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feedmyleg
Dec 25, 2004
Dinosaurs are neat.



Like many of you, I was introduced to this undeniable fact in the early 90s via the powerful combination of Jurassic Park, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel. In the interim, the field of paleontology has exploded with new information about all aspects of dinosaur life, and there is more information out there on these fascinating creatures than ever.

But it's not all about dinosaurs in this thread! They are just one category of countless neat ancient animals, and pteranodons, ancient reptiles, and even extinct mammals are also allowed to this party.

I tend to skew more to videos for my dinosaur media, and right now YouTube creators are pumping out incredible dinosaur content on a regular basis, from species profiles to up-to-the-minute information about new research and finds. Here are some of my current favorite creators:

PBS Eons
The only channel on this list with significant backing, PBS Eons puts out short documentaries focused on paleontology and ancient man, like Where Are All the Medium Sized Dinosaurs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXe9IHVX17U

Ben G. Thomas
One of the best dinosaur channels out there, Thomas creates both short-form content that covers weekly discoveries in paleontology to long-form content that covers subjects like What Was the Biggest Dinosaur, or The Most Accurate T. rex Ever Reconstructed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG5sbVN3tI8

Moth Light Media
Creates a range of videos from biology, zoology, and palentolgy subjects, generally focusing on species profiles like this one of Mosasaurs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyIUACPGbrU

Past Eons Productions
Did you enjoy the series Walking with Dinosaurs when you were younger, but wish the science were more up-to-date today? Well I have good news for you, some wonderful insane person is remaking the entire series for nuts like us:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPJoUwnLD48

NORTH 02
Mainly focusing on documentary content on ancient man and history, he also creates terrific dinosaur content like this video on Herrerasaurus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuGSnywJqjE

TREY the Explainer
Another creator that covers both science-based looks at cryptozoological and paleontological subjects, such as this video on Dakotaraptor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E7HxK130Ec

Henry the PaleoGuy
Covering both paleontology and zoology, making both general species profiles as well as videos on more niche subjects like the thumbs of Pterosaurs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUNmyuHy9x4

E.D.G.E.
While this channel covers a spectrum of palentological, cryptozoolotical, and pop-cultural topics with an eye to the science (or lack thereof), his dinosaur content stands out as his best work. Here's a great update on the state of Spinosaurus in 2021, after a few rocky years of upheval of established science:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4U8dIv8d50

Brian Engh Paleoart
A paleoartist who paints and creates sculptures for museums, as well as creates great videos based on his research:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkh5EELS-V8

Dino Diego
Leaning more on the pop cultural side of things, Dino Diego covers obscure dinosaur films, dinosaur hoaxes, and the history of dinosaur media, such as in his series about traveling animatronic dinosaur exhibits called The Decline of Dinamation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYx2aHA-dVI

Enchiridion
Terrific species breakdowns of different dinosaurs, with an especially impressive hour and a half documentary just released on every aspect of Spinosaurus knowledge out there. But because I already posted a Spinosaurus video, here's a good one on Carcharodontosaurus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dNbfSPkMtU

Dinosauria
For a fictional change of pace, here is an stunning series of slice-of-dinosaur-life short films from David James Armsby, with well-crafted narratives and absolutely gorgeous visuals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bczetlOc3Q

Citipati
For more fictional stories, here's a compelling short film about life at the moment of the asteroid impact 65 million years ago that I found recently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSoImbo8Yr8

My personal favorite dinosaur media, though, involves stop-motion animated dinosaurs. This ranges from the films of Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien to documentaries on dinosaur life. Here are some favorites:

Muttaburrasaurus: Life in Gondwana
A 1993 documentary about the Muttaburrasaurus, one of the most important Australian dinosaur finds from Film Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fI1Le4xIEg

64,000,000 Years Ago
A 1981 documentary focused on North American dinosaurs in the late cretaceous from the National Film Board of Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv3_TSbwx14

Dinosaur
Here are some experts from the renowned 1985 documentary "Dinosaur" animated by Phil Tippet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzBP5iuGEtA


Paleoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past
While I love how much more accurate to true biology we're able to get with current paleoart, there's something that speaks to me about the quasi-mythological vibes to older, outdated paleoart. I was given this book as a gift a few years back and it's an absolute beast, covering the fascinating history of the evolution of paleoart since the discovery of the first dinosaurs. It's pricey, but highly, highly recommended.

And now for some neat images!


