Steve P. commented:

Can I preempt a few of your reactions?
1) Overall too slenderly built, especially belly and tail;
2) Hands should have five fingers, not four, and the fingers should not be stubby (and should, of course, not all be the same length);
3) Feet should have five toes, not four, and the first and fifth should not be touching the ground;
4) M. caudofemoralis longis atrophied / non existent;
5) Head looks more like that of Coloradisaurus (on full body model);
6) Neck shouldn’t meet chest so smoothly – there should be a very distinct chest “shelf”.
Right ballpark? The sculpt looks nice, just not accurate.

That’s a pretty good list right there!

First off, the sculpt does look nice! Jeff managed to make not a monster, but a weird animal – and dinosaurs are weird when you’re used (as we are) to mammals and birds as “normal”. The key term of the last sentence is, by the way, “animal”! The sculpt looks like a proper animal, it’s got proportions that looks kinda right. Well done, Jeff – many artists do not manage this in 3D!

Ok, so here’s what I wrote:

- more belly! Plateosaurus was herbivorous, the belly should be fairly
large. I can trace the outline onto a side view photograph, if that
helps. Don’t use my model from the papers, one is intentionally too
fat, the other is a bit on the slim side.
– hands: I was not entirely exact in my papers; the fifth digit is
splayed, and a lot! See attached screenshot. I’ll get you more views
of the hands with flexed fingers tomorrow.
– feet: the toes are quite short (but that may be the perspective
screwing with me, it may well be too unguligrade [walking on the tips
of its toes] instead of “properly” digitigrade [with most of the toe
on the ground]).
– feet: there is more wrong with the toes: Plateosaurus, counter to
what 90% of all people claimed, made three-toed tracks! See attached
image. A lot of theropod tracks from the Triassic of Germany may well
be plateosaurid tracks
– feet again: bring them closer together! You could place one under
the body midline, the other forward a half-step, and placed only
slightly less than hip-width to the side. That would look like the
animal just took a slow step forward while feeding.

About the pose: the tail looks a bit drooping, why not bring it up to
horizontal? I’ll attach a pic, [...]
Here’s a general rule for this: if you think of a dinosaur, think of a
large bird!  Do not think of a lizard or any other reptile! This means
an S-curved neck, an alert stance, quick movements!

As you can see, Steve P. and I agree on his points 1, 2 and 4. The feet are correct with four toes, not five – or if there was an externally visible fifth toes, it was tiny. I didn’t address the head at all, because my knowledge is too limited. Preserved skulls are all deformed, so going by Huene’s figure or photos is deceptive.

Here’s the pic of the (digital) foot I attached; a very similar view of the CAD model is figured in my chapter of the Computational Paleontology book edited by Ashraf Elewa (Mallison 2011).

I also asked for lateral shots, anterior shots, dorsal shots, and so on, to be better able to judge the proportions. Pretty soon, Robby and Jeff email back with them – I’ll show you tomorrow.

References

Mallison, H. (2011). Digitizing methods for paleontology – applications, benefits and limitations, pp. 7-44. In Elewa, A.M.T. (ed.): Computational Paleontology. Springer.

The inner space holds palm trees and a little pond and a path for the visitors, with the high arches to the other parts allowing a good view of the giraffes. The antelopes are harder to see for children, because the “windows” into their spaces are a tad too high, which means a lot of weight-lifting for parents.

The building and the surrounding outside enclosure house Defassa Waterbucks (Kobus ellipsiprymnus defassa), Lechwe (Kobus leche kafuensis), and Western Sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekii gratus) (below in this order).

more on the Berlin zoo antelopes, giraffes and the buildings later

“I wonder if you would be interested in seeing our design process via images and offering input and critique of the dinosaur as we build it and bring it to life. Perhaps there are some additional images you have that we could use for references.  Our small maquette should be completed by Friday if you are interested.”

I therefore answered in the affirmative, and soon received an email detailing what they wanted to do, with several photos of the maquette attached:

I’ll let you know my reaction in the next post.

MOR 555 is a fairly complete specimen, and at the time of its discovery had the most complete T. rex forelimb. You can find info on it all across the web (last link to famous rex soft tissue paper, in which MOR 555 plays a role, too), so I’ll be lazy and not go on about it here. More from the MOR soon.

