Mesozoic Mind

Raptor Red (1995) Yes, I did indeed purchase Bob Bakker's legendary book and finished it after the 14th. For those not in the know,  Raptor Red is a fiction novel by the paaeontologist and godfather of the Dinosaur renaissance about a female Utahraptor forced on the move. It should come as no suprise the book has aged like milk, like the utahraptors being scaley, or it and Deinonychus , Astrodon , and Acrocanthosaurus living in the same time and place (reasonable when it was thought Utah lived 125 mya, not 140). Also, the episodic plot of the story results in a feew interesting things being forgotten. All that said, the writing is generally excellent weaving in and around all sorts of of prehistoric denizens in poetic prose that elevates them, anthromorphising them without being over the top or obnoxious. All without ever making the dinosaurs talk. Likewise, I love how Bakker draws all sorts of attention to other creatures and how they fit into Red's story, like symbiosis betw...

  I really went with the idea of the beauty and mejesty of mammals emerging from the ashes of the K-Pg extinction.

  Well, it's official: Tim Haines is BACK! After years of waiting, Tim Haines has made a new palaeo-doc. Surviving Earth , which covers many of the extinctions of Earth's history. The first episode, "When the Earth Burned" , naturally starts things off with the Permian Extinction. Set in Russia, we follow a family of the gornopsid Inostrancevia . Pretty inspired choice. Without spoilers, what are my thoughts on it? The effects and design are excellent. The cinematograohy is alsao very lush, with the Californian forests . The animal behaviour is up to par. I like the gorgonopsids have a lion-influenced social structure... though I do object to them fighting even as lava looms to be the alpha (which is a bunk term). The species selection is great, showing both the big guys of Permian Russia (Ino, Scutosaurus) and the dicynodont Elph  (no joke I genuinely thought they said elf and was wondering why they were calling them by snything other then their real name) and Sumini...

Yes, you read right, the legendary Nigel Marven made another palaeodoc series.... kind of. In 2023 he did some prmotional shorts for Shropshire's Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World, a zoo with a dinosaur attrctio attached to it, Nigel Marven's Prehistoric World . In these shorts, he wanders around the Dinosaur World portion (Hoo-Rassic World, har har) and pretends if he's back on time, just like in the olden days. Its clearly aimed at young viewers then Chased By Dinosaurs or Prehistoric Park . Still,  Nigel is an enthustiatic and charming enough to make it work. I love he mentions Chased by Dinosaurs' eps by name. The information he tells is basic, though sometimes it is a bit off, like Nigel calling Dimetrodon a reptile. The cinematography on the other hand is well shot, at least in the sense you cant tell there's a fence just metres away. The designs are just the park's animatronics, and they look fine at best. Otherwise, they all have tons of issues the plague all ...