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Re: Comprehensive list of popular dinosaur misconceptions (warning: sarcasm)
"Nah, the Jurassic. You can tell because a) Tyrannosaurus was killed by
that asteroid, and b) Tyrannosaurus was in Jurassic Park."
Well, really, my point should have been "died out at the end of the
Age of Dinosaurs." But as it is, the explanation now needs to be more
along the lines of, since the Jurassic was the only important period
of the Age of Dinosaurs, and since dinosaurs died out at the end of
the Age of Dinosaurs (duh), then the end of the Jurassic was the end
of the Age of Dinosaurs. Problem solved.
Actually, let's just throw "an asteroid killed the dinosaurs" in there
while we're at it.
> Reminds me of an advanced children's book, which otherwise wasn't all that
> bad, but boldly proclaimed: "*Morganucodon* was a mammal because it bore
> live young."
>
> The stupid! It burns!
You know how they have fire-resistant blankets to throw on combusting
people to help put them out? They really should have those for stupid
people. Ignorance may not be their fault, but neither is being on
fire, and if we throw a high-tech blanket on them then at least we can
shield others from the harmful effects. As a bonus, it also serves to
identify the stupid person, even at long range, thus allowing others
to take appropriate precautions.
And is it just me, or do absurd claims usually go all-out and make
multiple false assumptions, instead of just one? I mean, here we have
both "viviparity = mammalian," which is itself dumb on at least two
levels, and then "we have direct evidence of viviparity in this
organism," which (unless I'm being dumb) is nonexistent.
Maybe I just notice those more because they're more grievously facepalmworthy.