The Dinosaur Anthologies

[JHG]

See here: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/162861
A series of anthology books with short stories about various prehistoric creatures, these exciting books will give any prehistory fan a bucketload of inspiration.
I for one remember these being the books that got me into prehistoric history and while the stories still hold up, the dinosaur depictions are outdated as hail!

[Kyng]

Sounds good . I might have read the Colossal Book of Dinosaurs at one point; however, I might be getting it mixed up with something else .

If you were to re-write them today, what would you update?

[JHG]

Sounds good . I might have read the Colossal Book of Dinosaurs at one point; however, I might be getting it mixed up with something else .

If you were to re-write them today, what would you update?

I’d be having to seriously scientifically update lots of the stories in many ways so it’d have to be a story by story analysis. In general, the maniraptors should be feathered(by feathered, I mean feathered like ordinary birds), there should be no tail dragging, and there’s anachronism too.

[JHG]

The entire Plesiosaurus story is just…unusable from the start. Plesiosaurs could not go on land without getting beached like dolphins and sharks. It’s still good to read, just not scientifically accurate. Much of the fauna’s also anachronistic. Metriorhynchus, Cetiosaurus, Ramphorhynchus, and Megalosaurus show up too early. The Teinurosaurus is of dubious existence. Either change the Plesiosaurus to a Cryptocleidus with the period shifted to Late Jurassic and Megalosaurus replaced with Wiehenvenator or Torvosaurus or just replace everything with an Early Jurassic equivalent. The Pliosaurus is cool and all but it’s not only appearing too early, it’s weirdly called “no threat to her.” Bruh, a Pliosaurus would find smaller plesiosaurs a tasty meal. At least fish is the right diet for Plesiosaurus. So instead of a Plesiosaurus having to go on land like a sea turtle, have her enter a lagoon or something to give birth with a whole pod of other mothers to be guarded by males or something. When doing these analyses, I prefer to leap through as few hoops as possible so I’d replace Megalosaurus and Cetiosaurus with Torvosaurus and Dinheirosaurus, the ramphorhynchids just go unnamed, have Plesiosaurus changed to Cryptocleidus, and replace Teinurosaurus with Compsognathus. Also, no swan poses for plesiosaurs; That is so 1970. Also, give them some bulk.

[JHG]

Getting to my favorite one growing up(guess why), the Parasaurolophus story actually holds up really well. The species seems to match P. walkeri best and I have a choice between Dinosaur Park, Oldman, or just any Campanian Late Cretaceous environment. Much of the fauna is present in the Dinosaur Park Formation so great! I'll go with Dinosaur Park.
Showing the Parasaurolophus as forest dwellers that occasionally go to the lake in herds of both genders with younglings having to stay in nests is...anyone's guess really. Parasaurolophus social life is not that well studied. I would prefer them not to look like they're tail dragging though. The younglings eating water weed is a good guess but them eating partly digested plants that their parents coughed up is not a bad guess either. Some Corythosaurus show up and they did coexist with Parasaurolophus so nice. Having one get eaten by a Deinosuchus is also plausible as Deinosuchus ambushing hadrosaurs to drag them underwater is verifiable! Then, the Gorgosaurus is shown as a land based apex predator which is totally accurate; Dale Russel hypothesized between it and Daspletosaurus(not showing up in this whole series), Gorgosaurus would've hunted hadrosaurs more and I'm inclined to agree. But then a passage states "the water was their refuge" referring to an outdated idea of Parasaurolophus and other hadrosaurs diving into water to protect themselves from predators. Putting aside the likelihood Gorgosaurus could swim too, earlier in the story Deinosuchus turned up so the lake would so not be safe! Anyway, later on a Struthiomimus turns up hunting insects and small reptiles and that is what they would've done. Only it should be covered in feathers like...an ostrich with a tail. Two Triceratops are shown rutting and they shouldn't exist at this point in time. Several chasmosaurine ceratopsid ceratopsians did live in the Dinosaur Park Formation but none were as big as Triceratops nor did they look like it so I'll have to just live with that even if it is wrong. I'll go with Mercuriceratops. At least the rutting behavior is verifiable. Then we get to Deinonychus turning up ~40 million years too late, without the correct feathered body, pronated hands like the rest of the theropods, no wings and too overpowered for its own good. Then this line kinda bothers me "Parasaurolophus knew she was no match for Deinonychus. All she could do was act as a decoy, to draw Deinonychus away from the nest." WHAT?!(Ok, I'm cool I'm fine.) Say it with me: Hadrosaurs ARE POWERFUL! A Deinonychus would get stomped flat in seconds by something bigger than the biggest rhinos. Things get worse if the Deinonychus is replaced with another raptor actually in Dinosaur Park namely Dromaeosaurus(my choice for replacement), Sauronitholestes, or Hesperonychus considering Deinonychus is dire wolf or human sized while Dromaeosaurus and Sauronitholestes are wild turkey sized and Hesperonychus is about chicken sized; Yikes. Then the hungry Gorgosaurus come in as a clutch save. So overall, it's mostly the work of science progressing and that feels nice I can enjoy this as a story while still nitpicking it that said, the egregious overrating of the Deinonychus is not a good part. Keep in mind hadrosaurs ARE POWERFUL!

