Home Blogs AustroPalaeo VIDEO: Dinosaurs on the big screen

VIDEO: Dinosaurs on the big screen

Contributor

John Pickrell

Contributor

John Pickrell

John Pickrell is the editor of Australian Geographic. He is a science writer, author, nature lover and self-confessed geek. Blog posts range over Southern Hemisphere palaeontology, dinosaurs, megafauna, archaeology, palaeoanthropology and a smattering of other topics.

DINOSAURS HOLD A special place in the imagination. They’re everywhere from kids’ books to movies to video games… they’ve even made an appearance on Doctor Who. But how do we know what dinosaurs look like? How accurate is the modern image of the prehistoric dinosaur?

Join me as, along with Dr Paul Willis and our friends at the RiAus, we explore the science behind Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic World and dinosaurs in general on the big screen.

Really the boundary between dinosaurs and birds has become very blurred. Starting in 1996, we’ve now found 40-odd species of feathered dinosaurs. Some fossils reveal feathers very much like birds’ feathers – and some of these animals begin to look more and more like birds themselves, and were even capable of flight in some form.

Learn more in this 15-minute mini documentary.

John Pickrell is the author of Flying Dinosaurs: How fearsome reptiles became birds, published by NewSouth Books in June 2014. Follow him on Twitter @john_pickrell.

Read Next

Brain structure of Tasmanian tiger revealed

Scans of thylacine brains from museum collections hint at areas of cortex involved in complex predatory behaviour.

Busting a botanical myth

The NT’s Palm Valley was long thought to have been a surviving relict of Australia’s prehistoric rainforests, but we now know its trees arrived much more recently with Aboriginal horticulturalists.

Feathered dinosaur tail found in amber

The discovery in Burma of the fluffy tail of a little dinosaur perfectly preserved in amber has stunned scientists.