Re: Purposefully false restorations?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 04:33 PM 10/25/97 PDT, you wrote:
>In the recent issue of Prehistoric Times, artist Mike Milbourne, without 
>naming names, accuses the restorers of Giganotosaurus and 
>Carcharodontosaurus of purposeful falsehood in the restoration of their 
>respective finds in an effort to upstage Tyrannosaurus rex.  I'd heard 
>this in the past from another prominent dinosaur artist (in a private 
>conversation, so I won't say who), but not as strongly as put by 
>Milbourne in PT.  

While the Carcharodontosaurus skull is not complete, and the premax is
almost certainly too long (as based on comparison with Giganotosaurus,
Acrocanthosaurus, Abelisaurus, Allosaurus, and almost any other theropod you
might want to relate it to), the skull of Giganotosaurus is ALMOST COMPLETE.
Do not just go by the original Coria & Salgado paper: most of the skull is
now known.

And, as Mike Brett-Surman once observed, it is a BMF theropod!

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661