Re: Purposefully false restorations?

["David Krentz" <david_krentz@fa.disney.com>]

        Reply to:   RE>>Purposefully false restorations?

Not only does does Mike Melbourn(sp?) display Giganotosaurus and
Charcharadontosaurus   dwarfed  by the T-Rex skull in Prehistoric Times, he
simply used one illustration to represent both species!  The two skulls are
very similar in life, but it's like using Tarbosaurus in place of T-Rex.
  Is it just me, or is there a whole lot of attitude being displayed by
restorationists these days.
  I've probably made a lot of people hate me with that last statement, but
shouldn't artists take their cues from the scientists? Perhaps MM did, but if
so he should have certainly stated his references rather than insult many
people.
  David Krentz

--------------------------------------
Date: 10/27/97 7:29 AM
To: David Krentz
From: 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