Walking with Dinosaurs

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:12 am

Open the door, get on the floor.

Who cares about the family? I'd like to go and see this for myself.

djm

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:02 am

It's an animatronic exhibit, and if you do not mind the grossly inacurate representations of the air driven rubber beasties presented before you, you should be able to enjoy it a good deal.

The kids, however, may mind the inacurate representations more than the adults.

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:08 am

djm wrote:Open the door, get on the floor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeNbJQ6naJs

WyoBadger · Post by **WyoBadger** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:44 pm

I wonder why dinosaurs always have growly, roary sounding calls. It's amazing how many of my students don't believe me when I say that we really don't know what they sound like. I like to theorize that tyranosaurus sounded like a kitten.

Well, it could have. So there. Neener neener.

T

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:12 pm

WyoBadger wrote:I wonder why dinosaurs always have growly, roary sounding calls. It's amazing how many of my students don't believe me when I say that we really don't know what they sound like. I like to theorize that tyranosaurus sounded like a kitten.

Well, it could have. So there. Neener neener.

T

My daughters and I were questioning that very thing not long ago.
They always give a triceretops sort of a honking sound and the long necked ones a whiny mooooo. They save the roars for the carnivores.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:17 pm

I think the roaring bit is a form of anthropomorphism. If you listen to lizards, there's few of them can manage more than a loud hiss. It is large carnivorous mammals that roar, and since this is more in line with human experience, it seems to add drama for our entertainment to have dinosaurs roar.

djm

MTGuru · Post by **MTGuru** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:26 pm

djm wrote:I think the roaring bit is a form of anthropomorphism. If you listen to lizards

Of course, I'm a toad, dammit.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:05 pm

djm wrote:I think the roaring bit is a form of anthropomorphism. If you listen to lizards, there's few of them can manage more than a loud hiss. It is large carnivorous mammals that roar, and since this is more in line with human experience, it seems to add drama for our entertainment to have dinosaurs roar.

djm

I'm inclined to agree with this, for the most part. However, the fossil record shows that some dinosaurs (especially among the hadrosaurs [duckbilled dinos] and their relations), there are unique nasal/cerebral cavities that support the theory of some paleontologists who argue that these cavities could've been used for sound production. But as there was no one around, able and willing to document this behavior 65+ million years ago, it is only conjecture at this point.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:10 pm

Which brings us to the greatest matter of conjecture and debate of all (you know, the one that everyone seems to be avoiding): Could dinosaurs sing, and if they could have, would they have agreed to do tv and radio commercials?

djm

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:30 pm

djm wrote:Which brings us to the greatest matter of conjecture and debate of all (you know, the one that everyone seems to be avoiding): Could dinosaurs sing, and if they could have, would they have agreed to do tv and radio commercials?

djm

If there had been TV back then, I'm pretty certain the dinos would've demolished the buildings it might have been in.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:43 am

Joseph E. Smith wrote: I'm inclined to agree with this, for the most part. However, the fossil record shows that some dinosaurs (especially among the hadrosaurs [duckbilled dinos] and their relations), there are unique nasal/cerebral cavities that support the theory of some paleontologists who argue that these cavities could've been used for sound production. But as there was no one around, able and willing to document this behavior 65+ million years ago, it is only conjecture at this point.

No! You mean that scene in JP3 where Sam Neill makes the "my big friends are coming and they're going to kick your butts" noise, using the cast of the velociraptor larynx is mere Hollywood hokum?

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:02 am

Not only that, but Pterodactyls could only fly if the atmosphere was about three times as dense as it is today. So the sounds would be very different from what we would easily imagine. I'm thinking along the lines of dolphinspeak and whalesong, but that's just another wild guess.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:23 am

emmline wrote: No! You mean that scene in JP3 where Sam Neill makes the "my big friends are coming and they're going to kick your butts" noise, using the cast of the velociraptor larynx is mere Hollywood hokum?

Not in the least dear Emmline, as we all know, Hollywood is always top dead center and never wrong... silly girl...

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:20 am

JES wrote:However, the fossil record shows that some dinosaurs (especially among the hadrosaurs [duckbilled dinos] and their relations), there are unique nasal/cerebral cavities that support the theory of some paleontologists who argue that these cavities could've been used for sound production.

I think I have proven to everyone's satisfaction that these structures were only capable of producing loud, sustained farting noises.

djm