Lost World -SPOILER-

["Dictator-for-life Calvin" <MWEDEL@gslan.offsys.uoknor.edu>]

Here's some thoughts on The Lost World

>Among the dino nit-picking, did anyone complain about the stegosaurs
>waggling the plates while in the cage?

Yeah, I did notice that.  I figured it fit with Dr. Robert Ba--I 
mean, Dr. Robert *Burke's* plate-flipping theory.  :-)

I just saw the movie a second time, and I watched the Triceratops 
(guess I ought to call it a "trike" to be truly JP-LW hip) 
closely--for the whole second or so that it was on screen *sigh*.  
The forelegs looked upright to me.

BTW, is there a current consensus on ceratopsian galloping?  I 
remember "Dr. Burke" claiming upright forelimbs and the capacity for 
galloping in "The Dinosaur Hernias," but I've also read some claims 
to the contrary.  Bring me up to speed, anyone?

Overall, I really liked the movie, mostly because I finally got 
enough T. rex action to satisfy me.  As long as I got to watch him 
(her?) stomp around, I didn't care if it was Seaport Village or the 
Valles Marineris.  My only real beef with the movie was that Sarah 
Harding, the only paleontologist among the major characters, was a 
complete idiot (come to think of it, Burke was none too sharp, either).  
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but outside of the La Femme 
Lindstradt bit at the end, the only things she did in the movie were 

1)  Preach about noninterference right after a disastrous 
interference (perhaps she was a sudden convert).

2)  Quote statistics about olfactory capacity while wearing a 
blood-stained jacket.

3)  Describe at length the mother T. rex's intentions about five 
minutes after Malcolm summed it all up with "Momma's very angry."

I did think it was a nice touch that the one of the rexes had slashes 
across its cheek reminiscent of the intraspecific combat pathologies 
seen in Sue et. al.  Although I wonder who did the damage.  If it was 
Scar's mate, they must have patched things up pretty quickly.  Surely 
there aren't *more* adult T. rexes on the island.  Perhaps a third, 
hostile individual was bred, released, got into a fight with Scar and 
lost.  Or maybe the scar was Stego inflicted.

Here's a final thought:  JP has it's Horner/Grant, LW has its 
Bakker/Burke.  If the franchise continues, who's next in line?