A gorgeous Spinosaurus by that_guy_274


A life-sized reconstruction of Quetzalcoatlus


Still from some terrifically realistic animations by Chris Masna taken from here


A stunning Deinocheirus by Andrey Atuchin


A herd of Vouivria damparisensis very tall bois by Chase Stone


Concept art for the in-progress video game Saurian by Raph Herrera Lomotan


Ornithomimus by Julius T. Csotonyi


And to get some feathers in here, the current conception of Velociraptor by DanneArt

I'm barely scratching the surface of the amazing stuff out there—so post your favorite dinosaur media here, whether it's a survival horror video game or an episode of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs or a new dinosaur toy you got for Christmas or some gorgeous new paleoart from one of your favorite creators!

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Asterite34
May 19, 2009



I have, in the course of my life, seen all fourteen Land Before Time movies, AMA

Captain Hygiene
Sep 17, 2007

You mess with the crabbo...



feedmyleg posted:

Dino Diego
Leaning more on the pop cultural side of things, Dino Diego covers obscure dinosaur films, dinosaur hoaxes, and the history of dinosaur media, such as in his series about traveling animatronic dinosaur exhibits called The Decline of Dinamation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYx2aHA-dVI

Bookmarking to watch later.

Man, those things were the delight and terror of my life when they showed up for a couple runs at my local museum back when I was a kid. It must've been early '90s, it feels like it must've been pre-Jurassic Park, but I haven't been able to find the year. Apparently new animatronic dinos have been making the museum rounds this year, making it tougher to find any info from back then, hopefully this video is relevant to the stuff I remember from way back when.

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm
Prehistoric Beast is a must-watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlaXIRTjNfo

I had a bunch of dinosaur books when I was little but I didn’t actually read them until relatively recently. The science is super out of date but drat John Sibbick made some amazing drawings





It struck me last year that hey, maybe I should get some up-to-date dinosaur books. I got two well-reviewed ones (Theropods & Sauropods) but while the artwork is very nice, they are very sterile, and I realized what I really wanted was a paleo-art book.

Kaiju Cage Match
Nov 5, 2012




I remember my local zoo having this cool animatronic exhibit with a Jurassic Park theme (this was around 2004). And speaking of animatronic dinosaurs, right before COVID screwed everything up for everyone, there were a bunch of non-Jurassic Park animatronics scattered throughout the zoo, here's some photos of them:



(The Quetzalcoatlus was way bigger in person, as it should be)





(There were some people setting up the mama T-rex when I was there, so I wasn't able to get a good photograph of her.)



Kaiju Cage Match has a new favorite as of 00:41 on Dec 19, 2021

Captain Hygiene
Sep 17, 2007

You mess with the crabbo...



Captain Hygiene posted:

feedmyleg posted:

Dino Diego
Leaning more on the pop cultural side of things, Dino Diego covers obscure dinosaur films, dinosaur hoaxes, and the history of dinosaur media, such as in his series about traveling animatronic dinosaur exhibits called The Decline of Dinamation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYx2aHA-dVI
Bookmarking to watch later.

Man, those things were the delight and terror of my life when they showed up for a couple runs at my local museum back when I was a kid. It must've been early '90s, it feels like it must've been pre-Jurassic Park, but I haven't been able to find the year. Apparently new animatronic dinos have been making the museum rounds this year, making it tougher to find any info from back then, hopefully this video is relevant to the stuff I remember from way back when.

So I think this was the company I was thinking of after all, in their heyday from the late 80s to early 90s before slowly declining after Jurassic Park came out. So I can put my memories at a solid 30 years ago :corsair:

Anyways, it's a fun watch, I definitely recommend taking a look.

Knormal
Nov 11, 2001

This guy's channel is also pretty good, though he's fairly new. Check out this dorky archosauromorph.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DmQu9cHsOA

Asterite34 posted:

I have, in the course of my life, seen all fourteen Land Before Time movies, AMA
Are you Jenny Nicholson?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-8zmGr0geQ

Hedrigall
Mar 27, 2008

by vyelkin
I love dinos but I think the land before time, yes the beloved first one, is garbage trash

I like rock a goddamn doodle more than that movie

Hedrigall
Mar 27, 2008

by vyelkin
I’ll be be the first to to mention Dinotopia

The books are marvellous. James Gurney is one of my favourite painters.

