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Dinosaurs

What were the biggest, baddest and weirdest dinosaurs? Did killer algae take them out? What’s the deal with brontosaurus? Was T-Rex a cannibal? Who fought in the ‘bone wars?’ What kind of car does Predator X eat? Answers to these questions may or may not appear in the “Dinosaur” episode of Caustic Soda. Plus early paleontological blunders!

Music: “Downtown (in the Cenozoic)” by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (Yes, the Cenozoic marked the end of the dinosaurs. Deal with it.)

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Images

Movies

Land of the Lost
Toren: 6/10

Jurassic Park
Toren: 7/10
Joe: 7/10
Kevin: 9/10

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Toren: 6/10
Joe: 5/10
Kevin: 6/10

Jurassic Park III
Toren: 4/10

Valley of Gwangi
Toren: 5/10

One Million Years BC
Toren: 3/10
Joe: 4/10
Kevin: 2/10

31 Responses

  1. I’m not an expert, but if you really think about it, the reason the fear of dinosaurs means “bird hind legs” might be because their back legs are “held erect beneath the body”, similar to those of a bird. Another explanation may be that some scientists believe birds are in fact descendants of dinosaurs due to their similar body shape and posture. Again, I’m not entirely positive on the facts, but this is what makes sense to me.

  2. Speaking of jerks from other parts of the country calling you out…

    The little dude from Ice Age is named Skratt.

    ALSO!

    I got your Western Dinosaur movie topped! Dinosaur/Cop buddy movie!

    Theodore Rex
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114658/

    In an alternate futuristic society, a tough female police detective (Whoopie Goldberg) is paired with a talking dinosaur to find the killer of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals leading them to a mad scientist bent on creating a new Armageddon.

  3. Speaking of jerks from other parts of the country calling you out…

    The little dude from Ice Age is named Skratt.

    ALSO!

    I got your Western Dinosaur movie topped! Dinosaur/Cop buddy movie!

    Theodore Rex
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114658/

    In an alternate futuristic society, a tough female police detective (Whoopie Goldberg) is paired with a talking dinosaur to find the killer of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals leading them to a mad scientist bent on creating a new Armageddon.

  4. I haven’t even listened to this yet but did you mention the (presumably terrible) Denise Richards movie Tammy and the T-Rex?

  5. I haven’t even listened to this yet but did you mention the (presumably terrible) Denise Richards movie Tammy and the T-Rex?

  6. NOT IMPRESSED WITH THE NEWS NOISE KEVIN!!! DO DO… stop? Whyyy?!@?!@
    This was one of my favorites. Now heres a question if you could have ANY dinosaur as a pet which would you have?

    2. I say even though he’s a marine reptile, I would say plesiosaur, and I would take him to Scotland to freak out the cryptozoologists.

    3. Pet Dinosaur? Triceratops because it seems the most rideable and least bitey.

  7. Something that might be of interest-
    There’s a book called ‘The New Dinosaurs’ by a paleontologist named Dougal Dixon, with some fairly interesting ideas as fars what the dinosaurs might have become had they not gone extinct (complete with bright, colorful pictures, to boot). I think it was published in 88 or 89, but I’m sure it’s still kicking around on the internet somewhere (speculative paleontology and evolution seem to be weirdly popular). Based off that book is this site: http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0000265/Spec/ that is even more detailed. Interesting, time-wasty stuff.

  8. Something that might be of interest-
    There’s a book called ‘The New Dinosaurs’ by a paleontologist named Dougal Dixon, with some fairly interesting ideas as fars what the dinosaurs might have become had they not gone extinct (complete with bright, colorful pictures, to boot). I think it was published in 88 or 89, but I’m sure it’s still kicking around on the internet somewhere (speculative paleontology and evolution seem to be weirdly popular). Based off that book is this site: http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0000265/Spec/ that is even more detailed. Interesting, time-wasty stuff.

