Mesozoic Mind

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind, the blog that has reviewed Discovery Channel documentaries a bit too much at the expense of others and so will try to stay away from them a bit. Today, right after we hit 1000 views in a single month for the first time, we will tackle the 2015 British documentary  Dinosaur Britain , hosted by presenter Ellie Harrison, travelling to various locales around the country, starting wirh visiting Dippy the Diplodocus at London's Natural History Museum (this was before it was taken off display) and waxing about how she much like other brits became enamoured with dinosaurs because of it. However, that's not what Dinosaur Britain is best known for: rather, it is that the dinosaurs themselves are presented roaming about modern England and scaring its people, much like fellow ITV dino-show  Primeval , with Ellie often encountering them. To start things off, we are first shown a Baryonyx  wandering the halls of the Natural History Museum...

I'd like to thank everyone who clicked on the links here and stayed throughout the last year for supporting me, so here's another round of Random Palaeo-Work ideas of the Day ™ ! Jurassic Jaws Art by Robert T. Bakker for The Dinosaur Heresies . Narrative two-part documentary about the life of a Megalosaurus in Middle Jurassic England 166 million years ago given the name of Billy Buck, from a hatchling to an adult and its trials in life. Megalosaurus bucklandii  - The lead dinosaur species for the documentary. Cetiosaurus oxonensis  - A sauropod dinosaur. It maybe nowhere as big as others in Jurassic England, but they can still pack a punch. Proceratosaurus bradleyi  - A small tyrannosauroid dinosaur. They're quite the menace when Billy is young, but once he grows up they're only a nuisance at worst. Think the Ornitholestes from Walking with Dinosaurs . Dacentrurus armatus /” Omosaurus ” - A big stegosaur. Callovosaurus leedsi  - A small flocking ornithopod that'...

  Just like the ROM visit, I got several books for my birthday. One of them is today's subject, The Dinosaur Hunters *, a book about the history of palaeontology and the study dinosaurs, from the origins of the subject to the impact dinosaurs have on pop culture. It is written by Lowell Dingus with help from Mark Norell, both from and book helped by the venerable American Museum of Natural History. * Not to be confused with another non-fiction book of the same name and subject by Deborah Cadbury. The contents of it are fairly broad in scope. It goes chronologically, and a basic list summary is: Origins of Palaeontology, from the Greek Xenophanes observing fossil shells in mountains to Nicolas Steno's work in geology against Church's dogma. England's discoveries, such as William Buckland and Megalosaurus, the Mantells discovering and describing Iguanodon , and Crystal Palace Park. During and beyond the 1870's, Belgium sees the discovery of more Iguanodon that change...

Hello, and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind for the new year! Today's subject of Mesozoic Mind, the oldest work featured so far, may trigger nostalgic flashbacks, whether your a British person growing up in the 80's or worldwide in the 2000's via Youtube. It's Dinosaurs: Fun, Fact and Fantasy , a 1982 Direct to Video documentary oriented at children, courtesy of Pickwick Video. It aired at a time when palaeontology was in the middle of re-evaluating dinosaurs not as sluggish, slow, evolutionary failures but a successful clade, yet the public hadn't yet quite caught on. Also, please excuse the low quality screengrabs. The video ain't even HD. After a montage of dinosaur related B-rolls (and featuring the OG King Kong from 1933), we begin with a stop motion short on life in Mesozoic England, most notably a stooped-over Megalosaurus  on the prowl and eventually felling an Iguanodon , because really, what else is it gonna eat? Cetiosaurus or anything it actually lived...