Re: LIONS AND TIGERS (AND BEARS... OH MY!)

[Danvarner@aol.com]

In a message dated 99-04-13 15:20:20 EDT, George Leonard writes:

<< 
 >you know, "Castoroides was a beaver the size of a black bear", 
 >"Megaladapis was a a lemur the size of a black bear", and so forth...kind 
of 
 >like the classic "dinosaur brain/walnut" description. Ok, pointless comment 
 >over)
  And the black bears were playing golf with golf balls the size of 
 hailstones?
  >>
  As I said to Christian, the black bear cliche' is useful when you want 
something to be big but not THAT big. I've heard "dog-size" but that doesn't 
really work. I remember "school bus" as being a standard unit of length for 
sauropods when I was a kid. Then there was always the naked guy standing in 
the chart full of dinosaur silhouettes for comparitive size. Happily, it was 
that great paleolife-artist-iconoclast, Greg Paul, who finally traded that 
guy in for a running bare-naked lady.
  Also, one of the worst sounds I have ever heard was in the Black Hills 
when, yes, "golfball-sized hail" fell on my buddy's new car--an amalgam of 
icy impacts and hysterical wailing. Dan Varner.