Giraffatitan: Beast of the Week

Last time we did Brachiosaurus, now it's only fitting we cover its relative that everyone gets it confused with.  Enter Giraffatitan brancai!  Giraffatitan was a sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Tanzania, Africa, during the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.  This plant-eater was huge, amongst the largest land animals of all time.  The most well-studied specimens of Giraffatitan are of an animal that was about 74 feet long when it died, however, this animal's bones show it was still growing at the time.  Some estimate this dinosaur could acheive lengths of closer to 85 feet long from snout to tail.  The name, Giraffatitan, translates to "Giraffe Titan/Giant".  This is in reference to its long neck and front limbs which are superficially similar to those of the comparably puny and unrelated modern giraffe.

Giraffatitan brancai watercolor life reconstruction by Christopher DiPiazza.

This dinosaur's long neck and legs would have been used to help it gain access to more vegetation high in the trees, which it would have eaten using its chisel-shaped teeth lining the front of it's mouth.  Since it didn't have any teeth designed for chewing in the back of its mouth, Giraffatitan, like many sauropods, would have swallowed mouthfulls of foliage whole.  Unlike other kinds of sauropods like Apatosaurus or Barosaurus, Giraffatitan wouldn't have been able to rear up on its hind legs very easily because it's center of gravity was near its chest and shoulders, not its hips.  This anatomical characteristic is common to all members of Giraffatitan's family, called Brachiosauridae.

Giraffatitan skull on display at Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany.  Note the nostril cavity on the forehead.

Another interesting characteristic of Giraffatitan's anatomy is it skull, which possesses nostril holes on its forehead that form a bony crest.  Scientists used to believe that Giraffatitan, along with all other sauropods, lived a semi-aquatic lifestyle and that the nostril placement was for snorkeling.  We now know this is false since the water pressure would likely prevent the dinosaur from comfortable breathing if its chest was that far underwater.  Another idea suggested that Giraffatitan would have had a trunk since modern mammals with high nostril placement, such as tapirs and elephants, have trunks.  This hypothesis is likely false as well because a sauropod's teeth were designed for grasping food and some fossilized specimens even show wear from it.  Why would it need a trunk?  Both elephants and tapirs have chewing teeth in the backs of their mouths.  According to the most recent studies, it is most likely that Giraffatitan would have had fleshy nostrils near the tip of its snout that connected to the nostril openings at the top of the skull in life.

Giraffatitan skeletal mount on display in Berlin, Germany.

Giraffatitan used to be called Brachiosaurus and was one of two known species within its genus.  In fact, most reconstructions labelled as "Brachiosaurus" are based on Giraffatitan remains.  The famous 
"Brachiosaurus" from Jurassic Park, for instance, was based on Giraffatitan. (although at the time the movie was made it was still considered a kind of Brachiosaurus.)  It was realized that the animal now referred to as Giraffatitan and the other animal that used to share a genus with it, Brachiosaurus altithorax, had enough morphological differences so the genus was split.  The biggest notable difference between these two giant dinosaurs is their midsections and tails.  Brachiosaurus had a longer, more robust torso and a longer tail while Giraffatitan was more compact with a shorter tail.  

Giraffatitan scapula (shoulder blade) on display in Berlin, Germany.  5'1" wife for scale.

References

Russell, D., Béland, P. and McIntosh, J.S. (1980). "Paleoecology of the dinosaurs of Tendaguru (Tanzania)." Mémoires de la Societé géologique de la France, 59: 169-175.

Taylor, M.P. (2009). "A Re-evaluation of Brachiosaurus altithorax Riggs 1903 (Dinosauria, Sauropod) and its generic separation from Giraffatitan brancai (Janensh 1914)." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29(3): 787-806.

Witmer, L.M. (2001). "Nostril position in dinosaurs and other vertebrates and its significance for nasal function". Science 293 (5531): 850–853. doi:10.1126/science.1062681. PMID 11486085.

Brachiosaurus: Beast of the Week

 It's time to check out one of the most famous giant dinosaurs.  Make way for Brachiosaurus altithorax!

