Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Application Critique: JWTG's Majungasaurus


               Majungasaurus is on the list for weirdest theropod yet discovered. It is beat only by Masiakasaurus and perhaps the Therizinosaurs. Although the genus is not in the film, Jurassic World: The Game gives this animal to you as your first carnivore; a starting point from which it rapidly declines. 

              Before going into this model's inaccuracies, it should be pointed out that a good many of Ludia's models are just retools of the same model, done over and again. However, this does not excuse their laziness in the arms of the Tyrannosaur model. 



                Their Majungasaurus uses the model for Tyrannosaurus and many of the other large bulky theropods. This would be fine, except that they neglected to change the arms of the model, resulting in very long, noodle-like arms terminating in two fingered hands for all of the theropods using the model. Therefore, this Majungasaurus suffers from Broke-Wrist-Syndrome and its arms are FAR too long with FAR too few digits. Being an Abelisaur, Majungasaurus had extremely, and often comically, short arms, so short that the wrist, manus, and digits were all fused together into a vestigial 'paw' and would have looked almost non-existent. 

Gah! Look at them teeny arms! Puts the Tyrant Lizard King to shame!

                     As for the rest of the animal, since it uses the Tyrannosaurus model, it has a very short body with long thick legs. The real animal's skeleton was also very strange. It was one of the longest theropods proportionally to most others. It was very near the proportions of a dachshund, in which it had a very long tail, neck, torso, with somewhat thin squat legs and boxy skull. Since its discovery, the purpose for the knob on the top of skull of Majungasaurus is unknown, and it was likely covered with flesh and muscle since it is far too small to be used in either combat or for sexual display. 

Art and Copyright belong to Compiler

Evolved: 

                  In Jurassic World: The Game, all animals can 'evolve' by combining two individuals of the same experience level. Once this occurs you get an animal with a better color scheme, with the last 'evolution' being an animal decked out in integumentary details. Majungasaurus is one of the most reserved of these 'Final Evolutions' and sports a row of spiky dermal osteoderms along its spine and a fancy new color scheme of bright blue, yellow, and a strange hue of pink near its muzzle. The spikes are not too much of a stretch since many Abelisaurs, specifically Carnotaurus, have shown to have scutes and armor on their dorsal and lateral sides. 




Thursday, April 21, 2016

Accuracy Reviews: Papo's Sitting Rex



Starting off our figure review section, we will begin with the most famous of all members of Dinosauria and the star of Jurassic Park; Tyrannosaurus.



Photo provided by VikingSpawn


Photo provided by VikingSpawn


Photo provided by VikingSpawn


                  To be exact, the sitting Tyrannosaurus produced by Papo. This beast comes in three colors; Green, Brown, and ‘Rainbow’. Most of the figures produced by Papo are based off of the designs used in the famous Jurassic Park franchise, though you would not likely get them to admit as much, but the reference is clear. The sitting rex rests in a very common tripodal pose with its tail curving down to the ground and its head tilted to the side. The figure is based off of the interpretation of Tyrannosaurus seen in Jurassic Park; the tell-tale sign being its head. Although this figure uses the general outline of the animal’s skull as a reference for the base shape, it adds a few osteoderm-like bumps over the eyes and snout that do not exist in fossils. Now, let us get this straight, the structure of Tyrannosaurus’ skull does show potential evidence for a horny/bony/keratinous covering on the snout and forehead, evidence for the extreme bony projections seen not only on the Papo figure, but also on the Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus, does not exist. Next fallacy is the arms; theropod dinosaurs were unable to pronate their hands and arms. Pronation includes twisting the wrist so the palm of the manus (hand) face down towards the ground. All theropod dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park films suffer from this anatomical impossibility, so one cannot blame Papo too much about this flaw, since it was in the source material. 


Photo provided by VikingSpawn

Photo provided by VikingSpawn

                Papo’s sitting rex comes in Green, which appropriately matches the tyrannosaurs from Jurassic Park: The Lost World, the Brown Tyrannosaurus more closely matches the one featured in the first film, and the ‘Rainbow’ colored one is just an exclusive made for the company. The only other fallacy is the tail; although, Tyrannosaurus and other theropods were physically able to bend to a more vertical position and ‘sit’ on their tails, this would not have been a permanent posture and returning to the neutral horizontal pose would be required. Tripod posture is also a tired cliche among all companies and their theropod reconstructions, so it is nice to see a non-tripodal figure; I can see Papo was going for the pose in the last scene of Jurassic Park after the Tyrannosaurus had killed the Velociraptors in the visitor center.

Accuracy rating:


If there is anything I left out, or that you want to add, leave a comment and I will get to you very quickly!

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Monday, April 18, 2016

Introduction




This blog will consist of reviews of accuracy for prehistoric reconstructions in the form of figures as well as in cinema. The likes of Jurassic Park and the Carnegie Collection will grace this page. I hope you enjoy the content. 

P.S. This is different from both Plasticozoic's blog and Paleofail's because it will go more in-depth than both of them and will cover more ground.