Charles Knight dinosaur calendar

[jimf@strauss.ncrmicro.ncr.com (Jim Foley)]

One of my Xmas presents was a calendar with dinosaur pictures by Charles
Knight.  He did a lot of very famous illustrations around the turn of
the century for the American Museum of Natural History.  I thought I'd
comment on it, and some of the anachronisms in it.


Agathaumas is a ceratopsian which is poorly known according to one of my
books.  Knight drew it with a long horn at the center front, and two
short ones at the back left and right, whereas Triceratops has a short
front horn, and long back ones.

Apatosaurus is shown as a swamp dweller, happily munching away on
aquatic plants.

Stegosaurus plates are paired along the back (I believe they are now
thought to have alternated) and there are four pairs of spines on the
tail (I thought there was only two).

Many bipedal dinosaurs are shown very upright, where nowadays I suspect
most of them would be depicted with the spine much closer to horizontal
(e.g. Hadrosaurus, Anatosaurus aka Anatotitan aka Edmontosaurus,
Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus)

Most of the dinosaurs look quite sluggish, and some of them are
downright obese (especially Agathaumas and Stegosaurus).  The exception
is a picture of two Dryptosauruses having a scrap.  (These are
small (medium?)-sized carnivores)  They look very agile and nasty.


Did anyone see any other things that I missed?


Despite the inaccuracies, it's worth having this calendar for the
nostalgia value.

I've seen two other calendars available, one by Ely Kish, and the other
with drawings by John Sibbick, Mark Hallett, and one other person.

--
Jim Foley                                    (303) 223-5100 x9765
Jim.Foley@FtCollinsCO.NCR.COM                NCR-MPD Fort Collins

        Cat: `I'm hungry, I just have to eat'
        Lister: `Shh, Rimmers dad's just died'
        Cat: `I'd prefer chicken'                    --- Red Dwarf