RE: Last dinosaurs of Transylvania + myth of dinosaurs on Venus + more

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

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] On Behalf Of Ben 
> Creisler
> Sent: Friday, April 03, 2015 2:38 PM
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Last dinosaurs of Transylvania + myth of dinosaurs on Venus + more
> 
> Myth of dinosaurs on Venus (in Czech)
> 
> https://dinosaurusblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/dinosauri-na-venusi/
> 
> 
> Also, this older blog (2013)  in English:
> 
> http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/05/venutian-dinosaurs.html
> 
> And of course, don't forget the movie "Voyage to the Planet of the 
> Prehistoric Women"--cobbled together from the Soviet science
> fiction film "Planet of Storms" with prehistoric reptiles living on Venus:
> 
> Planet of Storms
> 
> http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/planeta-bur-planet-of-storms/
> 
> Voyage to the Planet of the Prehistoric Women
> 
> http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/voyage_to_the_planet_of_prehistoric_women_1968/
> 

Oddly, there was a modicum of scientific theory behind the idea of "Venus as a 
swampy planet" concept, and a bit more sophisticated than Sagan's famous: 
"Observation: Venus is covered with clouds; conclusion: dinosaurs" quip (funny 
and good for science communication as it was).

Some early 20th Century central European geoscientists like Grabau and Nopcsa 
were integrating a theory of Earth History environmental change into 
observation of the other worlds in the Solar System. The speculated that 
planets oscillated between wetter (hence cloudy) phases and drier (and redder) 
conditions. In their model Earth of the Carboniferous (with its coal measures) 
was in a wet, cloudy phase; Earth in the Triassic (with its redbeds) was in a 
dry one; and contemporary Earth is in between. And similarly, cloudy Venus is 
reflecting the wet phase, red Mars the dry one, and Earth in between 
(literally, in this case).

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA