June 30, 2011
Terra Nova Previews “Slasher” Dinosaur
A teaser poster for Terra Nova shows off an imaginary dinosaur called the "Slasher."
Predatory dinosaurs keep getting stranger. Like many budding dinosaur fans, I was introduced first to the classic carnivores Ceratosaurus, Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus, but since my early encounters with meat-eating dinosaurs in the mid-1980s a startling variety of bizarre predators have been discovered and popularized. The crocodile-snouted and sometimes sail-backed spinosaurs, snaggle-toothed predators like Masiakasaurus and Balaur, a dromaeosaur with double sickle-claws on each foot—among many others—have vastly expanded our understanding of the diversity and disparity among predatory dinosaurs. That’s why I’m pretty disappointed by a preview of an imaginary predatory dinosaur called the “Slasher” from the forthcoming sci-fi show Terra Nova.
Compared with actual predatory dinosaurs, the Slasher looks, well, pretty lame. I can almost imagine the design meeting that churned out the dinosaur: “OK, we all know Velociraptor is awesome, right? So just stick a crest on it and it will be even cooler!” But it isn’t. The Slasher looks like a generalized dromaeosaur with a Citipati-type crest glued onto its head and a few wispy feathers. For a menacing, imaginary dinosaur that will no doubt harry the time-traveling inhabitants of the upcoming show, I was expecting something a little more exceptional.
I’m also sad to see that the creators of the Slasher made two mistakes for which there is no excuse anymore. First, the Slasher holds its hands palms-down—a position predatory dinosaurs were not actually capable of. Yeah, everytime someone does a dinosaur impression they hold their hands out palms-down (“I’m a T. rex, RAWR!”), but the wrists of “raptors” and other predatory dinosaurs did not have the same range of motion as ours. When extended, their hands would have faced each other, as if holding a basketball, and all you have to do to see how a dinosaur wrist would have worked is look at the wrist of a bird. (And is it just me, or does the Slasher in the promotional image appear to have two right hands?)
The second problem is even more aggravating. It is now 2011. Paleontologists have been finding many, many feather-covered dinosaurs for 15 years now, and there is even solid evidence that the famous Velociraptor had feathers. Feathers were a widespread and common trait among the coelurosaurs—the large dinosaur group to which the sickle-clawed dromaeosaurs belonged—and any raptor restoration should sport a comfy coat of feathers. Granted, the creators of the Slasher gave the dinosaur an embarrassing pate of wispy fuzz which makes the dinosaur look as if it needs to subscribe to the “Feather Club For Dinosaurs,” but it’s not nearly enough. The Slasher is a naked dinosaur, and I can’t help but feel sorry for it.
According to Hollywood scuttlebutt, Terra Nova was pushed back to a fall release date so that the show’s creators would have more time to work on visual effects. If the Slasher is any indication, though, the new dinosaurs the show is playing up are not going to be nearly as impressive as I had hoped. (As Stephen Colbert might ask, is the Slasher a lame imaginary dinosaur, or the lamest imaginary dinosaur?) Flip through paleontologist Thomas Holtz’s recent encyclopedia Dinosaurs and you will meet a dazzling array of weird and wonderful dinosaurs. By comparison, the Slasher is a turkey—give me Suchomimus, Acrocanthosaurus, Cryolophosaurus and Austroraptor any day.
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I love you so much for writing this.
I think you’re right about the two right hands. It looks like they might’ve made this image as a chimera, by cutting and pasting bits from a bunch of other dinosaur images. Without attribution apparently either, GSP will be PO’d.
The Slasher is totally disappointingly lame. The hand orientation is forgivable, its a detail issue in a lot of ways, but the lack of feathers is unforgivable. Clearly this show is expecting to automatically pick up dinosaur fans in their following, but stuff like this will probably drive them off.
They should just take one of Luis V. Rey’s feathered dinosaurs wholesale, that’d be 1,000X cooler (+/- 10X). In fact their slasher looks like a lamified version of these guys:
http://www.luisrey.ndtilda.co.uk/jpegs/new/Gigantoraptor-Alectrosaurus.jpg
That doesn’t look very scary. More like a six-foot turkey.
I do have to object to one thing, though. It doesn’t look lame at all, the creature in the image is clearly ambulatory.
The Slasher also appears to be saying “Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Pou…hey, where are you going?!”
