Re: The Future Is Wild & Giants: personal Comments (LONG)

[Brian Choo <ozraptor@mail.global.net.au>]

>Ivan Kwan wrote:
>> And the _Megalania_ seemed way out of scale for a 6-meter
>> lizard...
>
>Especially considering there is no good evidence they grew to more than
>3.5 to 4 metres. See:
>
>http://www.bio.usyd.edu.au/staff/swroe/Wroe2002review.pdf

To make matter worse, there was no sign of Meg's cranial crest. According
to Trusler, skin impressions suggests the scalation on the crest-area was
larger than what one would expect for a varanid so it would have been
pretty hard to miss.

As for FIW - Most of my gripes are narration/stock-footage related (they
really go overboard with the stock-footage or repeating the same sequence
as a mirror image) - one gripe I've yet to hear regards the lurkfish - they
show a gymnotoid electric-eel then claim that "100 million years of
evolution later" has led to the lurkfish. Sheesh, just a cursory glance at
that critter's fin-configuration reveals that thing is a siluriforme.

Just saw the first in-depth 5 million-years episode. My advice is ignore
the 2-hour pilot altogether - it's just a collection of stock-footage from
the main episodes. The 1-hour main-episodes at least are interspaced with
interviews that at least provide a veneer of justification for some of the
speculative decisions (though what Stan Lee is doing there I'll never know)
At least James Farlow seems to be having fun!

I have to admit that the cryptile is a funky-looking critter - although I
can't help but wonder (since they state that the Australian Frilled Dragon
is it's closest relative) how an Australasian agamid makes it's way to the
Med.

Cheerio
Brian