Inaccurate Portrayal of the Dinosaur Face :: Anthropology Essays Paleontology Papers

Inaccurate Portrayal of the Dinosaur Face As time goes on, Paleontologists discover more and more fossil remains, and with that more and more information about dinosaurs. Yet even with the great deal of fossils that have been discovered in the past century, scientists are still forced to make educated guesses about certain dinosaur behaviors, traits, and appearance. Dr. Lawrence Witmer’s recent research addresses this issue. Dr. Witmer argues that the fleshy nostril of dinosaurs lies in a different place than has been assumed and portrayed for over the last one hundred years. Dr. Witmer’s discovery was published in the August issue of Science magazine in 2001 and may change how we envision dinosaurs forever. Movies like â€Å"Jurassic Park† and the BBC’s â€Å"Walking with Dinosaurs† portray dinosaurs with fleshy nostrils which lie very high on their head. Not only in popular media is this true but in sculptures, kids’ books and scholarly journals. How could so many scientists have been wrong for so long? Very easily. When a dinosaur fossil is discovered it has an extremely large nasal cavity in its skull, sometimes several feet in length. Since flesh does not preserve all too well over the course of millions of years, paleontologists have been forced to make an educated guess as to where the fleshy nostril lies within the larger nasal cavity. Since the 1880’s scientists assumed that the nostril existed near the top of the head. The reason for this is that when sauropods (long necked dinosaurs) were discovered, it was thought that they must live under water in order to avoid crushing themselves under their own weight. This would explain their long necks. It would also follow that the fleshy nostril would be near the top of the head so the creatures could breathe easily while their bodies were under water. Even after it was realized these dinosaurs did not live under the water, the idea that the fleshy nostril existed near the top of the head persisted. The idea was also spread to most other dinosaurs that were discovered thereafter. Perhaps you have noticed this in a drawing or movie, that Tyrannosaurus Rex’s large nostrils do not lie in the front of his face but instead halfway up his head. Witmer believes his years of research with his â€Å"DinoNose† project prove that dinosaurs’ fleshy nostrils actually exist on the front end of the nasal cavity instead of the back end as was once believed.