Velociraptors: Fact and Fiction
Eventually at some time or another, somebody has to imagine what a dinosaur looks like. Maybe it is a Paleontologist, maybe it is an Artist, maybe it is a Movie Maker. Basically, everyone is entitled to deciding in his or her mind what a dinosaur may look like. How do we form these ideas, though? And on what information are these ideas based on? The “picture” of the dinosaur – whether it’s in our mind, on paper or a motion picture film – helps us to understand how these animals behaved.
Ideas about how dinosaurs looked have changed over the years as our research improves. There’s a sort of partnership between paleontology, painting and movies: they help to define each other. The paleontologist digs up the bones, the artist paints a painting, and the filmmaker brings it to “life.” Then everyone complains about how silly the movie dinosaurs look (or do they?) and little by little, things improve.
Since movies are the venue through which most of society gains its ideas of what dinosaurs look like, it seems appropriate to address the topic of how dinosaurs are depicted on the big screen and whether or not those depictions are correct.
Some of the most popular film portrayals of dinosaurs are the Jurassic Park movies. The dinosaurs shown seem to be actually living and partaking in all of the activities shown – everything from the opening of doors, running 50 miles per hour, the elaborate hunting tactics, to tapping their toes, everything is incredibly realistic. Or is it?
According to a website known as Dino Buzz, which is an offshoot of a UC Berkeley site, many of the portrayals of the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park III were inaccurate; some ideas wer...
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... what Velociraptors were like – for the most part. It allows the audience to form thoughts and ideas about how these animals might have moved, hunted, etc. Of course, as in all movies, the “facts” presented should not be taken as the absolute truth. Only science can determine whether or not a Velociraptor could move at 50 miles per hour, open doors, or tap its toe – not Steven Spielberg.
Works Cited
Dino Buzz: Current Topics Concerning Dinosaurs. UCMC Berkeley.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/buzz/popular.html. (February, 2005). (Last accessed on February 6, 2005).
What is a Raptor? Poling, Jeff. http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/dromey/raptor.htm.
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Dromaeosaurid Anatomy. Holtz, Thom Jr.
http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/dromey/dromey.htm. (1995). (Last accessed on
February 6, 2005).
...ories of why dinosaurs went extinct abound, and as there is no theory yet to be truly confirmed as the “right one”, my theory of dinosaur cannibalism is also purely anecdotal. The discovery of the cannibalistic Majungatholus atopus in Madagascar is an important scientific find because it confirms a long-standing theory of cannibalism among certain carnivorous dinosaurs. Behavioral patterns of extinct animals are difficult to establish; however, these bones give authentication to previous unfounded beliefs about the ancient feeding practices of some dinosaurs.
The Chesapeake Bay is a large estuary located on the east coast of the United States. The bay is over 200 miles long and goes through Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The bay has much to offer the locals. Many locals have made a career out of harvesting the bay's sea food. The bay's harvest and many of its other attractions bring tourists and in turn revenue for the area. Oysters and blue crab are a big part of the culture in the bay area. However, these organisms are in danger and need help.
The idea of cloning dinosaurs and other prehistoric life became popularized by the 1992 film Jurassic Park (based on Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel). Though it may have sparked new interest into the field of paleontology, it did so with deceiving inaccuracies. However, the technical fallacies of the actual dinosaurs are somewhat forgivable as it added to the film’s dramatic appeal. Velociraptor, as depicted in the film, was about the size of a grown man. In reality, velociraptor came to about the kneecap. Furthermore, velociraptor would more likely have been covered in feathers rather than the lizard-like skin portrayed in the movie. One scene shows velociraptor fogging the window of a door. This is an endothermic or warm blooded trait as it implies the dromaeosaurid’s body temperature is above the temperature of his environment. There is also no evidence of dilophosaurus bearing a neck frill, and brachiosaurus did not have the ability to chew his food in a circular motion (iguanodon was the first dinosaur to develop this technique by acquiring back molars to allow for equine or bovine-like chewing). Fortunately, tyrannosaurus remained very close to his biological authenticity, with the only paleobiological errors stemming from a lack in computer animation such as rudimentary ball and joint programs. However, the erroneous nature of the deoxyribonucle...
Ever since we were young we have been fascinated by the dinosaurs. We have played with dinosaurs as children, watched documentaries as adults with interest, and watching movies with enjoyment. No dinosaur from the past strikes more fear in the present day to the average person then that of Tyrannosaurus Rex. For decades children have played with dinosaurs and had T-Rex dominating other dinosaurs by chasing them down and destroying them. We have seen it time and time again in movies. In Jurassic Park we saw T-Rex terrorize humans, cars, and other dinosaurs. We have even dreamt about it, but if a recent study is correct we are false in our fears.
Schulze, M. B., & Hu, F. B. (2005). PRIMARY PREVENTION OF DIABETES: What Can Be Done and How Much Can Be Prevented?. Annual Review of Public Health, 26(1), 445-467.
“66 Million–Year–Old Dino With A Heart.” Media Kit 17 April 2000. North Carolina University. 2000 <http://www.dinoheart.org/mediakit/index.html>.
