Smithsonian.com

A dinosaur threatens a duo of English adventurers. From "The Last Haunt of the Dinosaur" in The English Illustrated Magazine.

We just can’t let dinosaurs stay dead. They were real dragons that (notwithstanding their bird descendants) lived and died millions and millions of years before our species evolved, and they are so fascinating that we keep finding new ways to bring them into our world. Among the various ways humans and dinosaurs have been brought into contact, the idea that some dinosaurs might have survived in some pocket of unexplored wilderness has been a staple of science fiction and adventure stories for some time. Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World is the classic prototype for this subgenre, but one of the lesser-known variations on the theme was a 1908 story by Henry Francis called “The Last Haunt of the Dinosaur.”

While not an outright copy of Doyle’s story, Francis’ tale is another “Lost World” type of adventure that was standard for pulp magazines of the time (which included, I am sorry to say, racist undertones). Where Francis had a bit of trouble, though, was deciding what kind of dinosaur should menace the intrepid English explorers central to his story. It was a carnivorous dinosaur, the salacious descriptions of gore in the story make that clear, but Francis gave his dinosaur a long neck and small head like that of a sauropod. A case could be made that early sauropodomorph dinosaurs like Aardonyx would fit Francis’ description for body type if not dietary habits, but I am not feeling so charitable. It seems to me that he was confused and combined features from several dinosaurs to make a monster. (Francis covers his own tracks later on by having the scientists revise a restoration of a dinosaur skeleton they had been working on to fit the creature they saw in the jungle.)

Contrary to Francis’ imaginary tale, however, there is no reason to think that there are non-avian dinosaurs still inhabiting tropical jungles. Even if some lineages managed to survive the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous 65 million years ago, their descendants would have continued to evolve and would probably look very different from their Mesozoic ancestors. Nevertheless, “Lost World” type stories give us an excuse to wonder what life would be like if the dinosaurs we know only as fossils actually lived alongside our species, and I have little doubt that this kind of tale will be around, in one for or another, for some time to come.

The skull of an Allosaurus skeleton on display at the Museum of Ancient Life in Utah.

Looking over our blogroll the other day I noticed that a number of the blogs have either moved, disappeared, or have not been updated with anything about dinosaurs in ages. It is high time for a blogroll revamp.

In order to make sure that our blogroll represents the best of dino bloggers, though, I need your help. Are there any blogs not presently on our list that you think we should add? Let us know in the comments, and tell us why you like the blog.

All the blogs that are mentioned might not necessarily make the final cut, but I will definitely have a look at each of them. Please submit your suggestions by next Wednesday (the 25th) and we will have our new blogroll up after Thanksgiving. Thanks!

When will we humans ever learn? Many of us would love to see dinosaurs in the flesh, but if we ever actually got the chance it would probably be a terrifying experience.  Numerous movies, comic books, and video games have been based upon this love-hate relationship, and last week saw the release of video game that carries on in this tradition called Jurassic: The Hunted.

Asking about the story played out in the game is a bit superfluous. Any plot that involves dinosaurs, the Bermuda Triangle, and a gritty heavy-weapons expert does not merit too much thinking about. The entire reason for the game’s existence is to allow players to run around shooting dinosaurs with a variety of big, highly destructive weapons.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Another dinosaur shoot-’em-up, Turok, was released early in 2008. In fact, the new game shows many similarities with Turok, and it looks like Jurassic: The Hunted is a game meant to satisfy players who want to keep blasting away at dinosaurs. I have to admit that Turok had a pretty good storyline, though, something that this new game seems to have foregone.

Though gaming systems are continually changing, dinosaur hunting games have been around for a while and probably will continue to pop up for many years to come. Such games allow virtually anyone to be a heroic monster slayer without leaving the comfort of their couch. It seems that the only thing more fun than bringing dinosaurs back to life is sending them into extinction again.

'Jingo' the Stegosaurus.

