Doubtful Dinosaur Musings

/ Quirky Girl

The Temporal Bone is connected to the…

Tailbone?

Say what?!?

Dinosaurs are such an enigma.

Perhaps it’s because their bones are like a ten billion piece jigsaw puzzle.

Think about it.

With no helpful assembly instructions for guidance, each type of dinosaur is estimated to have roughly 200 bones.

And with hundreds of different types of dinosaurs…

That leaves a disturbing amount of room for error.

After all, who’s to say we’ve been accurately assembling those prehistoric bones?

When dinosaur fossils are discovered, they tend to be badly damaged, crushed, or warped from the weight of dirt and rocks.

So they may be pieced together incorrectly.

Or the “final” result may actually be incomplete.

In fact, scientists themselves have been known to harbor doubt when attempting to piece those suckers back together.

With strange dinosaur names like Yamaceratops, Irritator, Gasosaurus, and Drinker…

It’s almost like paleontologists are trying a little too hard to divert the confusion.

Which brings us to the Bone Wars, between American paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh.

So fierce was their rivalry in the heated pursuit of discovering and naming new dinosaurs that there was no shortage of bullying, bribery, and flat-out careless errors.

Case in point:

When Cope presented his fossil of a marine reptile called Elasmosaurus, it was discovered that the vertebrae were assembled backward.

The head and tail were also transposed.

So much for any attempt at accurate representation.

Marsh, for his part, was trying to piece together an Apatosaurus.

But it was missing a skull.

So he knowingly used the head of another dinosaur to complete the skeleton.

And the moral of the story?

If it the bones can be crammed together in a way that may or may not properly fit…

Hey, that’s good enough!

When someone is determined or frustrated enough, it’s gotta be so tempting to cram a puzzle piece someplace it doesn’t quite belong.

Especially after spending far too much time puzzling over it.

Take the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex, for instance.

Take a really good look at it.

T Rex’s disproportionately minuscule arms look like a better fit for a smaller dinosaur, like Triceratops.

No wonder those creatures look so angry.

With stubby little arms and a tail that drags ten feet behind on the ground like a ball and chain, what’s there to be happy about?

There’s also been debate over the years as to whether the Brontosaurus ever actually existed, either.

Who knows?

Anything is possible.

All I know is, if I were to dig in my backyard and unearth dinosaur bones, I’d let my kids try their luck at assembling a new creature.

And then I’d let them name it.

So far, we have several promising contenders:

  • Buttasaurus
  • Boogerraptor
  • Dieceratops
  • Stinkyheadamimus
  • Thunderthighapus
  • Dinkybrainadon
  • Atrociousaurus

The possibilities are endless!

Which brings me to another point:

You almost have to wonder what human bones haphazardly pieced together by the next creatures on earth in fifty million years might look like.

Now, that ought to be interesting.

Nah, there’s no way those weird things with five wiggly digits could possibly belong up there by those goofy funnel-looking thingys…

Oh, well.

Just stick that crap on top that freakishly small skull…

And voilà!

We’ll call it the Peabrainasaurus!

~Happy Friday, everyone! Hope you have a terrific weekend!~

The dinosaur depicted here is most likely the approximate result of assembling bones together, puzzle-style.

The dinosaur depicted here is most likely the approximate result of assembling bones together, puzzle-style.

37 thoughts on “Doubtful Dinosaur Musings”

  1. Cant wait to see Boogerraptor properly assembled.

    If you want to know about dino controversies look up Jack Horner. This guy stubbornly refuses to believe that T Rex was a hunter even though there has been enough evidence to support it.

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    • Thank you! 😀 The more I look at all the oddities in dinosaur formation (as we know it, anyway), the more I have to question how much alcohol consumption must’ve been involved in the process of piecing together all those fossils to create such bizarre representations of those poor creatures. 😛

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  5. People who dig in the dirt all the time make me a tad nervous…especially if they’re employed by the gas or electric companies. They’ve had a sketchy history in recent years of not knowing where to not dig around our parts. You never know what you’ll find…unless you have a flippin’ map showing you exactly what’s where. Maybe the paleontologists should repair and replace utilities while the gas and electric folks should hunt for bones? (Peabrainasaurus sounds like a winner!)

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    • Perhaps a switch-up of roles would indeed be a beneficial thing for both sides. Maybe an electrician would have better luck putting together a more accurate representation of those historic creatures than a time-crunched, burnt-out paleontologist. 😛

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  10. I was always sketchy about fossils and dinosaur bones. You make some great points with a twist of humor. Ah, hence, the humorous bone. 😎 Hopefully, if they piece human bones back together in fifty years, they will place that bone where it belongs which is? I dunno. Thank you for the education. Very interesting post. ❤

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    • You have to love the irony of labeling a bone “funny bone” when it is anything but funny. Especially when it takes a bump or a whack. Definitely unfunny.

      You’re right- Perhaps upon reassembling human bones in the distant future, the funny bone may finally find itself in a less painful position in the body. 😛

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  12. Do you mean to tell me the dinosaur bones on display in museums are maybe from two or three different puzzle boxes? Whoa!! I’ve often thought they look a little out of proportion, etc, but figured hey, these are professional archaeologists who do this stuff for a living, so who am I to fuss about a big head or little arms? Maybe the janitors switch the heads at night to see if anyone will notice… 🙂

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    • I think you’re on to something. In fact, I’d take it one step further and hypothesize that the janitors are actually the ones who’ve been fully responsible for assembling these puzzle-like dinosaur bones. The paleontologists have been too busy brawling to be bothered with all that puzzle-assembling nonsense. 😛

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  15. It’s funny. A similar thought entered my mind as I wrote this, about not forcing pieces together when that clearly defies nature’s logical order. I guess there really is truth to that.:)

    How did your seminar go? Hope your weekend is terrific! 😀

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  16. That’s really interesting, I learned a lot. Thank you! Reminds me of the importance of going with what’s natural, rather than just trying to force disparate pieces together. Perfect timing. I appreciate your blog a lot. 🙂 Have a great weekend, Debbie

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