Brachiosaurus was a huge plant-eating sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Western United States during the late Jurassic period, about 153 million years ago.  It's genus name, Brachiosaurus, translates to "Arm Lizard/Reptile" because its arms were longer than its legs, and its species name, altithorax, translates to "Deep Chest" because of its particularly tall ribcage.  From snout to tail an adult Brachiosaurus is estimated to have been between 60 and 70 feet long and its head was held about 30 feet off the ground when standing.  

Brachiosaurus altithorax watercolor life reconstruction by Christopher DiPiazza.

Brachiosaurus was originally only known from a few bones, including the pelvis, some vertebra, and limb bones.  Over the years, however, more fossils from this dinosaur have been unearthed from multiple individuals that altogether give us a relatively complete skeleton. Sauropod skeletons are notorious for being found incomplete because they're so large and therefore their bones were more prone to getting eroded, carried away by predators, or scattered after death.  Fossilization most commonly happens when the animal's body is buried rapidly and completely after death.  Therefore it's takes a lot more forces of nature for this to happen to a large animal than a small one.

Brachiosaurus, as stated above, is famous for having longer arms than legs, which makes its family, brachiosauridae, unique among dinosaurs.  In addition, its arms were placed farther below its spine than its legs, causing it to be even taller in the front.  This unusual posture allowed Brachiosaurus to reach especially high with its already long neck to take advantage of leaves on the tops of trees that even other sauropods couldn't easily reach.  Unlike other sauropods, brachiosaurids had proportionally shorter back legs, and tail which were held relatively low because of this sloping build.  Having shorter back limbs also would have highly limited Brachiosaurus' ability to rear up on its hind legs, which other kinds sauropods, like the diplodocids, likely were able to do more easily.  Despite what that iconic scene in Jurassic Park* may show you, real brachiosaurs likely very rarely stood on just two limbs, and if/when they did, only for extremely short periods of time, like to mate or possibly intraspecies combat.  Since Brachiosaurus' center of gravity was in its torso, not its hips, that kind of posture would put extreme pressure on its back end which could seriously injure the dinosaur.  All things considered, if an animal could reach thirty feet in the air from a standing position...rearing up probably wasn't necessary often.

Brachiosaurus' neck bones were relatively rigid closer to the skull, but the part of the neck closest to the shoulders would have had more flexibility.  This means that despite its very front-loaded posture, it could still bend its neck so its head was close to the ground if it need be.  This would have been necessary when Brachiosaurus needed to drink, or maybe even eat certain kinds of low-growing plants at times.  It wouldn't have needed to bend or spread its front limbs in order to achieve this either.  The neck bones, along with many of its other bones, were hollow and would have been filled with air sacs in life.  Some of the spaces around the bones (which can be inferred by the negative space around the edges of the vertebra) was also filled with air sacs in life.  These structures were connected to the animal's respiratory system and allowed the body to be more efficient in distributing oxygenated air to where it needed to go.  This also made the animal much lighter for its size, so moving that neck around wouldn't have drained as much energy as it would have appeared.  

Brachiosaurus could have lowered its head down to ground-level relatively easily when it wanted to.

The skull of Brachiosaurus was found and published in 1998.  It had a relatively long snout with chisel-shaped teeth concentrated to the front of the mouth, an adaptation for stripping leaves off branches.  It had no teeth in the back of the jaws, implying it simply swallowed all its food and relied on its insides to do all the work of breaking everything down.  It is possible dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus swallowed rocks, which would stay inside the stomach for extended periods of time, which would have helped mechanically break down its food as they mixed around in the stomach, called gastroliths.  Brachiosaurus' eyes were set high, towards the rear of the skull and the naris (holes in the skull where nostrils were) are elevated in a sort of bony crest between the eyes.  For a long time it was thought that Brachiosaurus had its nostrils high on the head exactly where these openings are on the skull, but it is more likely that these openings were connected to soft tissue that placed the nostrils closer to the front of the snout.  The evolutionary reasoning why Brachiosaurus, and many other sauropods had these openings on the top of the skulls, if not the true placement of the nostrils, is still somewhat of a mystery.  Some have suggested that this area was a space where air could flow through and help keep the blood in the animal's head and brain from overheating.

