A Whopping Small Dinosaur: A Whopping small review

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind! While the next proper review is still being written, we're gonna be tided over with a fairly short documentary from 1988 and San Francisco-based Harbinger Films, A Whopping Small Dinosaur!

(Link at Internet Archive - watch it while you still can!)

This 26-minute documentary made at the height of the Dinosaur Renaissance documents the discovery and excavation of the Triassic dinosaur Chindesaurus at Petrified Forest National Park, albeit 9 years before it was even given a name as Robert Long and other alumni of the University of California Museum of Palaeontology in Berkley study it, while relevant info is also talked about, like the environment it was from and previous expeditions the UCMP has done, like with Annie Alexander.

Fin fact: the specimen is nicknamed Gertie, after the saurian cartoon character from 1914, though the name appears nowhere here.

While there isn't really all that much to AWSD information or creative-wise, I do have to give the docu credit for several things.

There's a pretty creative scene transition of one paleontologist from a newspaper photo to an in-person interview (at 2:40 in the link) that I like.

The narration courtesy of one Brian Narelle is soft and pleasing to hear.

The main reconstructions come from still pictures illustrated by noted palaoartist Douglas Henderson for the Petrified forest's museum. They're all great to look at even without animation, save one moment of Gertie in they're death throes. They all give a decent atmosphere and are well-made as Henderson is known for.

Aetosaurs above

A phytosaur mom and her hatchlings

Either Coelophysis or Camposaurus

And finally, Chinde itself as was understood at time

Also give credit to A Whopping Small for shedding light on the Triassic and the other archosaurs of it, which compared to the Jurassic and Triassic and the other dinosaurs, get the short end of the stick, which Robert Long laments in the documentary. Same here, bud. And this was in the 1980's!

Still, when the work is over 30 years old, there are bound to be a few inaccuracies. The most obvious is that Chindesaurus is depicted as a basal sauropodmorph (or plataeosaur as one researcher calls it) with a long neck. From 1995 onwards its now understood as a Herrerasaur, which is regarded as being so basal a saurischian, they're regarded (depnding on who you ask) as outside both theropods (hence having features of both) and sauropods or the most basal theropods, but either way being short-necked. While they were hardly large themselves, I also note they were usually wolf or donkey-sized, which is hardly whopping small as far as dinos go. Chinde could have easily eaten actually whopping small dinos with little effort, like Compsognathus (widely considered the tiny dinosaur by Joe and Joan Public).

The actual size of Chinde, which would qualify as different kind of whopper by our size.

The second is the use of thecodont as a general term for archosaurs excluding dinosaurs. That is inaccurate a term to use now.

Although honestly, that's where my criticisms end. Honestly, I like A Whopping Small Dinosaur a lot. Its not a must-see for any palaeo-fan by any means, but it does have some charm, enough enjoyable parts that add up for something I like, and doesn't do anything outright bad of note.

• Accuracy - 5/10
• Aging - 5/10
• Presentation - 6/10
• Art - 8/10
• Music - 7/10
• Storytelling - 7/10
• Rewatchability - 7/10

Credit to Michael Parthum, aka PaleoMike716 on Discord's Paleo Media Central and Twitter, for introducing this to me.