I implore anyone who cares about art to check out his excellent book Color And Light in which he uses paleo art (and some other fantasy art and landscape stuff) to teach you the art fundamentals of color and light. It’s probably my favourite book in my small art instruction library

https://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Realist-Painter-Gurney/dp/0740797719

Here’s a review showing many pages:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCS5PqZcTRc

Hedrigall has a new favorite as of 13:49 on Dec 19, 2021

eating only apples
Dec 12, 2009

Shall we dance?
I would like to see some baryonyxes, if any dinosaur-knowers itt have any videos or images that would be awesome

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm

eating only apples posted:

I would like to see some baryonyxes, if any dinosaur-knowers itt have any videos or images that would be awesome

Speaking of James Gurney…

7c Nickel
Apr 27, 2008
I happen to like Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong wherein an expert looks at various dinosaur toys and models and explains whats wrong with them. This also serves as a launch platform for talking about a given species, the history of its discovery, where the misconceptions come from and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW7uyD0hfqg

feedmyleg
Dec 25, 2004
For anyone interested in recent discoveries, right now a bunch of paleontology YouTubers are putting out videos for a collective project called "Paleo Rewind" where they go month-by-month and highlight all the most interesting discoveries of the year. Here's the first three:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd9OyLZdusQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O6xyu81jko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISlAlnKqG5k

The schedule and links to other videos can be found in the description of the third one.

ynohtna
Feb 16, 2007

backwoods compatible
Illegal Hen
I kinda like dinosaurs (some of them scare me which is totally unfair 'cos I've never met an excessively malicious one).


If it quacks like a dinosaur...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG7p_6LvtPI


Don't you forget about me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXeczS1EU9A

Tree Bucket
Apr 1, 2016

R.I.P.idura leucophrys

Hedrigall posted:

I’ll be be the first to to mention Dinotopia

The books are marvellous. James Gurney is one of my favourite painters.

I implore anyone who cares about art to check out his excellent book Color And Light in which he uses paleo art (and some other fantasy art and landscape stuff) to teach you the art fundamentals of color and light. It’s probably my favourite book in my small art instruction library

https://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Realist-Painter-Gurney/dp/0740797719

Here’s a review showing many pages:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCS5PqZcTRc

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll be tracking this down.
Dinotopia has been one of my favourite books for... uh... three decades now?

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

Oh wow, Dinotopia lol. I read my childhood library's collection to pieces.


edit for content:
Meet Heracles inexpectatus, the biggest parrot that ever lived. Heracles was three feet tall, weighed fifteen pounds, and was native to New Zealand. Scientists have nicknamed him Squawkzilla.

No, I'm not kidding.



The bones that turned out to be giant parrot leg bones had been sitting in a paleontology closet for 11 years before a student thought to pull them out and take another look at them. Everybody had to that point thought they were the bones of (yet another, I guess?) enormous man-eating eagle and hadn't really cared all that much.

quote:

The large bones, believed to be the bones of an ancient eagle, flew under the radar for a decade. It was during a research project in the lab of Flinders University paleontologist Trevor Worthy that graduate student Ellen Mather rediscovered the bones.

After that, a team of researchers began reanalyzing the findings earlier this year, according to the BBC.

"It was completely unexpected and quite novel," Worthy, the study's lead author, told National Geographic. "Once I had convinced myself it was a parrot, then I obviously had to convince the world."

https://www.newsweek.com/largest-parrot-ever-massive-beak-fossils-1452749
https://www.sciencealert.com/check-out-this-hercules-parrot-from-prehistoric-new-zealand
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49262365

quote:

The parrot's beak would have been so big, Mike Archer of the University of NSW Palaeontology said, it "could crack wide open anything it fancied".

The professor told AFP news agency the parrot "may well have dined on more than conventional parrot foods, perhaps even other parrots".

However, because the parrot had no predators, it is unlikely that it was aggressive, Prof Worthy told the BBC.

"It probably sat on the ground, walked around and ate seeds and nuts, mostly," he said.

:same:, giant parrot, :same:.

The study was published just two years ago and Heracles is the first extinct giant parrot ever discovered (or at least identified). Pretty cool. Not biased.

LITERALLY A BIRD has a new favorite as of 03:33 on Dec 22, 2021

Hedrigall
Mar 27, 2008

by vyelkin

Tree Bucket posted:

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll be tracking this down.
Dinotopia has been one of my favourite books for... uh... three decades now?

Beyond the amazing paleoart the books are filled with such good architecture and scenery porn

I love staring into all the paintings of, say, a cozy looking inn by a river at night time, or a warm sanctuary atop a snowy mountain, and imagine what it’s like to be there

And he designs all the buildings to accommodate both dinosaurs and humans, so even things like the doors are fascinating to look at

James Gurney is an absolute genius I tell you

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


I grew up on Dinotopia and as soon as I got into needle felting I thought to myself one day I gotta make Bix:



I really want to make some of the others too but there are too many options to decide!