  11. And another foreigner to call you out:

    I’m pretty sure Komodo dragons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon), which live on the Indonesian island of Komodo, wouldn’t have that much access to Wildebeest, which live in Africa. The method of killing sounds right, but they’d go after a feral goat or something. 🙂

    Also, Joe, with regard to your comments about being slightly annoyed by living in an enthusiastic anarchist-run prison – I read a book once call Sync (http://www.amazon.com/SYNC-Emerging-Science-Spontaneous-Order/dp/0786868449) about research into synchronisation that referred to some sleep studies where they put people on a 23.5 hour day – after a few days they became ridiculously irritable. I suspect any serious period of time in an uncomfortable mind-bending prison really would be very bad for your head. 🙂

    Also, in Bill Bryson’s book ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ (http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171), which I highly recommend, he goes into the story about the discovery of the first dinosaur bones by some dude who was mad about fossils, and bought so many that his house was like a museum and he had no money – then this Owen guy comes along, very much into bigging himself up, renames the fossils dinosaurs, takes all the glory and the credit, and the other guys ends up having to make ends meet by taking people on guided tours of his museum-like house and ultimately had to sell all his fossils and died destitute. Owen was a bastard.

    Great episode though!

  12. And another foreigner to call you out:

    I’m pretty sure Komodo dragons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_dragon), which live on the Indonesian island of Komodo, wouldn’t have that much access to Wildebeest, which live in Africa. The method of killing sounds right, but they’d go after a feral goat or something. 🙂

    Also, Joe, with regard to your comments about being slightly annoyed by living in an enthusiastic anarchist-run prison – I read a book once call Sync (http://www.amazon.com/SYNC-Emerging-Science-Spontaneous-Order/dp/0786868449) about research into synchronisation that referred to some sleep studies where they put people on a 23.5 hour day – after a few days they became ridiculously irritable. I suspect any serious period of time in an uncomfortable mind-bending prison really would be very bad for your head. 🙂

    Also, in Bill Bryson’s book ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ (http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171), which I highly recommend, he goes into the story about the discovery of the first dinosaur bones by some dude who was mad about fossils, and bought so many that his house was like a museum and he had no money – then this Owen guy comes along, very much into bigging himself up, renames the fossils dinosaurs, takes all the glory and the credit, and the other guys ends up having to make ends meet by taking people on guided tours of his museum-like house and ultimately had to sell all his fossils and died destitute. Owen was a bastard.

    Great episode though!

  13. The cartoon with the cat sleeping and the mouse creeping closer with a bat in its hands every time it opens its eyes is PINK PANTHER.

    There have been rare dinosaur fossils discovered with scale pattern and pigment discovered; dinosaurs, like modern reptiles, seem to have been garishly coloured…

  14. Another cartoon movie, not really Caustic Soda material but very cute was The Land Before Time. Think there might even be a few of those movies.

    TV show more in a Caustic vein, Primeval. British show deals with anomalies that appear all over Britain and the prehistoric animals that come through them. They’ve had some seriously vicious dinosaurs on that show and a decent body count.

  15. Another cartoon movie, not really Caustic Soda material but very cute was The Land Before Time. Think there might even be a few of those movies.

    TV show more in a Caustic vein, Primeval. British show deals with anomalies that appear all over Britain and the prehistoric animals that come through them. They’ve had some seriously vicious dinosaurs on that show and a decent body count.

    1. I think Land Before Time was on the itinerary but it got cut because nobody had seen it.

      I just watched the first ep of Primeval on Netflix. I may or may not watch the second…

  16. Couple of pop culture dino references you missed:

    – Dinotopia: Dinosaurs and humans living together in peace and harmony (http://www.dinotopia.com/)

    – Flesh: Hunters go back in time and butcher dinosaurs to solve a meat shortage (2000 AD progs 1 – 19, 86 – 99)

  19. Komodo dragons do not have venom.
    They have all sorts of nasty bacteria in their mouths so when they bite an animal the wound becomes infected, the infection spreads and the animal becomes critically ill. The Komodo dragon follow the animal around and when it becomes clear that it’s dinner can’t fight back it starts eating.
    You were mostly right.

      1. Damn National Geographic!
        I don’t know how many nature shows I’ve seen that purport the faulty bacteria theory.
        Thanks Toren.