Re: Jurassic Park 4 - new dinosaur, no feathers ,please!

[Ronald Orenstein <ron.orenstein@rogers.com>]

An episode of the British series "Primeval" involved some quite scary 
terror-birds, feathers and all.
 
Ronald Orenstein
1825 Shady Creek Court
Mississauga, ON L5L 3W2
Canada
ronorenstein.blogspot.com


________________________________
 From: Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu 
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 9:11:03 AM
Subject: Re: Jurassic Park 4 - new dinosaur, no feathers ,please!
 
On Wed, Apr 10th, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Paul P <turtlecroc@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Komodo dragons are scary. Parrots are not. Crocs are scary. 
> Ostriches are fluffy (even if they can kick hard). Heck, even 
> a big salamander is kinda scary. Turkeys, while surprisingly 
> colorful, well, you get the idea. 

You clearly haven't met some of the parrots, roosters, ganders, etc that I 
have. Parrots such as 
macaws or cockatoos can remove a finger at the joint with relative ease, and 
what male fowl may 
lack in damage-causing equipment they more than make up for with sheer 
aggression and 
persistence.

And as for ratites not being very scary - try having a argument with a lone 
cassowary. A group of 
cassowary-like dromaeosaurs cooperating to bring you down would be an absolute 
nightmare, and 
that's before factoring in the additional clawed forelimbs and teeth.

Feathered dromosaurs would also be scarier due to the 'uncanny valley' effect. 
They'd be bird-like 
enough to seem almost familiar, but with just enough differences to be 
unsettling.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia              http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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