Photograph of the mostly complete (partially reconstructed) Brachiosaurus skull from Carpenter's 1998 paper.

As an adult, Brachiosaurus likely had few to no predators to worry about.  It was just too big.  When imagining it in its environment I sometimes stop thinking of it as an animal and more as a roaming force of nature more than anything else.  That being said, young Brachiosaurus were probably easier prey for all sorts of predators from the moment they hatched for years until they hit a certain size.  These younger animals probably relied on camouflage or possibly living in groups to minimize their chances of becoming another animal's meal.  

Special thanks to Dr. Heinrich Mallison for lending his sauropod expertise during the process of me writing this post!  See you next time!

*The dinosaur in Jurassic Park that's referred to as Brachiosaurus is actually based on a close relative called Giraffititan.  Giraffititan used to be considered a species of Brachiosaurus back when the film was made, so it being referred to as such in 1993 wasn't wrong.  

References

Carpenter, Kenneth, and Virginia Tidwell. 1998. Preliminary description of a Brachiosaurus skull from Felch Quarry 1, Garden Park, Colorado. Modern Geology 23:69-84.

D'Emic, M. D.; Carrano, M. T. (2019). "Redescription of brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur material from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, Colorado, USA". The Anatomical Record. 303 (4): 732–758. 

Riggs, E.S. (1903). "Brachiosaurus altithorax, the largest known dinosaur". American Journal of Science. 4. 15 (88): 299–306.Taylor, M.P. (2009). "A re-evaluation of Brachiosaurus altithorax 

Russell, D. A. (1989). An Odyssey in Time: Dinosaurs of North America. Minocqua, Wisconsin: NorthWord Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-55971-038-1.Witmer, L. M. (2001). "Nostril position in dinosaurs and other vertebrates and its significance for nasal function". Science. 293 (5531): 850–853.

Lycaenops: Beast of the Week

 This week we will be checking out a prehistoric creature that bears a striking resemblance to some modern-day animals.  Let's check out Lycaenops!

Watercolor life reconstruction of two Lycaenops angusticeps by Christopher DiPiazza.

Lycaenops was a meat-eating synapsid (wide group of animals that includes mammals) that lived in what is now South Africa during the Permian era, between 271 and 251 million years ago.  The genus name translates to "Wolf Face" because of it's relatively long snout and prominent canine-like fangs, which caused this creature to superficially resemble wolves, and other modern canids despite not being closely related.  From snout to tail, Lycaenops measured about three feet long, or a little under one meter.  There are several species within the genus, Lycaenops, which accounts for the relatively wide range of time in which this genus existed.

Lycaenops was part of a widely successful group of vertebrates that lived during the Permian, before the first dinosaurs, that are casually referred to as "mammal-like reptiles" even though they weren't mammals...and they weren't really true reptiles either.  They were somewhere in between and no living members exist today, which makes it even more difficult to visualize what they would have been like when alive.  Within this extremely expansive group, Lycaenops, was specifically a member of the gorgonopsid family.  These meat-eating synapsids all long, rectangular skulls with very long, curved fangs on the top and bottom jaws, in the same place that canines would be on some mammals, like dogs, bears, and cats.  This is an amazing example of convergent evolution, since these gorgonopsids were not directly related to any of these carnivorous mammals.  

Lycaenops ornatus skeletal mount on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Lycaenops probably specialized in hunting smaller prey.  The Permian was home to no shortage of small reptiles, amphibians, and other synapsids, so it is likely Lycaenops had a pretty expansive menu to choose from.  It's eye sockets are relatively large so it probably had decent vision, and its limbs were also pretty long in proportion to its body, which it appears to have carried under its body more so than many other reptiles and synapsids at the time, which had more sprawling postures, like today's lizards and crocodilians.  This combination of features probably gave Lycaenops its edge when pursuing meals when it was alive.  

