Re: The Lost World: Errata

[jpoling@infinet.com (Jeff Poling)]

>Page 162: "Velociraptors?" Arby said.
>     "Small carnivores," Levine said. "Basic theropod body shape, long snout,
>binocular vision. Roughly two meters tall, weighing perhaps ninety kilos.
>Very fast, intelligent, nasty little dinosaurs, and they travel in packs..."
>
>Sorry: two meters tall is a fairly LARGE theropod, about medium-size for an
>_Allosaurus_. _Velociraptor_ itself was only about two meters LONG, not TALL.
>Crichton makes this error repeatedly throughout the book, despite the legend
>for _Velociraptor_ on the endpapers (where the length is more accurately
>given as 6 feet). The "raptors" he's describing here are more in the size
>range of _Utahraptor_ (Raptor Red). Also, there is little evidence of
>binocular vision in _Velociraptor_, whose eyes were directed primarily
>laterally; he has infused some _Troodon_ attributes into these creatures.

  Certainly you've not forgotten _Velociraptor anthirropus_?

>
>Page 168: "Parasaurolophus," Levine said. "It's trumpeting through its nuchal
>crest. Low-frequency sound carries a long distance."
>
>The crest of _Parasaurolophus_ is not 'nuchal," it's "nasal." "Nuchal" refers
>to the neck, so a "nuchal crest" would be more like what _Amargasaurus_ had
>two of. (They were continued as dorsal crests all the way to the sacrum.)
>
>Page 225: "Maiasaurs had been named by paleontologist Jack Horner. ..."
>
>Sorry, they were named by Jack Horner and the late Robert Makela, whose
>contribution to our knowledge of _Maiasaura_ should not be overlooked. If you
>really want to get sticky, the name _Maiasaura peeblesorum_ was first
>suggested by Horner's mentor Donald Baird; Jack and Bob acknowledged him in
>their 1979 co-authored paper.

   Unnecessarily picky, I think.

>Page 237: "Baselton saw the tyrannosaur. No--there were two! They stood on
>both sides of a mud mound, two adults, twenty feet high on their hind legs,
>powerful, dark red, with big, vicious jaws. ..."
>
>TWENTY feet high is a bit much even for _Tyrannosaurus rex_. Heck, a whole
>animal from nose to tip of tail was about 40 feet long, give or take a couple
>of feet. This isn't as bad an exaggeration as in the case of _Velociraptor_,
>though.

   What?  No slam of the color?  I thought we were being picky here.

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