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Dinosaur Battle Town from Eddie West on Vimeo.

Dinosaurs undoubtedly played host to other organisms—parasites have a deep history—but animator Eddie West took the idea in a different direction. Part “Flintstones”, part “Dino-Riders”, West created this short film about dueling towns on the backs of enormous dinosaurs. Naturally, though, the cartoon leaves plenty of unanswered questions—like how often the town is partially demolished because the dinosaurs feel the need to itch some of the masonry off their backs.

[Hat-tip to ART Evolved]

Chocosaurs at Hatch Family Chocolates. Photo by author.

Since I moved out West, I have been seeing dinosaurs everywhere. They are plastered on billboards, are the symbols of gas stations and—as I found out when I stopped by Salt Lake City’s Hatch Family Chocolates—sold as delicious chocolate morsels. When I stopped by the local confectionery they were selling these old-school sauropod and stegosaur tidbits. I don’t have to tell you they were good. NOM!

An iguanodon at Dinosaur Court. Photo courtesy of Randall Irmis.

In 1854—long before galleries of robotic dinosaurs would become a common sight—artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins unveiled a menagerie of sculpted dinosaurs that was unlike anything seen before. Constructed with the scientific guidance of anatomist Richard Owen, the massive restorations were placed in what has come to be known as “Dinosaur Court” at Sydenham Hill, South London. The site has become one of the must-see sites for paleontologists and dinosaur fans. The dinosaurs and other visions of prehistoric life Hawkins created are sorely out of date and represent Owen’s peculiar view of dinosaurs as the acme of reptilian evolution. But the site is remarkable for precisely this reason—the Dinosaur Court is a historical monument to a time when naturalists were only just beginning to become acquainted with the prehistoric creatures. (After all, Owen himself had coined the term “Dinosauria” only a little more than a decade before.)

Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History, visited the historic landmark in 2009 and was kind enough to share a few of his photos from the trip. View our gallery for a look at the dinosaurs of Sydenham Hill, along with some of the other Mesozoic creatures Hawkins restored alongside them.

Right before the first shot of the fan-made dinosaur flick Jurassic Park: Prime Survival, a warning flashes on the screen: “Remember. We were young.” Not a good sign. I’ve seen a lot of bad films, but never one that apologized for itself beforehand. Say what you want about stinkers like Plan 9 From Outer Space and The Blood Waters of Dr. Z , but they were proudly, unabashedly terrible.

The plot of Prime Survival is generally the same as the last two Jurassic Park films. Three British teens visit what they think is a deserted island only to find that it has been overrun by dinosaurs, and they spend the remainder of the film trying to find a way back home. While meant as a continuation of and tribute to the canonical Jurassic Park storyline, the movie sticks so close to the source material that it lifts a number of plot points and scenes from the official movies. (Though even professionals fall into this trap—compare 1987′s Predator with 2010′s Predators for a high-profile example of copycat filmmaking.)

Initially, the bad acting, plot holes and low production value of Prime Survival reminded me of another cringe-worthy disaster film: Birdemic. Then I realized this comparison was far too harsh. Prime Survival was an unquestionably amateur production—the sort of movie I’d normally have a lot of fun with in a Dinosaur Drive-In post—but, to the credit of the filmmakers, there was no endless mumbling about “slr panls,” the movie did not try to deliver an environmental message with all the subtly of a lead pipe to the head, and the effects didn’t look like animated clipart hovering in the air. (If you don’t get why any of those things would be important, you obviously haven’t seen Birdemic!) In fact, the dinosaurs in Prime Survival are actually very impressive for an amateur production. Many look like lower-res versions of their big-screen counterparts, and the special effects artists did a pretty solid job of making the dinosaurs look like they were actually in the same universe as the actors.

Prime Survival isn’t a good movie, but it isn’t exactly a bad movie either. The short film is a loving tribute to the Jurassic Park franchise, and, I have to admit, it’s far and away better than any of the homemade films I tried to create when I was in high school.

The nearly-complete hindlimb of the armored dinosaur Peloroplites on display at the CEU Prehistoric Museum. Photo by author.

I love small dinosaur museums with a focus on local discoveries. You can go to almost any museum and see a Tyrannosaurus tooth or skull cast—there must be some unwritten rule among curators that the great tyrant must make a least a cameo in any dinosaur exhibit—but small museums often pay tribute to species that are not as widely known. The College of Eastern Utah’s Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah is one such place. Upstairs, in a small gallery devoted to the region’s armored dinosaurs, are the robust, red and gray bones from a local giant described just a few years ago. This dinosaur is called Peloroplites cedrimontanus.

Peloroplites is just one of the latest ankylosaurs to be found in eastern Utah. The Cedar Mountain Formation, representing Early Cretaceous ecosystems from about 127 million to 98 million years ago, contains the fossils of at least six different species of ankylosaur (though they are distributed over this time period and did not all coexist with each other). Peloroplites was one of the biggest—its name means “monstrous heavy one”—and was found in strata dating to about 112 million years ago.

Though Peloroplites was a sturdy dinosaur, the fossilization process was not very kind to the specimen paleontologists Ken Carpenter, Jeff Bartlett, John Bird and Reese Barrick described in 2008. The new dinosaur was represented by a partial skull, portions of the arms and legs, parts of the hip, various vertebrae and a few other scraps. Altogether, though, the fossils indicated that Peloroplites was a relatively long-snouted ankylosaur that may have grown to lengths in excess of 16 feet. Compared to other ankylosaurs found in the area, Peloroplites was quite large, and the stout leg bones I saw at the CEU museum attest to the animal’s size.

Frustratingly, the heavy coat of bony armor this dinosaur would have sported is known only from a few small pieces, but Carpenter and co-authors were able to determine that Peloroplites belonged to a specific subgroup of ankylosaurs called nodosaurids. These dinosaurs lacked the heavy tail clubs often associated with ankylosaurs and, instead, often supported huge spikes on their necks and shoulders. Peloroplites may have been similarly outfitted. More than that, Peloroplites may have resembled an equally large ankylosaur that lived around the same time in prehistoric Montana called Sauropelta—so much so that Carpenter and co-authors suggested that some bones previously attributed to Sauropelta might turn out to belong to Peloroplites.

Just why Peloroplites and so many other ankylosaurs—some of which are still awaiting description—thrived in prehistoric eastern Utah is unclear. Given the number of dinosaurs identified from the Cedar Mountain Formation in the past few years alone, paleontologists are still putting together a picture of what life was like during the days of the Early Cretaceous in prehistoric Utah. Vestiges of Jurassic ecosystems mixed with lineages that would become dominant later during the Cretaceous during this portion of geologic time, and investigations into how the aggregations of dinosaurs in the Cedar Mountain Formation evolved are ongoing.

References:

Carpenter, K.; Bartlett, J.; Bird, J.; Barrick, R. (2008). ANKYLOSAURS FROM THE PRICE RIVER QUARRIES, CEDAR MOUNTAIN FORMATION (LOWER CRETACEOUS), EAST-CENTRAL UTAH Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28 (4), 1089-1101 DOI: 10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.1089