This show had a Carnotaurus in the trailer, so I was hoping that we would see a lot of accurate portrayals of fairly obscure dinosaurs. At the very least, it seems to be set in the southern hemisphere, so we’ll get away from the standard North American or Asian dinos.
And here is my objection: raptors weren’t fast.
TV Series will show feathered dromaeosaurs in 2149…
Perhaps you are being too harsh. Perhaps the producers of a multi million dollar television series decided to spend $20.00 on a dinosaur book, and twenty minutes on the internet and decided to base their ‘slasher’ on Dilophosaurus, hence the similar head crest, (though if it is a twin crest like Dilo, I cannot tell). Perhaps they KNEW Dilo didn’t have the frilled lizard type neck embellishment like the Spitter of JP fame, so thought this was a more accurate version of a REAL dinosaur. Perhaps they didn’t want a feather covered dromaeeosaur and KNEW there was no evidence for Dilophosaurus having feathers so wanted to go with a ‘scarier’ scaly, reptilian, dragonesque theropod than a ‘giant roadrunner’. perhaps they just added the few wispy trendrils to please the people who now think every theropod has to have some evidence of protofeathers.
Perhaps they know far more about dinosaurs than you think they do, but the artist who made the ‘slasher’ poster simply got the ‘hands’ wrong. An honest mistake for a graphic artist who is not a dinoaur fanatic.
Like the third option in the poll allowed, I think I will wait and see it before passing judgment… though I do expect such asinine T.V. adventure nonsense as humans with bowie knives slaying giant theropod dinosaurs.
I like the slasher. When I heard they were making up their own dinosaurs for the series, I thought, “Oh god, there’s going to be two-headed sauropods and fire breathing theropods and humanlike dinosauroids running about.”
I’m glad they’re taking a more conservative approach and making up dinosaurs that are at least believable and scientifically plausible instead of that alternative.
Although I agree that there is no excuse for the incorrectly positioned hands and the lack of feathers.
I was under the impression that the Slasher was aupposed to be some sort of proceratosaurid or something. But I suppose that would be giving the prpducers too muc credit What’s even worse is that the Terra Nova series is supposed to be in the Morrison formation of all things. So what’s with the Carnotaurus?
Just when you thought letting lose a relic protoceratosaurid (with deinonychosaurian attributes) onto hapless human victims was a good creative device. Sigh.
But at least the Slasher looks better than most of the creatures devised for the craptacular new episodes of Primeval.
Personally, I think having imaginary dinosaur species is an awful idea to begin with, nevermind the lukewarm execution we have here. The general public is pathetically ignorant when it comes to prehistoric life, and for reasons that are beyond me, loves to assume popular TV and movie portrayals are scientifically accurate. Thanks to Jurassic Park, people are almost violently opposed to the idea of feathered theropods, think Dilophosaurus was really a spitting midget, and think Spinosaurus is the biggest badass that ever lived, despite a lot of scientific literature to the contrary. Now we’re going to have museums bombarded with calls for Slasher skeletons & exhibits, and a lot of really pissed off Average Joe museum patrons walking out when they’re told the animal is made up.
I like to have faith in people, I really do. But vertebrate palaeontology is one field where I learned long ago having zero faith in the general human population is the smart route to take. When it comes to dinosaurs, the mainstream population (those who will be watching this show) CAN NOT–and to a degree REFUSE TO–discern fantasy from reality, and having imaginary dinosaurs injected into the popular culture is about to make things a whole lot worse for the public image of dinosaurs and the people that actually study or otherwise know something about them.
Oh my… At least the JP “Velociraptor Antihrropus” was scaly because in ’93 they weren’t really sure they had feathers, plus, even if it’s full of inaccuracies, it’s still a kickass movie creature.
But this… This! Heck, i don’t even know where to begin; i already had very low expectations for this show, but after seeing this horrid concept… Oh well, guess we’ll have to wait, say, another 50 years to get accurate movie dinosaurs
Oh my… At least the JP “Velociraptor Antihrropus” was scaly because back in ’93 they weren’t really sure it had feathers, plus, even if fully loaded with inaccuracies, it’s still a kickass movie creature.
But this… This! Heck, i don’t even know where to begin; i already had very low expectations for this show, but after seeing this horrid concept, well, as Andrea said, guess we’ll have to wait another, say, 50 years to get accurate movie dinosaurs
I saw both a Carnotaurus AND a Brachiosaurus in the preview. Which period are they even supposed to be in?