It is important to keep in mind that Lycaenops lived right up to the very end of the Permian era, which is marked by a massive global extinction event, more destructive than the one that wiped out most of the dinosaurs millions of years later.  It was this extinction that actually leveled the playing field and allowed the dinosaurs to even evolve in the first place.  Because of this it is worth noting that Lycaenops and its relatives were extremely successful animals, and likely would have kept flourishing if it wasn't for that catastrophic event.  

References

Broom 1925 : On some carnivorous therapsids. Records of the Albany Museum, vol. 3, n. 4, p. 309–326.

Gebauer, E.V.I. (2007). Phylogeny and evolution of the Gorgonopsia with a special reference to the skull and skeleton of GPIT/RE/7113 ('Aelurognathus?' parringtoni(Ph.D. thesis). Tübingen: Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen. pp. 1–316.

Halloween 2020: Thirteen More Monsters

 Six years ago I thought it would be neat if I drew pictures of thirteen dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts that are named after monsters, horror, mythology, and generally spooky things...as those things.  The result was fun and I ended up doing it again with thirteen more the next Halloween.  If you have not seen those I recommend checking them out here and here.  If you've already done that now it's time to check out the long awaited, third installment!  

Below you will see a silly drawing I created of thirteen strange monsters.  They're each meant to represent a specific prehistoric creature that is named after something from mythology, horror, or something else generally spooky.  This could refer to the genus OR the species name.  Take a moment to check them out and try to figure out which taxa each of these monsters is meant to represent.  Then, keep scrolling to see the answers and a brief explanation!  Have fun!

Give them all a good look?  Think you correctly identified all of them?  When you're ready simply scroll down for all the reveals!  You may notice that a few of the names are clickable.  This means that I've covered that particular beast as a "Beast of the Week" on this website before.  That link will take you to a page just about them with more information!

Garudimimus

Garudimimus was an ornithomimid dinosaur that is named after Garuda, a creature from Buddhist mythology that resembles a cross between humans and large colorful eagle-like birds.  

Sollasina cthulhu

Sollasina was a relative of modern sea urchins that lived 430 million years ago that had scaly arms surrounding a small mouth.  Its species name is after the elder god from H.P. Lovecraft's stories, Cthulhu.

Livyatan

Livyatan was a prehistoric whale, related to modern Sperm Whales, with huge pointed teeth on both its upper and lower jaws.  It's named after the Leviathan, a gigantic sea monster from biblical mythology. 

Lycaenops

Lycaenops was a gorgonopsid, a kind of synapsid(relative of mammals) that lived during the Permian era.  It's genus name translates to "wolf face".  

Oksoko

Oksoko was a theropod dinosaur in the oviraptorid family.  Three specimens, including three skulls were found  closely together, inspiring its genus name after the oksoko, a mythical three-headed eagle from Eastern European mythology.  

Balaur 

Balaur was a small, bird-like dinosaur that lived in what is now Romania.  It is named after Balaur, a many-headed dragon from Romanian folklore.

Eucritta

Eucritta's genus name translates to "True Creature" in reference to the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  The species name, melanolimnetes, translates to "black lagoon", confirming this connection even more. This is because, like the famous movie monster, this early relative of amphibians had different traits of both land and aquatic animals.  

Skorpiovenator

This was a meat-eating dinosaur, related to the more popular, Carnotaurus.  Skorpiovenator's genus name translates to "Scorpion Hunter" because there were so many wild scorpions present at the digsite where its bones were unearthed.  

Ogresuchus

Ogresuchus' bones were discovered near a nesting ground of baby sauropod dinosaurs and it was believed this relative of modern crocodilians was hunting them at the time.  The genus name translates to "Ogre Crocodile" because of child-devouring ogres from folklore and fairytales.  

Zuul

Zuul was a ankylosaurid (armor and tail clubs) dinosaur that lived in what is now Canada during the late Cretaceous period.  Its genus name is because its horns and low, wide skull make it resemble the monster, Zuul the Gatekeeper of Gozer, from the 1984 Ghostbusters movie.  