[Kyng]

Well, I'm glad that one mostly holds up (apart from the Deinonychus thing ).

I suppose they had to guess at some things - but maybe future scientific discoveries will provide some answers!

[JHG]

Well, I'm glad that one mostly holds up (apart from the Deinonychus thing ).

I suppose they had to guess at some things - but maybe future scientific discoveries will provide some answers!

The Triceratops is also anachronistic albeit turning up "only" 6 million years too early. But yeah, this story in broad strokes still works scientifically just with a few egregious errors they really should've known better with.
Remember: Hadrosaurs ARE POWERFUL!

[JHG]

I gotta say, the Albertosaurus story is…actually holding up well? Much of the fauna matches the Horseshoe Canyon Formation so that’s an obvious choice. 
It turns out the Albertosaurus look holds up well! Probably should make it more narrow snouted and thinner but hey, at least it looks like a tyrannosaur. Triceratops isn’t in the Horseshoe Canyon though but luckily it can be substituted for an Eotriceratops with no issue. They probably wouldn’t live in herds this big though; Triceratops is thought to be more like mule or white tailed deer in social life and Eotriceratops was probably similar in that aspect since they’re way less abundant and have been mistaken for Triceratops before. Panoplosaurus and Stegoceras do show up and they are in the right place so kudos! Saurolophus probably wouldn’t be running into water considering the crocodiles in the water but they do coexist with Albertosaurus since these are dead(pun intended) ringers for S. osborni. So overall, a solid story that’s incredibly accurate with just a few small nitpicks to do.

[JHG]

The Tyrannosaurus one is pretty accurate! Mostly. I would wish there be less tail dragging and more upright Triceratops but I’ll take what I can get. The Parasaurolophus unfortunately don’t belong and should be replaced with Edmontosaurus. Also, the hadrosaurs should not be swimming away but running. Alamosaurus though, shouldn’t be so easy to beat although it is handwaved as a young individual. The Struthiomimus should be feathered and it’s not.

[JHG]

The story of Scolosaurus is pretty accurate and I’m going to basing my fixed version on the Dinosaur Park Formation. The design of Scolosaurus is pretty dated; This is a more modern design. Both Struthiomimus and Deinonychus need a lot more feathers and Deinonychus shouldn’t be here; Replace it with Dromaeosaurus. So far so good, as Scolosaurus is billed as “unstoppable unless it gets flipped over.” The Parasaurolophus are a very nice touch and in the right time and place! Trachodon though is a little dubious; The fossils are a composite of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid and ceratopsid teeth. But the design clearly is based on a saurolophine so I’m replacing it with Gryposaurus although that leaves it with no bulging nose. Gorgosaurus is indeed a threat for Scolosaurus. I would prefer to have Daspletosaurus but I’ll take what I can get. The Styracosaurus is indeed a threat the right place and time too and definitely could match a Gorgosaurus in a fight. The Ankylosaurus is showing up too early and should be replaced with Euoplocephalus.
Overall? Awesome story, still mostly holds up scientifically, and I’m proud to be a Scolosaurus fan thanks to this.