Re: Dinosaur Magazine

[Josh Smith <smithjb@sas.upenn.edu>]

Steve Brusatte wrote:

> You want a review, eh?  Be careful what you wish for!! :-)
>
> I received my copy in the mail yesterday, straight from the publisher because 
> I contributed some material for Tony Campagna's article on Bob Bakker (they 
> forgot to credit me for the photo...).
>
> The magazine is 48 pages long, considerably shorter than Prehistoric Times 
> and Dinosaur World, but about 20 pages longer than Fossil News (which is 
> monthly). The color is very good, the layouts are nice, the photos are cool, 
> etc.
>
> HP Josh Smith wrote an excellent article on his recent Egyptian expeditions 
> and the discovery of Paralititan.  This is a nice first hand account of the 
> excavation, with a splattering of history thrown in.  This is quite possibly 
> the best article in the magazine.
>
> Steve

I really appreciate Steve's kind words regarding this publication.  I have 
finally returned to Penn after about a month and have found my copy sitting in 
my mailbox (I managed not to really see any at SVP). Sadly, however, the 
article that _Dinosaur_ printed is a pretty serious edit of the rough article 
that I submitted to them.  I never actually turned in a final draft and never 
got final galleys on the thing.  As such, there are lots of things in there 
that I didn't say.  First off, all mention of Peter Dodson's involvement in the 
Bahariya Dinosaur Project was somehow deleted, although everyone else managed 
to remain
mentioned by name.  Overall, it IS more or less the article that I wrote, but 
here are some juicy bits that I NEVER would have written:

The feast was about to begin.  Nope...sorry...that would never come out of my 
word processor.
We have been pretty good I think about NOT saying that _Paralititan_ was the 
second largest animal to ever walk the earth.  I think that was actually first 
stated by a reporter.
There is NO WAY that we know nearly enough about _Argentinosaurus_ to say that 
it massed 30 tons beyond _Paralititan_.  Were the hell did THAT come from???  
Besides, to say something like that with the samples sizes we have is about as 
foolish as saying that the genus _Giganotosaurus_ was larger on average than 
the genus _Tyrannosaurus_ based on the sample sizes we have for those critters.
"one of Stromer's _Carcharodontosaurus_ dinosaurs."  Nope...sorry..I wouldn't 
have written that either...must have been someone at the Department of 
Redundancy Department.
There are some other cute ones sprinkled throughout the article..just thought I 
would share a couple.

Again, Steve, thanks for your kind words.

best,
-Josh

--
Josh Smith
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
University of Pennsylvania
471 Hayden Hall
240 South 33rd Street
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6316
(215) 898-5630 (Office)
(215) 898-0964 (FAX)