Taniwhasaurus

Taniwhasaurus was a mosasaur (prehistoric marine lizard) that swam in oceans over what is now New Zealand.  It's name is in reference to the taniwha, a monster from Mouri mythology that lives in rivers and other bodies of water that are sometimes revered and respected, but other times feared.  

Smok

Smok was a large archosaur (part of the group that includes both dinosaurs and crocodilians) that lived during the late Triassic period in what is now Poland.  Its genus name is after the famous dragon from Polish folklore who was famous for living in a cave under a hill.

Zilantophis

Zilantophis was a prehistoric snake named after the zilant, a dragon-like monster from Russian mythology with a long, serpentine tail, wings, and legs of a bird.  

I hope you enjoyed the latest installment of my fusing paleontology with monsters and mythology.  I find it particularly neat since prehistoric animals still inspire us to imagine and design new imaginary beasts to this day in art, entertainment, and video games just to name a few examples.  Can you think of a prehistoric beast named after a monster that I haven't included yet?  Leave it in the comments below and maybe I'll include it next Halloween! 

Tylosaurus: Beast of the Week

Today we'll be checking out an iconic sea monster.  Watch out for Tylosaurus proriger!

Tylosaurus was a gigantic meat-eating marine reptile that lived during the late Cretaceaous period, 80 million years ago in what is now the middle of North America, which during its time was a shallow sea.  There are a few known species belonging to the genus, Tylosaurus.  The biggest, called Tylosaurus proriger, would have been almost fifty feet long from snout to tail.  The genus name translates to "Knob Snout" because of the protruding bony tip of this animal's jaws. When alive Tylosaurus would have eaten meat, preying on pretty much any animal it could catch in its environment.

Tylosaurus proriger attacks the prehistoric turtle, Archelon.

Tylosaurus belongs to the family of reptiles called mosasauridae, which were actually a kind lizard, closely related to extant monitor lizards.  Mosasaurs are known in the fossil record only in the Cretaceous period, at the end of the Mesozoic era, and evolved from terrestrial lizard ancestors.  Despite their late appearance in the oceans, they quickly became extremely successful and some, like in the case of Tylosaurus, became top predators in their communities. For whatever reason mosasaurs went extinct at the same time as all of the non-avian dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.  

Tylosaurus skeleton on display at the National Museum in Washington D.C.

Tylosaurus was indeed one heck of a predator.  Many fossils have been uncovered that show evidence of it having eaten virtually every other animal it shared its habitat with, including plesiosaurs, ammonites, sharks, bony fish, birds and even smaller mosasaurs.  These fossils include bones with Tylosaurus teeth marks in them to actual remains of other animals found inside the stomach cavity of Tylosaurus skeletons.  To be such a predator, Tylosaurus had more than just size on its side.  Inside this animal's mouth were many sharp, cone-shaped teeth.  These teeth were backed up by tremendous jaws that no doubt could crush or at least hold on tightly to whatever they got around.  It also had two extra rows of teeth inside the roof of its mouth.  these teeth were likely to help manipulate food down its throat after being seized by the main set of jaws.  

Tylosaurus skeletal mount on display at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Like one of our modern kinds of marine reptiles, sea turtles, Tylosaurus had four paddle-shaped flippers instead of digits and claws.  Tylosaurus wouldn't have relied on its flippers to propel it through the water, however.  Instead, Tylosaurus had a long, powerful tail, which had immense muscles at its base and likely tipped with a fluke like a shark, to power through he water.  Its flippers, which were modified walking limbs from its land-dwelling ancestors, were probably more useful for turning and maneuvering in short quarters.  This combination of traits would have made Tylosaurus a relatively fast-moving animal in the water, which also gave it an edge when hunting large prey like plesiosaurs and turtles.  

Tylosaurus skin impression.  Check out those keeled scales!  Very snake-like.