In fact, sharks are quite cautious animals. And shark attacks on humans are rare, even if global warming and tourism bring new migration patterns and thus doubled lethal attacks last year. When a shark approaches an unfamiliar object it will usually circle it, the swim by and rub it a bit. There’s a good reason for this: a shark’s skin has gazillions of little denticles, which is why shark skin makes pretty good sand paper. What that does to an edible animal in the water is pretty obvious – it rips open the skin, and starts a bleed. And blood in the water now tells the shark that it is dealing with an edible object, as opposed to a tree trunk or so. Some animals may be too big and sturdy to bleed this easily, but then, an animal that won’t have a slight bleeding wound from such a test is likely too big and tough for the shark to tackle.

Dusky shark (Carcharhinus obscurus) SEM photo of denticles.
Photo: Sue Lindsay © Australian Museum,

http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Dusky-Shark-denticles-Carcharhinus-obscurus

The other strategy sharks use is the surprise attack from out of nowhere. Rush at it, bite off a piece, get lost quickly. This usually follows the cautious approach just described, but also occurs without a prior test – if the shark is sure of its target’s quality. Looks like a seal, moves forward – is a seal! ATTACK! Which is why surfers rowing on their surf boards are so threatened: they look like something the shark knowns, does not need to test for edibility or danger – WHAM there goes your left leg! This kind of attack can lead to rather spectacular films, when the shark comes out of the water with its entire body (youtube link).

There is one situation, though, called a feeding frenzy, in which sharks forgo all caution. In short, a feeding frenzy is a situation where a large supply of food causes the predators to snap at anything, moving or not, and just gorge themselves. This can include sharks biting sharks, so that a hunter can quickly become fodder, too! “How Stuff works” has a pretty article on this here.

But feeding frenzies are not limited to sharks. Recently, in the Berlin Zoo, I was able not only to watch, but also to photography one. It involved at least four different species of predators in large numbers, and numerous individuals of other species. As usual, a sudden surplus of food caused the frenzy, food doled out by the keeper. Given the number of individuals involved feeding each one individually would have been impossible, so the keeper threw large amounts of food out in one go, and all predators tried to get a piece of the cake.

Especially interesting to see were the differing methods of getting part of the feast used by the various species. The pelicans (no idea which species exactly, sorry) tried to form a ring around the likely location of the fodder, much as they try to team up and herd fish when they do not drop in from overhead, but are alive and swimming. The grey herons stood around, waited for the keeper to throw the fish, then went in for an aerial attack. The cormorants (Great Cormorant, I guess) did their best to catch the fish right when they came down, and fought hard among each other, including diving and snapping fish out of the pelicans’ open beaks!

What’s decidedly different between this theropod feeding frenzy and one by sharks is that the birds go in with more deliberation – this is not a blind rush but rather a smart grab for as much food as possible. As a result, once all food is (or seems to be) snapped up, quiet immediately ensues:

The Ornithischian Who Came in from the Cold: The Iguanodon model in front of the Berlin Aquarium – previously shown without snow here.

Let’s begin with an appropriate scale comparison.

Purgatorius on a Triceratops skull.

No place like Urzeit Park would be complete without an early proboscidean, as freaky as possible, so they have a Deinotherium

Note the Jurassic volcano in the background! Yes, it is a garish as it looks, but it guess once it acquires a bit of dust it will look better.

Next up, the must-have mammal, especially in a place that has an ample supply of sauropods – Paraceratherium.

This model is suspiciously big; one day I’ll have to measure it. In the foreground we have one of the two theropods. Obviously, they can’t have anything volant and tiny, it needs to be a monstrously-looking animal. In this case it’s Phorosrhacos, with one of the rare spelling mistakes on the labels (Phororhacos). In the back you can find Diatryma, too. Here’s a bigger shot:

I’ll keep quiet about the quality of the models, they could be better but could also be much worse.

To end this I have only one more animal to show, because I didn’t get pictures of the Hyracotheriums. This is an animal to compete with the large and fierce theropods: Andrewsarchus. That was one scary – skull, because there’s barely anything else known. Cool, though, especially the fur! What baffles me a bit, though, are the claws.

Well, partly my fault: I did not take pictures of all the models the Urzeit Park has. I’ll confess up front that the following critters didn’t get Canonized: Meganeura, a dragonfly so large it really earned the name “dragon”, early tetrapod Ichthyostega and boomerang-headed Diplocaulus. The rest of the blame must be laid at the feet of the Urzeit Park makers: there aren’t any pre-Devonian models at all!

This leaves us with only four animals and five photos – you’ll understand the reason for the extra photo in a second.

Let’s start with the typical must-have of Devonian critters: Dunkleosteus!