The prevalence of diabetes according to the CDC is 26 million Americans currently diagnosed with diabetes, 79 million with pre-diabetes, and 7 million unaware they have diabetes.1 Diabetes is currently more prevalent in the western countries due to physical inactivity and obesity, but as more Eastern countries develop the western lifestyle it becomes an increasing worldwide epidemic.1 The risk for developing type 2 diabetes increases with age (especially after age 40), but is increasing most rapidly in the adolescent and young generation.1 It is therefore critical that education as well as drug therapies are implemented to decrease the rising prevalence of this illness.
Immigration can be defined as passing foreigners to a country and making it their permanent residence. Reasons ranging from politics, economy, natural disasters, wish to change ones surroundings and poverty are in the list of the major causes of immigration in both history and today. In untied states, immigration comes with complexities in its demographic nature. A lot of cultural and population growth changes have been witnessed as a result of immigration. In the following paper, I will focus on how immigration helps United States as compared to the mostly held view that it hurts America.
Marfan syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder resulting from mutations in the gene fibrillin-1 (FBN1) found on chromosome 15 (McKusick V, O'Neill M, 2013). At least 140 different mutations of this gene have been recorded since 2008 (Frey R, Lutwick L, 2009). The FBN1 gene regulates the manufacturing of the fibrillin-1 protein that assists in constructing fibrous filaments which are present in portions of the fibers in connective tissue (Frey R, Lutwick L, 2009). Those filaments manage the discharge of growth factors or protein molecules which prompt the reproduction and growth of cells (Frey R, Lutwick L, 2009). In healthy individuals, the filaments discharge growth factors at the right moment but those who have Marfan syndrome are faced with the dilemma of growth factors being discharged too soon. The early release of growth factors results in fragile connective tissue and the uncommonly lengthy limbs of those with the disorder.
Dinosaurs are an extinct group of animals that thrived for 165 million years starting 230 million years ago in the Late Triassic period of the Mesozoic Era. Despite being extinct for the past 65 million years and not being able to study them in their true form, scientists have been able to estimate many different behaviors of dinosaurs. This paper will show that the close study and examination of different types of body and trace fossils, along with animal models, can be provided as evidence to estimate different types of behaviors in dinosaurs. The different types of behaviors examined below will fall into the categories of: mating; reproduction and nesting; social lives; locomotion; feeding; and fighting. To begin, a great deal of information gathered from fossils and compared to living animal models have been used to estimate mating behaviors.
The Chesapeake Bay Program is doing many things to help with prevention of water quality. Extreme amounts of nutrients and sedimentation are entering the water and causing major pollution issues (Chesapeake Bay Program). One of the things they have been focusing on is erosion prevention. “In 2003, Bay Program partners agreed to cap sediment loads coming from watershed sources so that no more than 4.15 million tons of sediment are delivered to the Bay per year by 2010” (Chesapeake Bay Program). According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, “As of 2006, 62 percent of the sediment reduction goal had been achieved” (Chesapeake Bay Program). Another thing they are working on is improving the quality of wastewater treatment. Many wastewater treatment facilities throughout the Chesapeake Bay region are being upgraded with new technology to reduce the amount of nutrients that are being put into the bay (Chesapeake Bay Program).
Michael Crichton’s classic novel Jurassic Park sparked controversy among scientists, excited science-fiction fans, and captivated paleontologists as Chrichton proposed the idea that dinosaurs could be cloned. The plot elicited criticism from scientists around the world, but support from others. Cloning a dinosaur was made possible in the fictional text: take some amber, fill in missing DNA, obtain an ostrich egg, keep the egg in a controlled environment, then a dinosaur is born. Unfortunately, each of the steps are of intricate design.
“Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs” is written by Stephen Jay Gould, professor of geology and zoology at Harvard. This essay is one of more than a hundred articles on evolution, zoology, and paleontology published by Gould in national magazines and journals. It tells about scientific proposals for the extinction of dinosaurs – a confusing but an exciting problem that humanity tries to solve. By analyzing and describing each of the claims for the reptiles’ demise – sex, drugs, and disasters – Gould differentiates bad science from good science and explains what makes some theories silly speculations, while the other, a testable hypothesis.
Zimmet, P., K.G. Alberti, and J. Shaw.2001. Global and societal implications of the diabetes epidemic. Nature 414 (December 13): 782-86
Flaubert’s realism and Allende’s magic realism techniques allow the authors to both create and destroy suspense in order to mirror their respective attitudes towards fate. In Madame Bovary, Flaubert consistently builds anticipation with the extreme detail common to the realist genre. After building up the suspense to an almost unbearable intensity, he ends the section with a flat statement that destroys any suspense in an ultimately anticlimactic way. These endings frustrate the reader, but also mirror Emma’s journey and her romantic ideals. Flaubert parallels the plot and its implications on the idea of fate with detail. Emma and Leon, when first flirting, go to the house of the nurse for Berthe, but Flaubert describes the hedges on the way there in excruciating detail: “They were in bloom, and so were the speedwells, eglantines, thistles...