We know, thanks to a wonderfully preserved specimen, that Tylosaurus would have had diamond-shaped scales on its body, similar to some modern snakes and lizards.  These scales were even keeled which probably would have helped the animal swim faster by cutting the water around it as it moved.

That's all for this week!  As always feel free to comment below!

References

Cope ED. 1869. [Remarks on Macrosaurus proriger.] Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 11(81): 123.

Everhart MJ. 2005. Oceans of Kansas - A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea. Indiana University Press, 322 pp.

Snow, F. H. (1878). "On the dermal covering of a mosasauroid reptile". Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 6: 54–58.

Lindgren, J.; Caldwell, M.W.; Konishi, T.; and Chiappe, L.M. (2010). "Convergent Evolution in Aquatic Tetrapods: Insights from an Exceptional Fossil Mosasaur". In Farke, Andrew Allen. PLoS ONE 5 (8): e11998. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011998. PMC 2918493. PMID 20711249.

Camptosaurus: Beast of the Week

Camptosaurus dispar was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now South Dakota, USA, during the late Jurassic Period, roughly 150 million years ago.  Adults measured about 25 feet long from beak to tail, although there is observed variation among individuals.  The genus name, Camptosaurus, translates from Greek to "Bent Lizard/Reptile" in reference to the fact that paleontologists at the time of its discovery predicted its vertebra would have allowed for greater flexibility than what they had observed in other dinosaurs thus far. Camptosaurus was an ornithopod dinosaur, who's lineage would later give rise to the more widespread iguanodontids, and the even more derived hadrosaurids.

Camptosaurus dispar hunkers down during a rainstorm in what is now western North America during the late Jurassic.  Watercolor reconstruction by Christopher DiPiazza.

Camptosaurus was a heavily-built dinosaur, possessing powerful legs, which were longer than its arms.  Its arms, although shorter, would have been powerful and flexible and its fingers, of which it had five of on each hand, would have been somewhat dexterous and able to grasp things, like branches while feeding.  This is in contrast to later forms of ornithopod dinosaurs, like the hadrosauroids, who's fingers were fused together, an adaptation for weight bearing.  Since Camptosaurus lacks this feature, paired with the fact that its front limbs were proportionally shorter, it is likely that this dinosaur was more comfortable as a biped than a quadruped, although it was also capable of four-limbed locomotion if need be.  

Camptosaurus skeletal mount on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.  This specimen might represent a juvenile.

Camptosaurus possessed a proportionally small skull on the end of a long, flexible neck.  Its snout was narrow and ended in a slightly downturned beak.  Inside the jaws, Camptosaurus and many small, tightly packed teeth which were ideal for processing plants.  The amount of wear that paleontologists observe on Camptosaurus teeth suggests it was capable of eating tougher plants than many other plant-eating dinosaurs it shared its environment with.  Camptosaurus also had large eye sockets with small ridges over them, which would have given it a superficial "angry expression" on its face in life.  This is possible an adaptation for protecting its eyes from sun glare.  You can observe similar adaptations in some bird species alive today.  Because of this it is possible that Camptosaurus had relatively good vision, and could have been most active during the daytime.  

Mount of an Adult Camptosaurus on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.  

When alive, Camptosaurus would have coexisted with many large sauropod dinosaurs as well as some of the armored stegosaurs in life.  Its ability to easily transition between bipedal and quadrupedal postures while feeding may have helped it carve out a niche in a world that was already so dense with herbivores.  At the same time it could have relied on its sharp vision and longer hind legs for running to avoid predators, like Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, and Torvosaurus.  

References

Carpenter, K.; Wilson, Y. (2008). "A new species of Camptosaurus (Ornithopoda: Dinosauria) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Dinosaur National Moument, Utah, and a biomechanical analysis of its forelimb". Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 76 (4): 227–263.

Gilmore, C.W. (1909). "Osteology of the Jurassic reptile Camptosaurus, with a revision of the species of the genus, and descriptions of two new species". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 36 (1666): 197–332.

Foster, J. (2007). "Camptosaurus dispar." Jurassic West: The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation and Their World. Indiana University Press. p. 219-221.

