dwarf pterosaur found....but AP screws up!

[GoofCustom]

One of the science videos to the left:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080211/sc_livescience/thescienceoffairytales


Cool discovery, but Pterosaurs aren't Dinosaurs!

 

[PlixTixiplik]

Usually inaccurate science reporting doesn't surprise me, but this is a fairly simple mistake! They even refer to them as dinosaurs at the beginning of the video.

The Jehol Biota keeps yielding amazing new fossils. Between the feathered dinosaurs and birds, a number of Cretaceous mammals, not to mention the oldest probable angiosperm, and now this (they have a bunch of other pterosaurs too). I actually spend an entire lecture in my History of Life class because there are so many cool recent discoveries from that part of the world.

-MEC

 

[M'Sharak]

GoofCustom said:
One of the science videos to the left:

Which one? None of the ones I see in the link seem to be about pterosaurs.

 

[PlixTixiplik]

It was there a couple of days ago, but I guess has since been replaced with more recent science videos. The perils of using sidebar ads of a page rather than linking to the original, I suppose...

Their science video page is here and the direct link to the pterosaur one is here.

-MEC

 

[M'Sharak]

PlixTixiplik said:

Their science video page is here and the direct link to the pterosaur one is here.

That did the trick. :thumbsup:

Tiny little guy -- apparently so small that the teeth were dispensed with as non-essential equipment.

PlixTixiplik said:
Usually inaccurate science reporting doesn't surprise me, but this is a fairly simple mistake! They even refer to them as dinosaurs at the beginning of the video.

I'm sure they went for simplicity. Even assuming it wasn't just a mistake, it's easier to tell people "it's a dinosaur" (even though that's not accurate) because they can quickly grasp and process what that is, but as soon as you get into "prehistoric flying reptile which isn't a dinosaur -- and here's why... ," the eyeballs have glazed over and the show/story has lost its audience. It may be "science reporting" but it's still aimed at Joe Average News-consumer Guy.