# Getting your Dinosaur "Fix" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 30, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299 "2025-06-30T13:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/21 "2025-07-01T15:58:05Z")
I grew up in a very specific time and place **Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend** had a large impact on my young brain. It held all the mystery and wonder of living fossils that would be celebrated years later with Jurassic Park. It wasn’t much, the mid 80’s animatronic baby diplodocus barely moved more than a background carnival prop, but it got my young imagination excited. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/22 "2025-07-01T16:53:00Z")
There was a 1968 TV-movie adaptation of Oliver Butterworth’s _The Enormous Egg_, where somehow by genetic throwback a triceratops hatches out of a hen’s egg. [![](https://tse1.explicit.bing.net/th/id/OIP.bwewAaQGpVE_TpUS4XVbwwAAAA) ](https://tse1.explicit.bing.net/th/id/OIP.bwewAaQGpVE_TpUS4XVbwwAAAA) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/23 "2025-07-01T17:08:10Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > here was a 1968 TV-movie adaptation of Oliver Butterworth’s _The Enormous Egg_, where somehow by genetic throwback a triceratops hatches out of a hen’s egg. Cool. I was completely unaware of this one. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/24 "2025-07-01T17:13:38Z")
Well, watch the show. I saw every ep. You’ll see. I didn’t make the show. It’s how they looked and acted in the show. Just reporting what i saw. Utterly ridiculous. But it was funny. The paleoentologist(?msp) on the show were definitely the B-team. Nothing to see there. (Barney, that big purple thing, would’ve been more accurate) IMO ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/25 "2025-07-01T18:58:54Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I never laughed so hard when the big giant whatever it was called(I swear they just made up those names) when his head blew up with two ball shaped balloon things 'cause he was feeling amorous. I was hoping for a sequence between the sacs and the eggs, but hey, this is PBS. I’d love to see the files of the things they didn’t use. \*\* Yes, that dinosaur sex manual, the Joy of Sacs. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/26 "2025-07-01T18:59:52Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > In the first episode an adolescent dino was driven away from his family and later hooked up with a bunch of other young males who roamed together until they reached adulthood. Yes, many plant eaters did travel in herds for protection. From what I have read, hardly any cared for their young after the eggs hatched, Maiasaura may be an exception. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/27 "2025-07-01T20:39:26Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Eh, the descendants of a select theropod branch with many millions of years of additional evolution play. Even if we want to suggest that their modern behavior is somehow indicative of how some smaller prehistoric theropods _might_ have acted, it has nothing to to do with the Sauropods, Ceratopsia, Ankylosauria, the Hadrosaurids, etc. Crocodiles and alligators also play, so by phylogenetic bracketing it seems likely dinosaurs did too. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/28 "2025-07-01T20:48:51Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Crocodiles and alligators also play Crocodilians branched off the Archosauria tree well before dinosaurs evolved. That said, “dinosaurs” are a huge group so it’s entirely possible that _some_ played. But it’s not a measure for “dinosaurs” in general. [Here is a scientific article](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376635718303449#sec0020) about how play is relatively rare among animal species and, even among phyla that demonstrate it, it’s not universal among species within. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/29 "2025-07-01T21:11:59Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > That said, “dinosaurs” are a huge group so it’s entirely possible that _some_ played. But it’s not a measure for “dinosaurs” in general. The 1897 painting by dinosaur wizard Charles Knight appears to show two _Laelaps_ playing (some say they’re fighting, but it looks like play to me): > **[Dryptosaurus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryptosaurus#/media/File:Laelaps-Charles_Knight-1897.jpg)** > > Dryptosaurus (/ˌdrɪptoʊˈsɔːrəs/ DRIP-toh-SOR-əs) is a genus of eutyrannosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived on the island continent of Appalachia approximately 67-66 million years ago during the end of the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period. Dryptosaurus was a large, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore that could grow up to 7.5 metres (25 ft) long and weigh up to 756–1,500 kilograms (1,667–3,307 lb). > Although it is now largely unknown outside of academic circles, the 1897 painti... Skeletons in the New Jersey State Museum have been reconstructed in the same pose > **[Dryptosaurus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryptosaurus#/media/File:NJSM_Dryptosaurus.jpg)** > > Dryptosaurus (/ˌdrɪptoʊˈsɔːrəs/ DRIP-toh-SOR-əs) is a genus of eutyrannosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived on the island continent of Appalachia approximately 67-66 million years ago during the end of the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period. Dryptosaurus was a large, bipedal, ground-dwelling carnivore that could grow up to 7.5 metres (25 ft) long and weigh up to 756–1,500 kilograms (1,667–3,307 lb). > Although it is now largely unknown outside of academic circles, the 1897 painti... This is one of the first depictions of dinosaurs as highly active creatures, unlike the sluggish lizards they’d been depicted as. It;s unclear exactly who was responsible for this remarkable pose, Knight or his mentor Edward Drinker Cope. Sadly, “Laelaps” has been renamed from that name (the name of one of Acteon’s hounds i Greek mythology) to the dreadful-sounding _Dryptosaurus_ (“Tearing Lizard”) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/30 "2025-07-01T21:15:52Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The 1897 painting by dinosaur wizard Charles Knight appears to show two _Laelaps_ playing (some say they’re fighting, but it looks like play to me) The internet seems to call the painting “Fighting Laelaps” but I don’t know if Knight gave it that title or it’s just a “We gotta call it something” thing. Always down for some Charles Knight dino-art though 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/31 "2025-07-01T21:25:10Z")