[...] I would be a bit disappointed if Pixar didn’t try to introduce new dinosaurs. I know I’ve been critical of speculative dinosaurs before, but in this case, the premise demands species that have never been seen before. Life changes, and [...]
Minus the dromaeosaur-esque foot claw, the Slasher actually looks quite a bit like a Guanlong.
[...] about the slashers… I have said some unkind things about this speculative dinosaur before, and after seeing it in action, I stand by my [...]
I thought the Slasher was pretty cool, but when I watched the show and saw it was a made up dinosaur, I was a little disappointed. When I saw the commercials for Terra Nova, I thought it was going to be a Guanlong, A real dinosaur that had a crest on its head a little bit like the Slasher’s crest. I thought this because, well, come on, who the heck would make up an imaginary dinosaur? I also have other problems with the show. For example, the giant centipede, the enormous leach on that guy’s back, and those strange markings in the rocks. what do they mean? I guess we’ll find out soon enough once the show continues.
everyone just calm down i saw the premeire and slashers have fethers,they have correct hand configuration and its pretty cool.
Oh, I’ve got one more nit to pick on the Slasher. It’s got two right feet for hands. Notice the slashing claw on its forepaws. Obviously the result of some Mesozoic Dr. Moreau playing patchwork games with mutated raptors.
See that’s what they need for a plotline, the advanced civilization of middleweight theropods right over the next ridge sending their mad-archosaur-scientist creations after the dangerous invading giant monkeys. Keep those monsters down and chase them back into their burrows.
I really like this blog post, I’m glad someone is keeping them honest. OK So I watched the show, largely holding my nose from the acting to the non-identifiable vegetation and would like to add the following:
Terra Nova claims the “transporting [of] select humans from the devastated future 85 million years into the past”, which to me infers late Cretaceous. So did the transport the “Brachiosaur” (as she says) Brachiosaurus (late Jurassic) and Ceratosaurus (Late Jurassic) as well or did they just borrow them from the Jurassic park movie set? And of the few popular dinosaurs depicted (all of the popular ones short of T-rex), the Velociraptor (late Cretaceous) was the only one they didn’t have to make up and they DID!… and yes it was lame, incorrect, where were the feathers?!
I just watched the premiere and I am mildly thrilled: The »Slasher« appears to have a furry coat of feathers around his body as well as the correct hand-configuration. They are portrait as warm blooded creatures. Furthermore I really really enjoyed their fluent and bird like movements! They felt alive for me.
If every movie and TV show had to be painstakingly accurate to be entertaining to watch we would be facing a severe shortage of good film. Gladiator was amazing but dismally inaccurate. And if you did not enjoy watching Gladiator you are the Grinch. The general public does not share your intimate knowledge of dinosaurs nor your apparent disgust for anything fictional. Please stop being a detail Nazi and try to enjoy artistic creativity for once.
I agree most vigorously with “Honestly’s” assessment. Paleontology enthusiasts have a passion for accuracy and truth that has served us well. I love it when people take a stand against the misconceptions surrounding dinosaurs.
But there is an exceptionally fine line between passion for truth and being a douchebag for the sake of truth. You can be right, yet have such a repulsive and forceful/bullying personality that you turn people off from the scientific accuracy you keep touting.
Granted, there is no *need* for making up dinosaur species, given the strange variety we have already found and the huge amount of room for speculative traits we can add on to them when they’re portrayed as live creatures. But just because there’s no need for it, that doesn’t mean we have any right to shout down those who *do* want to make up a few species on their own. That’s called artistic license, and “Terra Nova” is a fictional narrative, not the next “Walking with Dinosaurs.”
So the popular image of dinosaurs has a few inaccuracies in it. Big deal. We should be grateful that they love the animals as much as us, and then gently correct anyone who gets one of the details wrong.
I have much less patience with paleo-snobs than with people making an honest mistake in portraying these creatures. To those who still pull their hair out over scaly Velociraptors and tail-dragging Tyrannosaurs, I have these words: Give. It. A. Rest. Or do I have to pick up my copies of “Jurassic Park,” “The Lost World” (Crichton AND Doyle), and the “Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs” and beat you over the head with them? Learn some manners.