This is so me

So this morning my physical therapist [who is 6'4"] and I were talking about height differences in setting up the table I'm using [I've apparently lost a bit of height, as last time I was measured, by my orthopaedist, I was 5'3", so it's a significant difference), as well as my difficulty feeling the movements of my lower shoulder blades when trying to do my exercises. This led to a discussion of my short arms and he mentioned Tyrannosaurus arms [which a friend also teases me about]. He asked me if I'd ever seen 'Meet the Robinsons' (which I haven't) and showed me this clip, which I found hilarious, although I should probably be a bit offended. I love the dinosaur waving around his tiny arms.

I saw this on Facebook the other day

and kept my mouth shut. But it's caused a furor, because, well, a lot of folks don't realise the difference between movie creatures and real ones, a lot don't understand the idea of dinosaurs being extinct, and many others don't get satire. Which is all very amusing.

Steven Spielberg is accused of poaching dinosaur after Facebook users are fooled by 'Jurassic Park' photo: A photo showing the director posing with a mechanical triceratops on the set of ‘Jurassic Park’ went viral after people denounced him for killing the creature.

Here is the post, for those who haven't seen it:

Now, I must confess something. I only glanced at the photo in my newsfeed, barely. I would apparently do well in the mythical town of Arkham, Massachusetts, where ghouls are rats and nightgaunts are bats, because my brain processed it as a rhino at first. However, because I have a nearly intrinsic distrust of anything I see on the Internet, I assumed it was fake, didn't share, didn't comment, and basically let it go. It was only later when I looked again, that I realised, gee, that's a triceratops, and the comments are stupid. But I was at fault, too, as I should have taken in the whole thing and not just skimmed it. But at least I did have the good sense to keep quiet, so no one realised I was being stupid. (Until now.)

Bolstering the meteorite extinction theory

Triceratops Was Last Dinosaur Standing: The 65 million-year-old find suggests a meteor may have wiped out the dinosaurs in a sudden catastrophic event

The Triceratops, described in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters, dates to 65 million years ago, the critical period of time associated with the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction event that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and many other animals and plants.

Since this rhinoceros-looking, three-horned dinosaur lived so close to the mass extinction moment, it could negate an earlier theory that dinosaurs gradually died out before 65 million years ago.

"Our paper suggests that dinosaurs did not go extinct prior to the impact," lead author Tyler Lyson told Discovery News. "The fact that this dinosaur is so close to the K-T boundary lends support to the idea that they went extinct as a result of a meteorite impact."

Drat

I totally forgot the dinosaur lecture was tonight. And I even got off early enough to go. Oh, well. Maybe I'll read the book. I wonder if the library has it?

Quick check...

Yes, and now I have a hold for when it comes back from being checked out. Yay!

I really love this quote I came across today

From How to Build a Chickenosaurus: Extinction doesn't have to be forever, according to a renowned dinosaur expert visiting UK

"Kids really like dinosaurs, and the really neat thing is, kids can understand what I talk about," Horner explained. "They know more about dinosaurs than adults do. Sometimes, if I get too many adults in the lecture hall, I have to dumb it down."

Jack Horner is giving a talk at the University of Kentucky on genetic engineering of dinosaurs from their modern-day descendants--birds. The lecture is based on his book, How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn’t Have to Be Forever. It's at 7:30 pm on Thursday, February 10th, at the Singletary Center for the Arts, and is free.

If I left work a little early, I could go to it. Hmmm....

Nifty

Scientists dig up secrets from dinosaur mummy

Among the details of the mineralised body of a duck-billed dinosaur find were scales that showed possible camoflague patterns, heavier musculature than once thought, and a possible death scene--as an early crocodile-like thing apparently died trying to eat it.

I love science. And this was also a neat story because not only is it the most complete fossil of its type, its founder was a teen who stumbled across it in 1999 and came back five years later whilst leading researchers to spots that would be good to excavate in his native North Dakota. Now in his second year of graduate study in paleontology at Yale, he caught the fossil-hunting bug at 6 and made a career out of it. He certainly has a good dissertation topic well in hand. :)