I’d always seen that painting described as a portrayal of _Allosaurus_. Possibly due to some specimens early assigned to the _Laelaps_ genus being thought to resemble Allosaurus or later reassigned to that genus. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/32 "2025-07-01T21:45:12Z")
Speaking of dinosaur paintings, the one I’d really like to see in person is Rudolph Zallinger’s [The Age of Reptiles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Reptiles) mural at the Yale Peabody Museum. I first saw Zallinger’s painting it in the Time/Life Book “The World We Live In”, which was a collection of reprints of the 13-part Life Magazine series. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/33 "2025-07-01T22:13:11Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > That said, “dinosaurs” are a huge group so it’s entirely possible that _some_ played. But it’s not a measure for “dinosaurs” in general. I don’t think you can say anything about dinosaurs in general, any more than you can say anything about _mammals_ in general. There were a lot of different types of dinosaur spread out across hundreds of millions of years. I’m sure they had every type of social structure we can imagine and a few we can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/34 "2025-07-01T22:46:51Z")
I don’t have anything against the idea of some sort of dinosaur engaged in play, more pumping the brake on “We know what dinosaurs probably did by observing birds”. There’s 66 million years of evolution separating modern birds from the small slice of dinosaur-kind they had as ancestors. That’s enough time for us to go from scurrying tree-shrews to airing reruns of _Love Island_. > [@Alessan](#): > > I’m sure they had every type of social structure we can imagine and a few we can’t. Skeptical about dinosaur communities replicating social insect colony structures 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/35 "2025-07-01T22:49:21Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Skeptical about dinosaur communities replicating social insect colony structures 😉 If naked mole rats can, why can’t dinosaurs? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/36 "2025-07-01T23:12:02Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I don’t have anything against the idea of some sort of dinosaur engaged in play, more pumping the brake on “We know what dinosaurs probably did by observing birds”. There’s 66 million years of evolution separating modern birds from the small slice of dinosaur-kind they had as ancestors. That’s enough time for us to go from scurrying tree-shrews to airing reruns of _Love Island_. Sure, but if both birds and crocs do something, that’s a sign that it either evolved twice (possible) or was already present in the common ancestor (often this is more likely). ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/37 "2025-07-01T23:25:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > > [@Jophiel](#): > > > > Skeptical about dinosaur communities replicating social insect colony structures 😉 > > If naked mole rats can, why can’t dinosaurs? There are plenty of birds who live in colonies, so I could imagine a eusocial bird colony evolving. (And true birds evolved 137 million years ago, so they’ve spent about as long coexisting with other dinosaurs as they have outliving them). ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/38 "2025-07-01T23:41:28Z")
I was a child of the 1970s. My dinosaur fixes came from Saturday morning TV. [Land of the Lost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Lost_(1974_TV_series)) (the 1974 version by Sid and Marty Krofft.) > Dinosaurs in the series were created using a combination of [stop motion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion) animation miniatures, [rear-projection film effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rear_projection_effect), and occasional [hand puppets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_puppets) for close-ups of dinosaur heads. The series marked a rare example of [matting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matte_(filmmaking)) filmed stop-motion sequences with videotape live action, so as to avoid the telltale blue ‘fringe’ produced in matting with less exacting processes. Though this occasionally worked very well, the difference in lighting between the video and film sequences sometimes brought inadvertent attention to the limitations of the process.[_[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)_] > > Special-effects footage was frequently reused. Additional visual effects were achieved using manual film overlay techniques, the low-tech ancestor to later [motion control](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_control) photography. Also in 1974 was [Valley of the Dinosaurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Dinosaurs) plain old animation. Hanna-Barbera In 1981 came the Ringo Starr film [Caveman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveman_(film)) . Jim Danforth oversaw the stop-motion animation. > Danforth was a major participant in the [special effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_effects) sequences, but left the film “about two-thirds of the way” (his words) through the work because the [Directors Guild of America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directors_Guild_of_America) prohibited his contracted on-screen credit, co-direction with Carl Gottlieb. Consequently, Danforth’s name does not appear on the film.[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveman_(film)#cite_note-7) ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/39 "2025-07-01T23:55:55Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > more pumping the brake on “We know what dinosaurs probably did by observing birds” Was that being claimed? I missed that. I read a claim that we know dinosaurs did not play because lizards don’t having the brake pumped by pointing out what birds do so don’t “be so quick to conclude that ancient ones did not” … not a confident claim we know they did. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299/40 "2025-07-02T00:00:33Z")
If dinosaurs had brakes it might explain the Chevron connection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/getting-your-dinosaur-fix/1020299.md?page=3)