Marsh, O.C. (1879). "Notice of new Jurassic reptiles". American Journal of Science and Arts. 18 (108): 501–505.

Show Review: Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous

 Despite its inaccuracies, I will always be a sucker for the Jurassic Park franchise.  It wasn't what originally got me into dinosaurs as a kid, but seeing dinosaurs in the mainstream certainly had a positive effect on me back when the first movie hit theaters.  That being said, I thought it was a great move for Netflix to make a TV series based on Jurassic World, Camp Cretaceous.  It's a good way to keep fans engrossed in the franchise between movies.  (It worked with Star Wars!) I sat down and binged all eight episodes so I could share my thoughts for you here.  This means if you don't want spoilers you should stop reading.  Again, SPOILERS AHEAD.  STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE SHOW!!!

It's not obvious at first, but setting wise Camp Cretaceous takes place during the exact same time and place as the Jurassic World Movie from 2015.  The only character who actually appears and has a speaking role in both the show and the movie is Dr. Wu.  However, many other characters from the movie are name-dropped in the show, including Claire, Masrani, Zak, Gray, and even Alan Grant and John Hammond from the original movies.  The fact that this adventure is unfolding parallel to the events in the movie we saw back in 2015 is interesting to me.  There are moments when events in this show miss events in the movie by mere seconds, like when the campers watch from a distance as Masrani's helicopter crashes into the pterosaur dome, or when they stumble upon the aftermath of the Indominus rex's fight with the Ankylosaurus.  To think that during that gruesome battle, there was a tiny adorable baby Ankylosaurus with lopsided horns just a few feet away in the bushes waiting to pop out.  By the way this brings us to...

She is better than Baby Yoda.  There.  I said it.

Bumpy.  Bumpy is a baby Ankylosaurus that hatches in the lab like all the other Jurassic World dinosaurs. Unlike all the other dinosaurs, however, Bumpy has a genetic mutation causing her horns to be different sizes.  This isn't the first time a baby Ankylosaurus has been a character on TV.  The short-lived show, Terra Nova, which originally aired on FOX, as well as the Japanese animated film, You are Umasau, both featured lovable baby Ankylosaurus in prominent roles.  That being said, I think Bumpy is the most adorable.  She's even better than Baby Yoda.  There.  I said it.  

One thing that stood out to me about this show after I had finished the season was that the creators made the choice to leave out the two dinosaurs you'd expect to be the most prominent in a Jurassic World show.  Velociraptor, which is a main presence in every movie so far, is only in one episode for one scene towards the beginning of this show.  Tyrannosaurus doesn't appear in the actual story at all and only appears in the introduction credits. (a bit of false advertising)  Story wise this makes sense, however, given these dinosaurs' roles in the movie's plot that's occurring at the same time, but I was still surprised given how popular they both are and that they weren't worked in more.  

Another popular dinosaur that's left out that makes less sense is Triceratops.  The three-horned beast doesn't appear at all.  It's relative, Sinoceratops, however, has a big role.  This is weird since in the movie's story Triceratops was all over the place, especially in the field where the gyrospheres go, and Sinoceratops was completely absent, not appearing at all until the latest movie, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, which takes place years later.  I can't imagine a reason why they decided to switch the two ceratopsians other than maybe since the latest movie was fresh in everyone's minds and therefore they thought Sinoceratops would be received better? Sinoceratops was mostly included in the movie to appeal to Chinese audiences (replacing what would have been Pachyrhinosaurus relatively late in production) but Netflix isn't a streaming service in China, so I don't think this was the reason when it came to the show.  Regardless I'm happy a lesser-known dinosaur is getting some more mainstream attention. (even if it has inaccurate holes in its frill...)

A dinosaur also that have a prominent roll in this show as a main antagonist is Carnotaurus.  Carnotaurus has been an increasingly popular dinosaur even before it was featured in the last movie, so putting it in this show was a cool choice.  I also appreciate how it has a moment when it actually acts like a normal animal and not a mindless killing machine. (If you've watched the show you know what I'm referring to.) I love how the show pokes fun at the Carnosaurus having smaller arms than T. rex, with one character teasing the predator saying "your arms are practically vestigial."

