{"id":15978,"date":"2014-07-11T23:56:12","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T22:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=15978"},"modified":"2014-07-11T23:56:12","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T22:56:12","slug":"palaeontology-fun-and-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/?p=15978","title":{"rendered":"Palaeontology Fun And Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw a handful of palaeontology stories on the BBC website this week that made me smile. The first one informed us that Archeopteryx \u201cwore feather trousers for display\u201d<\/a>.\"Archaeopteryx\"<\/p>\n

I love the way that they can confidently deduce the entire colour scheme on the right from the fossil on the left. And I\u2019m also amazed that anyone could make a living out of mocking up these creatures (if you look closely in the link, the feathered one on the right is a collection of bits of modern birds glued on to a model).<\/p>\n

The second story concerned the \u201clargest flying bird\u201d ever<\/a>.\"The<\/p>\n

This time, we get an artist\u2019s impression rather than an actual model – look closely at the beak region and marvel at what appears to be an Albatross with teeth added.<\/p>\n

The third story – and this link is not on the BBC<\/a>, though that\u2019s where I first saw it – provides a video showing how a 440 million year old spider would have walked.<\/p>\n

The amusing thing about this is that the video gives the impression of a creature the size of a small dog, when in actual fact the spider in question was only a few millimetres long. I can\u2019t imagine an arachnid that small moving in a similar manner to an elephant!<\/p>\n

Anyway, I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that the steps involved in creating a mock-up of anything that\u2019s extinct are as follows:<\/p>\n