Dinoween Prompt no. 5: VampiresAh, good old Vampire Jeholopterus. It never gets old.For those of you
Dinoween Prompt no. 5: VampiresAh, good old Vampire Jeholopterus. It never gets old.For those of you who aren’t aware of the independent researcher and force of chaos David Peters, I recommend A) not listening to anything he says about any fossil animal, and B) checking out this article by Darren Naish about exactly why you should not listen to anything he says about any fossil animal. Long story short, he uses extremely unreliable fossil analysis techniques to “find” past of fossils that no professional palaeontologists have ever noticed for some reason.One particularly memorable example of David Peters’ ability to “find” amazing new features in fossils is his interpretation of the small pterosaur Jeholopterus. For reference, here is a scientifically accurate restoration of Jeholopterus by Vitor Silva on Pteros.com:Now, let’s take a look at Peters’ interpretation:So, according to Peters, Jeholopterus had enormous fronds growing off its back, a long tail with a tuft of hair on the end, stood on its hind legs, and had vampire fangs. While the media (thankfully) didn’t pick up on most of Peters’ changes, they had a field day with the supposed vampire fangs, with reports of vampire pterosaurs flying around the internet, and even making their way into some dinosaur books. Needless to say, there is no evidence whatsoever to support this claim, and the idea has been refuted again and again by pterosaur scientists (here’s one example from Dr. Mark Witton). As far as I’m aware, almost none of Peters’ discoveries have ever been accepted by actual palaeontologists.But it does make for a fun Dinoween drawing though. -- source link
#pterosaurs#dinoween#jeholopterus#david peters#art#vampires