Dinos Survive in The Lost World

The Lost World, a 1912 novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, contains a multitude of plot points, characters and themes, but is really a book about dinosaurs. After a long and successful career as the author of the adventures and memoirs of British analytic detective Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle desired change. He killed off Holmes in 1893, to turn a page in his writing career (although he later revived the character as a result of public outcry). Conan Doyle was a man of science, an ophthalmologist, and a leader in the campaign for the reform of the Congo Free State, but he is mostly remembered as a writer of huge imagination.

The Lost World tells the tale of a group of British men on an expedition to South America where it is reported a high plateau deep in the jungle has managed to be left behind by evolution and still harbor prehistoric creatures – most notably dinosaurs. Without getting too much into the details of the frame story, I will say that it involves an act of bravery meant to impress a woman, and a crazy scientist who physically assaults journalists who demonstrate disbelief in his outrageous claims.

           The idea of a land left behind by evolution was not begun or ended by Conan Doyle. His novel is one in the long history of re-imagining dinosaurs walking on our earth, whether conjured by science, time-travel or dangerous exploration. In the 19th and earliest 20th century, the possibility of extinct creatures existing in the darkest or most unexplored parts of our world was not only enthralling, but also very realistic seeming. When Conan Doyle wrote The Lost World in 1912 scientists were just beginning to get a taste of paleontology and some parts of the world were still largely unexplored - included vast parts of South America, a good reason for the location Conan Doyle chose for this adventure. Jules Vern had already written about living dinosaurs in the depths of the earth, wasn’t it possible that there was something surprising and undiscovered deep in the Amazon?

           For Conan Doyle, the existence of dinosaurs was the most exciting of these possibilities, and it is those creatures he placed on the plateau - unable to escape the treacherously high cliffs, stranded for all time in this remote location. Side by side with primitive ancestors of humans, a variety of dinosaurs appear in the novel. Our understanding of dinosaurs in 1912 was minimal, and most of the depictions found in the novel would not ring true today – such as Iguanadons being of such a low intellectual ability that they could be led around like cattle and butchered for meat by one of the man-like races on the plateau. Can he be blamed? Who would have thought that such large creatures with tiny heads could be smart?

"For a moment I wondered where I could have seen that ungainly shape, that arched back with triangular fringes along it, that strange bird-like head held close to the ground.  Then it came back, to me.  It was the stegosaurus...The ground shook beneath his tremendous weight, and his gulpings of water resounded through the still night.  For five minutes he was so close to my rock that by stretching out my hand I could have touched the hideous waving hackles upon his back.  Then he lumbered away and was lost among the boulders." - From The Lost World

           Whatever the level of realism, this exciting and descriptive tale is a great journey for those who enjoy Conan Doyle’s literary style, as well as for those who find joy in imagining what could be left out in there in our unexplored universe.

A Comic (sort of) About Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Comics, Ryan North, 13 September 2011

Ryan North, creator of Dinosaur Comics, doesn’t know much about dinosaurs. He was never a dino-obsessed kid or a past-life paleontologist. He created Dinosaur Comics in 2003 because he didn’t think he could get enough personality from a comic using astronauts (because their helmets cover their facial expressions).  His forte is humor – bringing stimulating discourse to the mouths of the comics stars T-Rex, Utahraptor and Dromiceiomimus.

Ryan North might not be much of a cartoonist, either. His well-loved dinosaur characters never vary. Though locked for perpetuity in their predetermined frames and positions, the characters manage to let us into their private lives (Utahraptor is gay) express their views on philosophical questions (T-Rex fears a world where everyone is immortal) and make us laugh (are relationships like real ships?). Dinosaurs can be funny too, people.

The comic is good, and begs the question: Is T-Rex waxing philosophic on the meaning of life somehow funnier or more poignant than the deep thoughts of a being who hasn't experienced extinction?

For more on Dinosaur Comics and creator Ryan North, check out this interview from the Smithsonian’s Dinotracker blog.

Nessie!

The average skeptic might be unaware why Nessie, the monster of Loch Ness, would hold a place on Picture the Dinosaur, but those of us who have spent years, months, or even a few hours of down-time reading about the origins of the Nessie legends know that a leading theory for believers is that the monster of the Loch Ness is no such thing – that “she” is simple a remnant of another age – missed by the slow and steady current of evolution. Some people believe the beast roaming around in the murky waters of Loch Ness is a dinosaur.

To be exact, people think she is a Plesiosaur, which is not technically a dinosaur, although it is often grouped with dinosaurs. Plesiosaurs were a marine reptile that thrived in the Triassic and Cretaceous periods. Although common thought holds that all Plesiosaurs went extinct the K-T extinction event, some theories hold that as the loch separated from the ocean, a family of Plesiosaurs were trapped and made a home in the loch’s deep waters and caves.

Legends surrounding Nessie can be traced to the year 565AD and continue on to today, with reported sightings as recent as June of 2011. Legends have inspired an entire industry of tourism in Inverness and other Scottish towns which border the loch, as well as a multitude of books, movies and spottings in popular culture. The “dinosaurs missed by evolution” genre gets a major boost by Nessie believers.

