinosaur bones..."

This seems a dubious assertion to me. Is there any basis for it in fact?

Public ignorance reaches beyond the public, into a supposed educated laity,
eh? But Nick on this list recently asserted:
remember that to a depressingly large section of the public,
> mammoths and saber-toothed cats are dinosaurs, too--and those assuredly
> did live alongside early humans.

This much ignorance I find difficult to credit. If I showed a picture of a
saber-toothed cat to 100 people, asking, "What's this?" I would expect zero
responses of "It's a dinosaur." Has anyone any data?
Scott Perry
High Mountain Writers' House