Squizzle
Apr 24, 2008






https://archive.md/Lv3tN

Captain Hygiene
Sep 17, 2007

You mess with the crabbo...




That is super neat. Except for the illustration reminding me that a lot of dinosaurs had feathers

Squizzle
Apr 24, 2008




Captain Hygiene posted:

That is super neat. Except for the illustration reminding me that a lot of dinosaurs had feathers

if you badmouth feathered dinosaurs i will fuckin wreck you

david_a
Apr 24, 2010




Megamarm

Organza Quiz posted:

I grew up on Dinotopia and as soon as I got into needle felting I thought to myself one day I gotta make Bix:



I really want to make some of the others too but there are too many options to decide!

omg :3:

I love the first book and while I did get it when I was a kid, I still think it’s a charming book for all ages. I bought the second one not too long ago and… yeah, that’s 100% a kids book, to the point I barely want to bother reading the text. I’m sure the other ones also have great illustrations but what is the writing like?

Organza Quiz
Nov 7, 2009


david_a posted:

omg :3:

I love the first book and while I did get it when I was a kid, I still think it’s a charming book for all ages. I bought the second one not too long ago and… yeah, that’s 100% a kids book, to the point I barely want to bother reading the text. I’m sure the other ones also have great illustrations but what is the writing like?

We only had the first two of the main books when I was a kid but we had a whole lot of the tie-in novels, which even then we could tell were of wildly varying quality. There were a couple that were standout good ones (River Quest especially) but I don't know how they'd hold up as an adult.

Winklebottom
Dec 19, 2007

I have a small fossil collection and I keep hunting for some decent models to complement it (otherwise it's a lot of brown rocks to the casual observer).

PNSO makes some good ones. They can suffer a bit from the "shrink-wrapped" look but are otherwise quite striking.


PNSO Spinosaurus with a collection of teeth from the Kem Kem fossil beds in Morocco (third from the left is a spino tooth)


PNSO Mosasaurus with various Moroccan mosasaur teeth (and a single plesiosaur tooth).


Ammonite models are surprisingly scarce, probably because we're still quite uncertain how their soft parts looked. I like this one from Safari.


I made this mammoth out of clay just for fun :shobon: (mammoth molar top left and tusk piece to the right, with wooly rhino molars top right)

Hunting for a good Megalodon, Edmontosaurus, wooly rhino, cave bear and Irish elk since I have some bits and pieces of those as well.

Organza Quiz posted:

I grew up on Dinotopia and as soon as I got into needle felting I thought to myself one day I gotta make Bix:



I really want to make some of the others too but there are too many options to decide!

Also Dinotopia is incredible and so is this

Winklebottom has a new favorite as of 12:58 on Dec 22, 2021

Winklebottom
Dec 19, 2007

quote is not edit

Blackfish
Sep 12, 2007

we have to be prepared to smoke a thousand joints before our quest is complete
I enjoyed this Polygon video about the various Dinotopia games, including an FMV game that used puppets and animatronics.

LITERALLY A BIRD
Sep 27, 2008

I knew you were trouble
when you flew in

Winklebottom posted:

I have a small fossil collection and I keep hunting for some decent models to complement it (otherwise it's a lot of brown rocks to the casual observer).

PNSO makes some good ones. They can suffer a bit from the "shrink-wrapped" look but are otherwise quite striking.


PNSO Spinosaurus with a collection of teeth from the Kem Kem fossil beds in Morocco (third from the left is a spino tooth)


PNSO Mosasaurus with various Moroccan mosasaur teeth (and a single plesiosaur tooth).


Ammonite models are surprisingly scarce, probably because we're still quite uncertain how their soft parts looked. I like this one from Safari.


I made this mammoth out of clay just for fun :shobon: (mammoth molar top left and tusk piece to the right, with wooly rhino molars top right)

Hunting for a good Megalodon, Edmontosaurus, wooly rhino, cave bear and Irish elk since I have some bits and pieces of those as well.

Also Dinotopia is incredible and so is this

This is absolutely :krad:

Knormal
Nov 11, 2001

An oviraptorid who fart in he own mouth... a shameful oviraptorid.

Kaiju Cage Match
Nov 5, 2012




Blackfish posted:

I enjoyed this Polygon video about the various Dinotopia games, including an FMV game that used puppets and animatronics.

I remember this one Dinotopia game that was like Zelda, but the main character had an extra thicc Scottish accent. :scotland:

EDIT: Not videogames, but there were a bunch of children's novels that took place in the Dinotopia world.