Some folks really think that Plesiosaurs are still out there. For instance, people are still talking about the carcass that was found in 1977 by a fishing ship that looked a little bit like a Plesiosaur. It wasn’t one. Another fun-fact about Plesiosaurs - the newly discovered fossil of a pregnant Plesiosaur suggests the creatures may have given birth to live young.

We are thinking about you, Nessie.

Introducing Gertie: The First Dinosaur Brought to Life

Anthropomorphic animals are a standard in cartoons today, but the first animated film to depict an animal with human emotions and an intentional personality was created by Winsor McCay in 1914 – 14 years before Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse made his premier in Steamboat Willie.

Who was the star of this groundbreaking 1914 film?

A Dinosaur named Gertie.

Winsor McCay was a cartoonist and an animator who hand drew the thousands of necessary images to create Gertie’s story on 6.5 X 8.5 inch pieces of rice paper. Many of his techniques were later adopted by major animation studios. McCay integrated the film about Gertie into a Vaudville act, appearing on stage and interacting with Gertie, who was billed as “the only dinosaur in captivity.” In the film, Gertie also interacts with a Wooly Mammoth (who knows if McCay knew that the two species did not live at the same time!) After the success of Gertie, McCay also began working on a second film about the friendly dinosaur that never made it to the theatres. In the unfinished pieces of “Gertie on Tour,” the dinosaur visited Washington, DC and New York - we can only imagine what kind of antics she would have had there!

Cartoons were a place where a talented animator could show an audience anything - the great Pyramids of Egypt or knights on horseback.  Why did McCay choose a dinosaur as the star of his film? Some web-historians speculate that the choice wasn’t random. Animated cartooning was a very new idea in the beginning of the 20th century and audiences were having a hard time believing their eyes when they saw some of McCay’s previous animated animals – a fish in “Little Nemo” and a mosquito in “The Story of a Mosquito” – moving on a screen. They thought it was a camera trick.

It's possible that McCay considered this problem and made a plan. What's even more amazing that bringing a fish to life in a cartoon? What would be impossible to create with camera tricks? Bringing a dinosaur to life!

In 1914, the study of dinosaurs in any capacity was pretty new. Knowledge about dinosaurs was still pretty minimal among the general public, and watching Gertie eating, drinking and playing was most likely the first time audiences had experienced the image of a moving dinosaur, likely stirring the imaginations of many of the lucky folks to witness the 5 minute animated film.

If only Gertie knew how many dinosaurs would follow in her massive footsteps!

Read more about McCay and Gertie the Dinosaur here.

The Movie That Changed Everything

Before the book ever hit shelves, Hollywood studios were fighting over the film rights to Michael Crichton’s cautionary tale of cloned dinosaurs, Jurassic Park. The collaboration that made the landmark film possible was that of Crichton and Steven Spielberg. Spielberg was already known as one of the greatest filmmakers of his time having directed, produced or written classic films such as E.T, the Back to The Future trilogy, the Indiana Jones Trilogy, the Goonies and a score more. Jurassic Park would, literally, change film forever.

The film opens on Isla Nubar, an island 120 miles off of Costa Rica where something huge is moving through a collage of palm-like leaves. The object is guarded by a group of men armed with machine guns, wearing curiously adorned “Jurassic Park” hard hats. Momentarily, an enormous crate held up by a crane breaks through the trees.

The audience knows what we paid to see. We know we are here to see dinosaurs, but we don’t know just how real they’ll be. We don't know that we'll never look at film the same way again.

In this jungle, the beast snorts and heaves as it is released from the crate (its form carefully hidden from our eyes). We still haven’t caught a glimpse of the creature when it swiftly grabs one of the workers and drags his flailing body inside the enclosure and we first see that ferocious eye of what can only be a carnivorous dinosaur.

The lesson of the first 10 minutes of the film is as clear as day: We are not in control.

As frightening, frenetic and exciting this scene is, for many viewers, it is not the movie's most awesome. For the aspiring paleontologist, or just the average dino-aficionado, the re-created ferocity of a Velociraptor is only a part of the intrigue of Jurassic Park. The real excitement may come watching the group of paleontologists carefully collecting a dinosaur skeleton in the Badlands, or when we visit the island's laboratory and hear the fantastic story of How Dinosaurs are Cloned.

The excitement may come for you, as it did for me, when the team first arrives on the island to check out this new dinosaur theme park. The Jurassic Park branded Jeeps roll up to an expansive grassland, and instantly witness an impossibility. Not a 100 yards from their faces, a Brachiosaurus lingers peacefully. After a lifetime of only seeing the two-dimensional forms of dinosaurs in picture books at the library, the living, breathing, moving form of a 40 ton creature was inspiring. This is the best moment in my entire cinematic memory. I can imagine that my slack-jawed face was exactly what Spielberg was envisioning when he imagined Jurassic Park.

What was the best moment in Jurassic Park for you?


More on How Jurassic Park Was Made, Spielberg’s Dino-rific Film Past, and What Jurassic Park Got Right (and Wrong) in future posts.