RE: raptor

["Tracy Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
Ken Kinman
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2001 2:42 AM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: raptor


Well,
     If their consultants told them to treat raptor as a proper noun, they
had better seek better consultants.  Same goes for hyphenating scientific
names.  Or possibly they sort of shopped around until they found a
consultant who gave them the answers they liked---who knows?
     The bottom line is that popular media must make a profit, and
sensationalism and shortcuts often seem to take precedence over scientific
accuracy.  At least that has been my experience, but I am rather cynical.
There are obviously exceptions, but they seem to be just that and not the
rule.  And I certainly would not have used the phrase "in your backyard",
because it can obviously result in a lot of misinterpretation and confusion.
  But the quality of their work, or lack thereof seemed most noticeable (in
what little of it I saw) in describing Tyrannosaurus' paleoenvironment as
"Where there were lots of prey."   Give me a break.
                     --------Ken
What needs to be done is somehow have a scientific orginazation that will
correct these so called consultants and that the media could go to.

Tracy