Speaking of realistic animals, the show does...try... to throw some references to actual nature in there.  Here's some examples I noticed... 

Many animals alive today can absorb ultraviolet light and emit it into colors that we humans can only see under special UV lights.  Many of these same animals, including birds and some other reptiles, can see these colors under normal conditions, and use these "hidden colors" to communicate with one another.  This means that the colors you see on the feathers of a bird is a very different image that the birds are seeing when they look at each other.  The Parasaurolophus in the Camp Cretaceous are depicted displaying their own form of photoluminescence, by glowing unearthly blue when in a cave.  Is there direct evidence of this sort of thing in the fossil record?  No.  But it's a fun concept and could be possible given how dinosaurs are nestled in the tree of life among other animals we do know exhibit it.  In fact, A recent scientific paper by Darren Naish, Cary Woodruff, and Jamie Dunning, even investigates this vey idea.  It's certainly not the weirdest thing a Jurassic Park dinosaur has done.  *looks at spitting, frilled Dilophosaurus*

The top photo of a puffin exhibiting photoluminescence (by Jamie Dunning) isn't impossible for prehistoric dinosaurs.  Interestingly enough, the Parasaurolophus from Camp Cretaceous, are depicted glowing, possibly because of genetic tampering.

One of the characters on the show has a background in cattle farming.  During a scene where a Sinoceratops gets spooked and runs away from the herd, this character explains the proper way to herd a scared animal back to the herd without causing the rest of the herd to panic, using her first-hand knowledge of livestock behavior.  Ceratopsians are often compared to modern bovids a little too much simply based on the fact that they have horns and eat plants, but the fact that they tried to apply real animal behavior to their fictional dinosaurs was refreshing in a franchise where the dinosaurs often act too much like humans or slasher villains.  A similar situation occurs when the Pteranodons attack the kids on a monorail at night, where one character states that the pterosaurs are attracted to the lights inside the train, like birds would be.  This is actually true.  Birds are attracted to and then often confused by light at nighttime.  In fact, a major cause of death for migrating birds is crashing into people's windows when their lights are on at night.  

Lastly there are plenty of references to all the Jurassic Park/World movies sprinkled throughout this show.  Dinosaurs that don't have actual roles, like Spinosaurus, are still depicted in passing imagery in books, posters, computer monitors almost constantly during the show.  Another more specific reference I particularly liked was how the kids discover a cattle prod at the same time they encounter a pack of Compsognathus, which is a nod to the second installment of the Jurassic Park Franchise, The Lost World from 1998, where a character uses one to needlessly torment the tiny dinosaurs, only to be ripped apart by them later.  Lastly, not a Jurassic Park reference, and maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see here, but during the scene where the Carnotaurus trips and proceeds to push itself up a narrow staircase in pursuit of the kids on its belly, I instantly thought of the scene from The Land Before Time where the Tyrannosaurus, "Sharptooth" pushes himself through a thorn patch in much the same way as he tries to attack the baby dinosaurs.  

This scene reminded my of The Land Before Time, the way the dinosaur is sliding along on its belly as it attempts to chomp the heroes.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with this show and I really hope they come through with a second season.  It's a little darker than what the seemingly kid-friendly animation style might lead you to believe.  People die in the show, but no blood or gore is actually shown.  (it's rated PG, not PG-13 after all!) The human characters, themselves, also have some decent dialogue and character development.  The camp counselors are terrible though.  They should totally get fired from their jobs for leaving those kids by themselves unattended so many times.  I also appreciate the diversity in the cast of characters, which includes lots of women and people of color, who are grossly underrepresented when it comes to dinosaur media.  

What did you think of the show?  What are some references that you noticed? Share in the comments below!

References

Woodruff, D. C., Naish, D. & Dunning, J. 2020. Photoluminescent visual displays: an additional function of integumentary structures in extinct archosaurs? Historical Biology