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RE: Terra Nova: updates
I was a little surprised on the subject of the character, largely because
there seemed to be an authentic reaction in regards to this girl to her
familials. Consider something about how she talks: She spoke with utter
authority, but quickly and assertively. I've heard people speak this way, and
it's not in a measured, droning litany. They've not said these things before,
but it is said with surety and precision: they know what they are saying' is
true, spoken with _reality_ backing it, but they've never said these words
aloud. I get this impression every time I hear technical language being spoken
by "fans," but whome are not used to the precision and care. You get it a lot
in fresh medical dramas and from poor actors where the use of jargon is
necessary to convey _gravitas_ on the subject. You get it from real people at
conventions who don't speak that much to people of the same stripe. (The same
type of acting was used in _Galaxy Quest_, with the fan kids. Just FYI.)
You have a bona fide burgeoning scientist in this girl. I wonder if the
person delivering the line means it, or whether she was coached to speaking it
this way, I do not know, and it may merely be coincidental.
On the nature of the "proto lateral incisor" statement: I think we should
want to take the statement at face value, and wonder where the phrase comes
from. Lateral incisors is a term used for mammals, while proto simply means
"incipient." I wonder, then, if this refers to the face that brachiosaur teeth
are spoon-shaped, but not quite incisiform, and she may be trying to consider
the teeth are pointed (like piercing teeth) but have an herbivorous morphology
otherwise, with a definitive incisiform-like structure. In this way, her
allusion is that of a priercing, tearing tooth in an animal that shouldn't do
that much oral processing (swallow and grind). Thus the teeth are becoming more
incisiform, but are not quite there yet, in a transitory morphology; likewise,
she is deliberately alluding to animals, such as the aforementioned deer, pigs
or elephants, that dig up carcasses and consume portions of them [or the whole
body!] when nutritiously deficient. In pigs and deer, as in camels, caniniform
teeth are retained, even if rudimentary, and in some will be functionally
useful in oral processing, although I am unaware of any such studies.
Thus, "proto-lateral incisors" may be her understanding for a morphology
useful for rendering fleshy remains or processing bone, whereas a typical
herbivorous tooth has no such quality, usually being high-cusped and
interlocking rather than preserving a crushing low-cusped form.
Cheers,
Jaime A. Headden
The Bite Stuff (site v2)
http://qilong.wordpress.com/
"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a
different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race
has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or
his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion
Backs)
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> Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:11:38 +0000
> From: keenir@hotmail.com
> To: tholtz@umd.edu
> CC: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: RE: Terra Nova: updates
>
>
>
>
>
> > Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:13:24 -0400
> > From: tholtz@umd.edu
> > To: tholtz@umd.edu
> > CC: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Subject: Re: Terra Nova: updates
> >
> > Addendum:
> > The brachiosaurs apparently have multiple rows of "proto-lateral incisors."
>
> followed by either "top and bottom" or "front and back"...by which I assume
> she means the dental assembly line found in pretty much all toothed
> dinosaurs, lizards & snakes, etc.
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