The poor fish is stranded in practically all places that exhibit a model outdoors! To spice this post up a bit with real fossils, here’s a lateral view of the skull on exhibit at the AMNH, in the “Vertebrate Origins” hall.

and the AMNH’s model, which – hanging under the ceiling – looks much less ridiculous.

The next animal is not a vertebrate, but at least it hard hard tissues – i.e., it fossilized well!

This is supposed to be a generic ammonite, and reminds me very much of a plastic toy model, 3 inches across, that I once gave a palaeontologist friend for her birthday. She had a whole collection, which were hung above her dining table, bathtub and bed – yes, we are a weird bunch! But this model – well, check out another picture of it:

HUGE!

It is often fun to see laypeople’s startled and disbelieving expression when I walk them though the MfN’s cellar, where an ammonite with a diameter of slightly over 1m (guestimate) is stored in a corner of the hallway. “That large????” is the typical reaction, while some simply refuse to believe that this seemingly featureless stone is anything but a fragment of concrete left over from the WWII bombings. But yes, some ammonites were simply huge.

However, there is a fly in that soup: check out the shape of the shell of the model – it looks suspiciously like a mesozoic ammonitid, and I’ve never heard of giant palaeozoic ammonites either. OOPS!

By the way, on the very right of the last picture you can see a tiny piece of an animal I also did not photograph individually, so this tiny scrap will have to do: a belemnite. That one did live in the palaeozoic at that size.

And now, finally, for terrestrial vertebrates. No dinosaurs, because they only evolved in the Triassic, but at least limbed, walking vertebrates!

Edaphosaurus – it is nice to see a fin-backed animal that is not Dimetrodon for once. Both are eupelycosaurs, and rather closely related when you compare them to such derived synapsids as dicynodonts, gorgonospians and therocephalians (all half-way on the path to “proper” mammals, so to speak), not to mention mammals themselves. However, E. was apparently herbivorous, whereas D. was a carnivore.

Oh, talk about Dimetrodon being everywhere…… here you go:

and that’s all there is to show! Next time, I’ll delve into the Cretaceous critters, finally showing you the one model you all have been waiting for, I am sure, the T. rex!!!1!!1! (only real with the !!!1!!1!)

Now, what’s my take on the accuracy of the models? I have to admit that I barely know all these modeled animals – much know them better than most laypeople, but I am no expert on any of the them at all. Overall, however, I think they are pretty cool!

Hogwash! You should see yourself! No beak, so how will you clean yourself, eh? Get hold of food? You mouth is useless for that task! And no down or contour feathers to cover your body, only that weird fuzz on top of your head and sprinkled around your body in weird places! How do you keep your skin dry? Those huge, plump feet with stubby, useless toes, and not even proper webbing between them! Don’t get me started about that sorry excuse for a neck, either! And your arms…. useless flopping things, always all over the place, bending in ridiculous directions in way too many places! You even have an excessive number of digits on it, which makes the tip so fat and heavy. Bah!

Look at me, how well everything is organized!

and then, the way you walk and stand and sit! You’re too lazy to get up properly, most of the time, and waddle along with your feet flat on the ground. Gah! And instead of properly folding your legs under the body when you sit down, you plant your tail-stub on the ground! You’re gonna ruin your tail feath…. oh, OK, you don’t have any. How do your steer, hu?

Even when you stand and walk, your posture is just stupid! Straight down do your legs go, instead of being properly flexed. That’s why you have to hold you body in this absurd position, with the belly pointing forward.

Here, have a look at how it is done properly:

Upright primates! What a ridiculous, misguided accident of evolution!

Two young Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in the Berlin Tierpark Friedrichsfelde. These two were climbing and jumping around together, and I couldn’t help but feel each was daring the other to copy dangerous jumps. Previously, I showed a picture of one climbing, now I’ll add some more photos to emphasize what the ability to pronate a hand is really good for. Just to drive home what theropods never could do….

I goes there, I comes back.

Jumping to and fro is all fine, but how do you get UP to a point to jump down FROM? Here’s how:

OK, I guess I have made my point by now: climbing is a lot easier with pronatable hands. You can grasp a trunk with medially facing palms, but you need a lot of strength to pull yourself up that way, because your center of mass is further away from the tree than when you do a pull-up.

EDIT: two great posts to check out about the uselessness of theropod arms.

The enclosure for the Macaques in the Tierpark is made up from ruined buildings – they selected sandstone columns and other stonemason’s work with decorative elements. german cities had a lot of such stones to get rid off after the Second World War, and turning them into a playground for monkeys is a pretty nice idea