In the 70's someone had the idea that Triceratops frills were just huge muscle attachment points.
In the 70's someone had the idea that Triceratops frills were just huge muscle attachment points. Here's what that might have looked like. Seems like they wouldn't have been able to move their heads at all. This hypothesis made it into David Drake's book Time Safari. I remember reading the description of the triceratops and thinking that was pretty WTF.
Those are pretty good T-rexes in the background though.
Art by John McLoughlin from Dinosaurs of the Southwest, 1976.
I'll just tag Paul V. right now.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of McLoughlin books at my library. They're... weird. Gregory S. Paul took the time to single this one out as "one of the worst" books on dinosaurs in his Predatory Dinosaurs of the World.
ReplyDeleteThis little guy is pretty darn good:
ReplyDeletehttps://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bVB9GLa2Jwc/WBpI6FlLrJI/AAAAAAAAFyo/smOscsH9XYsizE6DPAw1zqBWxtuXCjBHwCLcB/s1600/9Feathersaurus.jpg
"Just a little lower...ahhhh...that's it, yeah."
ReplyDeletehttps://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aHNhmgO9X7c/WBpJuXZteuI/AAAAAAAAFy8/KoNqW591I6UxBG2qmLqA5atEQO4ElVZfACLcB/s1600/14Ceratosaurus.jpg
He's like an even less polished Bakker in the drawings department.
ReplyDeleteYeah, very college drawing class style, "Today we will learn stippling." Talented amateur at their best.
ReplyDeleteTell me more of Time Safari though.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember a lot about it beyond the "great white hunter" main character, some time travel shenanigans, and dinosaurs that are vicious monsters (along with the weird triceratops). Drake has always done hot-blooded dinos as far as I know. My favorite is the allosaurus in Birds of Prey, which the Roman characters call a dragon. It's an fast, almost-unstoppable, eating machine.
ReplyDeleteThis "meaty frill" idea really doesn't make any sense for genera like Styracosaurus.
ReplyDelete