Kid me picked this one out because of the dinosaur in samurai armor.

Kaiju Cage Match has a new favorite as of 20:51 on Dec 22, 2021

Winklebottom
Dec 19, 2007

I wanted to get Dinotopia for my friends kid but it turns out the Danish edition has been out of print for like 20 years :smith:

For paleoart, I really like Julio Lacerda. His dinosaurs are good but he really shines when depicting mammals




Hedrigall
Mar 27, 2008

by vyelkin

Kaiju Cage Match posted:

I remember this one Dinotopia game that was like Zelda, but the main character had an extra thicc Scottish accent. :scotland:

EDIT: Not videogames, but there were a bunch of children's novels that took place in the Dinotopia world.



Kid me picked this one out because of the dinosaur in samurai armor.

Some of those kids novels were the first Dinotopia media I read, before I read the actual Gurney books

I remember the Lost City having like a super fat Troodon king and all the battles their civilisation had were done in roleplaying so you could just say stuff like “no I have a bigger army and they all fight better than yours” and then you win the battle

The Killing Jelq
Jun 13, 2012

The Tetrapod Zoology https://tetzoo.com/ blog and (defunct but very very good) podcast is my favorite for dinosaur stuff and speculative zoology.


As part of this effort, the TetZoo folks wrote All Yesterdays, a paleoart book that critically examines paleoart tropes in a fun way (for example, "shrink-wrapping" flesh tightly around skeletons, and what that would look like in modern animals.

Beefy parasaurolophus by John Conway.

The author, Darren Naish, also has a really interesting take on the "Dinosauroid" based on the similarity between modern hornbills and primates
https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/8/30/dinosauroid-at-nearly-40-years-old:

Only registered members can see post attachments!

The Killing Jelq has a new favorite as of 06:02 on Dec 25, 2021

Knormal
Nov 11, 2001

Hey check out this loving dork





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1pLcBG_5Zw&t=2s

Kaiju Cage Match
Nov 5, 2012






Shringasaurus is a real-life slurpasaur.

(Slurpasaurs refer to the "dinosaurs" in those old movies where they were just iguanas and other reptiles with rubber horns and fins)

Captain Hygiene
Sep 17, 2007

You mess with the crabbo...



This isn't media or art, but it seems like a relevant place to post it. I don't think I've ever considered the possibility of dinosaurs living in polar regions :aaaaa:

Tree Bucket
Apr 1, 2016

R.I.P.idura leucophrys

Organza Quiz posted:

I grew up on Dinotopia and as soon as I got into needle felting I thought to myself one day I gotta make Bix:



I really want to make some of the others too but there are too many options to decide!

Bix! With the "careful listening" head tilt and everything!!


Hedrigall posted:

Beyond the amazing paleoart the books are filled with such good architecture and scenery porn

I love staring into all the paintings of, say, a cozy looking inn by a river at night time, or a warm sanctuary atop a snowy mountain, and imagine what it’s like to be there

And he designs all the buildings to accommodate both dinosaurs and humans, so even things like the doors are fascinating to look at

James Gurney is an absolute genius I tell you

Yep. He makes pictures you can live in. He is indeed an absolute genius.
My copy of dinotopia has faint scratch marks all over the page where the brachiosaurus is throwing people through the air for a game, because six year old me couldn't refrain from going "woosh" with my finger over the page...

Angry Salami
Jul 27, 2013

Don't trust the skull.
'Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs' is a fun blog that looks at classic Dinosaur art and books.

https://chasmosaurs.com/

U.T. Raptor
May 11, 2010

Are you a pack of imbeciles!?

Organza Quiz posted:

We only had the first two of the main books when I was a kid but we had a whole lot of the tie-in novels, which even then we could tell were of wildly varying quality. There were a couple that were standout good ones (River Quest especially) but I don't know how they'd hold up as an adult.
There's two real novels (Dinotopia Lost and Hand of Dinotopia), one of them is very good and the other one is okay.

Hedrigall posted:

And he designs all the buildings to accommodate both dinosaurs and humans, so even things like the doors are fascinating to look at

James Gurney is an absolute genius I tell you
Also all the text can be translated from footprint to English! I actually did it way back when :eng101:

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Asterite34 posted:

I have, in the course of my life, seen all fourteen Land Before Time movies, AMA

what's your ranking?

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exquisite tea
Apr 21, 2007

Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."


It's fair to say that Dinotopia was probably the single most influential fictional work I read as a little kid, everything about my young imagination and aesthetics stemmed from that series. I would look at the illustrations for hours and imagine myself as if I were really there.

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