Popular site is not good science
We all love dinosaurs. A site called ReptileEvolution.com has become the Web's top destination for dino info, but Dr. Darren Naish argues this is a very scary thing. The site features spectacular illustrations of creatures which, according to Naish, fly in the face of everything that virtually every paleontologist in the world believes. (Even to my amateur's eye, they are ridiculously impractical, festooned with ribbons and feathery growths that could only get in the way.) The site's author, a fellow named Peters who had a great career as an illustrator of (realistic) extinct creatures, relies on a photographic analysis technique (he does not examine actual fossils) by which he sees all kinds of soft tissue features no one else can discern.
So you have been warned. Because someone publishes material they have put a great deal of sincere effort into does not mean they are right, or even in the ballpark.
Here's a look at some of Peters' creatures. Can't swallow this....
http://www.reptileevolution.com/fenestrasauria.htm
And don't get me started on the vampire pterosaur
http://www.reptileevolution.com/jeholopterus.htm
Again, Naish is the expert here, but even to an amateur this looks bizarre.
To be complete, though, Peters is standing his ground in this blog.
http://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/
"Because someone publishes material they have put a great deal of sincere effort into does not mean they are right, or even in the ballpark."
ReplyDeleteI think that's one of the best comments on this whole thing.