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I just read this to my kid while going through the “Golden Book” Dinosaur book. It was not the only persistent misconception that appeared in the book, and I fo
by sircastor 5y ago
I just read this to my kid while going through the “Golden Book” Dinosaur book. It was not the only persistent misconception that appeared in the book, and I found myself offering a lot of commentary while I read. My kid is 3, and didn’t seem to mind.
It’s a reminder how much we really didn’t know, and don’t know. I’m reminded of the relatively recent Triceratops/Torosaurus paper, and the downstream effects its had on non-paleontologist people.
- Agentlien 5y agoI also have a small son currently into dinosaurs and now I'm curious what this recent paper is that you mentioned.
- sircastor 5y agoThe essence of it is that some paleontologists think Triceratops might actually be the juvenile form of Torosaurus, rather than a distinct species. The Wikipedia entry is pretty decent[1] and the actual paper can be found here [2] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torosaurus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torosaurus [2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2010.483632 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2010.48...
- lupire 5y agoThing is, getting these details "right" and their changing in light of new research don't matter to anyone except paleontologists. Dinosaurs may as well be a science fiction franchise. The most important thing to actually know is that... We don't actually know and many areas of science are largely guesswork, not ultimate truth.
- Gravityloss 5y agoIt matters in many other things. Let's day, nutrition. Hence for process reasons it is useful to learn about myths about dinosaurs.