I'm just a Paleobiology major trying to share the beauty of the past, praise silt, and all of its wonders yet to be uncovered.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
![Things that Weren’t - Pterodactyl
Okay, so I know somebody’s going to get mad that I’m nit picking, but so what? This is an issue that I need to get off my chest. There is no such thing as a pterodactyl. Usually when somebody says pterodactyl, they are thinking of a pteranodon, any other pterosaur, or, maybe, pterodactylus, which is really close, but it’s not really the same, is it? Anyway, let’s talk about pterosaurs. Pterosaurs were flying reptiles, as you may guess by their name, as it means winged lizard, though ptero has been used in place of fins in some cases. They lived in the late Triassic through the end of the Cretaceous. They were the earliest known vertebrates to evolve powered flight. Their wing was formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and tissues, stretched between an extremely exaggerated fourth finger and somewhere on the torso of the pterosaur. They are often referred to as flying dinosaurs in popular media and by the general public, but are not dinosaurs, as they do not fit into the clade dinosauria. I may have been a bit misleading before that Pterodactyls don’t exist. They do, but it’s an improper name for the genus pterodactylus, and, occasionally, pterodactyloidea, however, it’s like calling an apatosaurus a brontosaurus, it is not correct, and you are a detriment to the scientific literacy if you do it.
Photo:
By Kenn Chaplin from Toronto, Canada (ROM Dinosaurs 019 Uploaded by FunkMonk) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2w3u8TL9j1qhp1q0o1_500.jpg)
Things that Weren’t - Pterodactyl
Okay, so I know somebody’s going to get mad that I’m nit picking, but so what? This is an issue that I need to get off my chest. There is no such thing as a pterodactyl. Usually when somebody says pterodactyl, they are thinking of a pteranodon, any other pterosaur, or, maybe, pterodactylus, which is really close, but it’s not really the same, is it? Anyway, let’s talk about pterosaurs. Pterosaurs were flying reptiles, as you may guess by their name, as it means winged lizard, though ptero has been used in place of fins in some cases. They lived in the late Triassic through the end of the Cretaceous. They were the earliest known vertebrates to evolve powered flight. Their wing was formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and tissues, stretched between an extremely exaggerated fourth finger and somewhere on the torso of the pterosaur. They are often referred to as flying dinosaurs in popular media and by the general public, but are not dinosaurs, as they do not fit into the clade dinosauria. I may have been a bit misleading before that Pterodactyls don’t exist. They do, but it’s an improper name for the genus pterodactylus, and, occasionally, pterodactyloidea, however, it’s like calling an apatosaurus a brontosaurus, it is not correct, and you are a detriment to the scientific literacy if you do it.
Photo:
By Kenn Chaplin from Toronto, Canada (ROM Dinosaurs 019 Uploaded by FunkMonk) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
![Things That Weren’t - The “Dinosauroid”
So I was thinking of doing something on Troodon (Which I will, its probably one of my favorite dinosaurs) and I found this. Sure I knew about it beforehand, but I just want to share it with you guys now, and also start a new series, because I’m running out of living fossils that I find particularly interesting. Any-who, welcome to things that never existed! Here we will discuss misconceptions, misnomers, and weird things scientists think of sometimes. Today, we’ll be talking about the “Dinosauroid.” This creature, as it were, was a hypothesized path for the evolution of Troodon, had it not died out in the K/T extinction event. It was proposed by the curator of the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa, Dale Russel, in 1982. It was largely rejected because of its anthropomorphism. Russel based his speculation on the EQ values of Troodontids, though they were low, they were 6 times those of other dinosaurs at the time, and, given time, they could have developed brain cases rivaling our own in size (roughly 1100 cubic centimeters.) Russel proposed that Dinosauroids would have large eyes, with binocular vision (a trait troodontids have,) 3 slightly opposed fingers (another.) He proposed it would have a toothless beak, and, like most modern reptiles and birds, internal genitalia. He speculated that they would be placental, as the placenta is seen in correlation with larger brain cases, but would lack mammary glands, and would feed its young much like a bird does. It was also speculated that it would communicate in a fashion of birdsong.
Image:
By Jim from London [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m18grifYtK1qhp1q0o1_500.jpg)
Things That Weren’t - The “Dinosauroid”
So I was thinking of doing something on Troodon (Which I will, its probably one of my favorite dinosaurs) and I found this. Sure I knew about it beforehand, but I just want to share it with you guys now, and also start a new series, because I’m running out of living fossils that I find particularly interesting. Any-who, welcome to things that never existed! Here we will discuss misconceptions, misnomers, and weird things scientists think of sometimes. Today, we’ll be talking about the “Dinosauroid.” This creature, as it were, was a hypothesized path for the evolution of Troodon, had it not died out in the K/T extinction event. It was proposed by the curator of the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa, Dale Russel, in 1982. It was largely rejected because of its anthropomorphism. Russel based his speculation on the EQ values of Troodontids, though they were low, they were 6 times those of other dinosaurs at the time, and, given time, they could have developed brain cases rivaling our own in size (roughly 1100 cubic centimeters.) Russel proposed that Dinosauroids would have large eyes, with binocular vision (a trait troodontids have,) 3 slightly opposed fingers (another.) He proposed it would have a toothless beak, and, like most modern reptiles and birds, internal genitalia. He speculated that they would be placental, as the placenta is seen in correlation with larger brain cases, but would lack mammary glands, and would feed its young much like a bird does. It was also speculated that it would communicate in a fashion of birdsong.
Image:
By Jim from London [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
