Off By An Order Of Magnitude
Some might consider these a minor point - and they may well be - but the Boston Herald online edition misrepresented the age of our newest crocodilian darling, Dakosaurus andiniensis.
The Jurassic period lasted from approximately 206 to 144 million years ago. D. andiniensis has been reported by the journal Nature to have lived approximately 135 million years ago.(sorry no link, but New Scientist has the goods)
In Ms. Witlin's defense, Jurassic Park featured dinosaurs from the three periods making up the Mesozoic era. The Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic periods were all represented by species in the book(Michael Crichton knows better!)
(I guess 'Mesozoic Park' just doesn't have the same impact. Marketers, Sheesh!)
Then there is the issue that Jurassic Park dealt with dinosaurs. Our new friend is a crocodyliform(crocodilian form), not a dinosaur.
Lastly, there is the use of the word 'billions.' Given the above data, you can see how badly this'll play out with anyone with a very general knowledge of the Earth's age, and the complexity of life forms that inhabited it in the early days of our blue sphere(think single-celled organisms)
The lesson here is simple. The media often gets the story wrong. In this case, egregiously so..Caveat lector
Additional: Being the utter bastard that I am, I notified The Herald of the miscues :)
Yikes! Godzilla was Jurassic park playerBillions of years? I know my fellow Americans have issues with accuracy in many areas - I am not excluding myself - but how did this ever make by an editor?
By Dawn Witlin
No need to sound the alarm in Tokyo, this fearsome reptile has been extinct for billions of years.
The Jurassic period lasted from approximately 206 to 144 million years ago. D. andiniensis has been reported by the journal Nature to have lived approximately 135 million years ago.(sorry no link, but New Scientist has the goods)
In Ms. Witlin's defense, Jurassic Park featured dinosaurs from the three periods making up the Mesozoic era. The Cretaceous, Jurassic and Triassic periods were all represented by species in the book(Michael Crichton knows better!)
(I guess 'Mesozoic Park' just doesn't have the same impact. Marketers, Sheesh!)
Then there is the issue that Jurassic Park dealt with dinosaurs. Our new friend is a crocodyliform(crocodilian form), not a dinosaur.
Lastly, there is the use of the word 'billions.' Given the above data, you can see how badly this'll play out with anyone with a very general knowledge of the Earth's age, and the complexity of life forms that inhabited it in the early days of our blue sphere(think single-celled organisms)
The lesson here is simple. The media often gets the story wrong. In this case, egregiously so..Caveat lector
Additional: Being the utter bastard that I am, I notified The Herald of the miscues :)
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