By the spring of 1916 it seemed inevitable that the United States would enter World War I. This prospect unsettled those opposed to our country’s involvement, and there was no better symbol for the military buildup these people feared than the great armored dinosaurs.

The papier-mâché Stegosaurus featured in the April 1, 1916 issue of the magazine The Survey was no joke. Created by the “Anti-’Preparedness’ Committee” the dinosaur carried the slogan “All Armor Plate – No Brains” beneath it as a jab at those who preferred trench warfare to diplomacy. Walter G. Fuller, a member of the organization that promoted the statue, explained:

It is difficult to conceive any more proper and appropriate symbol of militarism than that which the Anti- Preparedness’ Committee has hit upon. What could be more like the heavy, stumbling, clumsy brutal foolery which is destroying Europe than those old monsters of the past, the armored dinosaurs? These beasts, all armor-plate and no brains, had no more intelligent way of living than that of ‘adequate preparedness.’ All their difficulties were to be met by piling on more and more armor, until at last they sank by their own clumsy weight into the marsh lands …

Here was an animal unable to do even a little intelligent thinking. Its brain cavity in proportion to the size of its body was more diminutive than that of any other vertebrate. Like the militarist, therefore, it was unable to conceive of any intelligent foreign policy. Moreover, its vision was limited. Its eyes were small and could look only in a sidewise direction. It could not look ahead.

Such a strategy, Fuller argued, could only lead to extinction; just look at what happened to the slow, stupid, and overburdened dinosaurs! At the time no one had any idea why the dinosaurs had become extinct, and the belief that dinosaurs were large in size but diminutive in brain power made them perfect for caricaturing all that was perceived as brutish, dumb, and obsolete.  “Anti-preparedness” activists drove this point home by naming their dinosaur “Jingo,” a reference to “jingoism” or a feeling of nationalism so extreme that threats of violence against other nations becomes acceptable.

Reactions to Jingo’s tour of American cities were mixed. Anti-war activists, of course, loved Jingo while those who supported American involvement in the “War to End All Wars” thought it was a dumb public stunt. According to a later report, however, some Christian fundamentalists were upset that anyone would suggest that Jingo and his kind had been poorly made; God had created dinosaurs perfectly during the Creation week, after all. Nor was paleontologist W.D. Matthew of the American Museum of Natural History particularly impressed. Regardless of whether herbivorous dinosaurs escaped the claws of predators by virtue of their armor, speed, or wits, Matthew argued, they all became extinct. Even if there were “smart dinosaurs,” something that was in extreme doubt at the time, they fared no better than the massive, armored species when it came to survival.

In a cartoon published in The Survey, "Professor Theophilus Piffle" fails to morally persuade "Jingo" the Stegosaurus that brains are superior to brawn.

Ultimately Jingo and his message could not keep America out of war. Despite earlier isolationist and anti-war sentiments, the threat of unrestricted submarine warfare, an alliance between Mexico and Germany, and the Preparedness Day Bombing turned both politicians and the public towards war. Nearly one year after Jingo made his public debut, the United States declared war on Germany, and new laws such as the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 restricted the free speech of Americans. To speak out against the war was treasonous, and so Jingo was forced into extinction.

The dinosaur outside the "Dinosaur Inn" in Vernal, Utah.

While driving through northern Utah on the way to Dinosaur National Monument this past summer, my wife and I passed through Vernal, Utah. There were dinosaurs everywhere. Big ones, small ones, green ones, pink ones… it was hard to look in any direction and not see a dinosaur.

One of the most prominent dinosaurs was this fellow outside the Best Western “Dinosaur Inn.” I stopped to snap a picture, but only for a moment. As much as I love roadside dinosaurs I was more anxious to see the ones still encased in rock.

Have you stumbled across a dinosaur in an unexpected place? If you have, and have a photo of the encounter, send it to us via dinosaursightings@gmail.com!