STL Science Center

STL Science Center

02 April 2012

Where Should I Stop Writing Today?

There are videos everywhere! I haven't had these many videos to sort through since we highlighted T. Rex and Allosaurus type dinosaurs; animals with much larger profiles than we have delved into of late. I hate to call any documentary inaccurate, especially with pterosaurs because we know those are not my area of specialty, but let us not forget that Discovery's production companies have a history of embellishment at times; I believe it was Matt Wedel who warned that Dangerous LTD., the production company for Clash of the Dinosaurs, had edited out interview segments to deliver science they wanted to deliver for the biggest entertainment value not necessarily the best science documentary. That grain of salt added to your dish, there are two clips available on howstuffworks.com that came from Discovery's program Clash of the Dinosaurs.

There have been attempts at documenting the ability of Quetzalcoatlus' flight capabilities recorded and saved, thankfully, from a 1984 trial by Paul MacCready who had a model built and flown to test the aerodynamics of the pterosaur. It's a grainy video, but one cannot really expect much from an almost thirty year old video no matter how well kept in the basement of a museum or library.
Another show, Sky Monsters, is a 2005 National Geographic produced program that examines pterosaurs as an entire group. NatGeo's CG budget is notably lower than Discovery's, but there is a lot of work put into the science here. I am only going to post the first of four videos, so it is up to the readers to continue on to the other three parts of the video, but I assure everyone that it is very much worth the clicking on links at the end of the video!

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