Variations of Dinosaur Renaissance images abound. From Creative Mechanics at tumblr.
Didn’t I just write about the history of the Renaissance? Wait, that was 2022, the human renaissance. Today, I’m talking about the Dinosaur Renaissance.
The Dino Renaissance is a well-established phenomenon, one which has spawned books and video series and is now “aging.” It’s captured the popular imagination so much that there are games and apps which advertise “Dinosaur Shakespeare!” and dating complete, with humanoid-dinosaur Romeo, Juliet, and Friar Lawrence. Now, that’s just silly. We don’t need to put a triceratops head on a biped in a dress to understand what the dinosaur renaissance was about. We just need to know about the relatively recent history of paleontology.
Cue the Go-Go music because this story starts in the 1960s.
Dragon dinosaur. Like Turu the Terrible (that was another Q…more on that in a sec).
Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying animal ever discovered. Fifty foot wingspan, like a small aircraft. In fact, the first paleontologist named it Q. northropi after–you might guess it– a Northrop aircraft. Massive jaws. As a tall as a giraffe. 500 pounds.
Not, technically, a dinosaur. No anorbital fenestra, wrong kind of hips. Q. northropi belonged under the group called pterosaurs, flying reptiles that had branched off the reptile line before the dinosaurs were completely upright.
But who cares? Look at the size of the wings!
Plus, the perfect candidate for a “Q.”
The First “Q” I Thought Of
“Turu the Terrible” from “Jonny Quest,” 1964, Hanna-Barbera.
When I was laying out my A to Z grid, I original thought of the TV show “Jonny Quest,” because it was a favorite when I was a kid, and it had that super creepy pterodactyl on it. “Turu the Terrible,” he was named. He was carrying off some generic natives, i.e. indigenous people in South America. The adventure-science foursome traced him back to his handler, another old creepy guy in a wheelchair.
What was remarkable about the 1960s Quest was that it was relatively accurate, for its time. Not accurate so much–it was a cartoon and generally used the “monster of the week” formula. But it did try to be a little scientific, and while pterodactyls don’t still exist, Turu was about the right size. He walked awkwardly on his hands and feet, like a chimpanzee, but the way such creatures walked.
And that bizarre throat warbling cry. Still creeps me out. If you’ve never seen any “Jonny Quest” episodes, I do recommend them. Consider the context. At the time, so much information about dinosaurs was outdated and had still had them lumbering and dragging their tails. “Turu” was pretty innovative for its time.
It is my favorite dinosaur, that parasaurolophus. Ain’t he cute? Partly because I just love how that word rolls off the tongue. You’ll get it…
para–like parachute saur–like “sore” olo–like “ah-lla”. The big accent is on the “ah” part phus–“fuss”
para + saura + olophus “beyond” + “lizard” + “crest” As in, that dinosaur dude has one heavy-duty crest. It’s beyond, man!
Despite the parasaurolophus being my favorite dinosaur, I was this old when I actually wondered what it meant. I only connected the Greek root dots this morning. Now, you and I both know. You’re welcome.
Dig that Crazy Crest!
It’s a trombone. Seriously, the weird and wacky long head tube was the subject of a lot of speculation. The first parasaurolophus skeleton was discovered in 1921 up in Alberta. They spent decades wondering exactly what the crest was for. Mating calls? Fighting? There were even bizarre hypotheses, categorized under the “discarded hypothesis” section of wikipedia. Several thought it might be a breathing tube, like a snorkel. Let them wade into the copious waters of the mid-Jurassic, maybe to hide from predators. On the other hand, there were a lot of giant marine reptile predators, so not sure how that was going to help them.
