As Seen On TV

Saurophaganax, we have discovered, is different from Allosaurus in the way in which the vertebral column is constructed, not, as thought in the 1940's, in the way in which the tibia was constructed. We have also seen that there is a lot of knowledge out there about this dinosaur but that there is a lot left to study as well. As much as there is, and as much as there is left to study, it is not amazing that Saurophaganax has certainly left an impression on the popular culture of the world. Sunday we saw how Saurophaganax has made its mark on cartoons, children's books, and card games. Monday brought us Saurophaganax on the BBC, where available, and showed us the size differences of Saurophaganax and Allosaurus. We also saw the different representative sizes at other times during the week and yesterday we summed up those differences, and explained them, as they are found in the vertebrae of Saurophaganax. Today, on the day I typically pile in all the remaining popular culture references, I am fortunate in still having a generous amount of information to share, which is not always the case even with the most popular of dinosaurs. Saurophaganax has been created in Spore, like so many other dinosaurs.

I think this is probably the best in the bunch. It has also shown up as toys in a number of places based both off of the dinosaur itself and the cartoon representation which we saw on Sunday in Dinosaur King.

The second picture does not feel like loading on this computer, I will try again later; however, the image above is the Dinosaur King based Saurophaganax. The fact that Saurophaganax is missing so many bones may one day, provided more of its bones are found, allow it to remain separated from Allosaurus as a larger cousin rather than being relegated once again to being considered a species of Allosaurus. Should the second ever happen, I feel, as popular as Saurophaganax has become, that the public, and perhaps paleontologists as well, would react in much the same way that they did when Triceratops and Torosaurus were theorized to be the same animal. That debate is probably far from over though, so a comparative argument around Saurophaganax and Allosaurus would probably be just as lengthy considering how popular both dinosaurs are as separate genera.