Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Theropods for Thanksgiving - Let's Read The _Prehistoric World_ Series!

_Prehistoric World_ Series

Well, we're going to read some of the books in the Prehistoric World series, since my library had a very extensive collection of them. All of these books were written by Virginia Schomp and published between 2003-2006 by the Marshall Cavendish Corporation. Sadly, individual artists are not credited. And all books feature this disclaimer in the credits page:

_Prehistoric World_ Series - Ornithomimus, 2006

Methinks more dinosaur-related media could use something like that.

We're going to start with Ornithomimus and Other Speedy "Ostrich Dinosaurs" from 2006. It's timely indeed because here's how the book starts out:

_Prehistoric World_ Series - Ornithomimus, 2006

Yeah... about that...

In light of recent revelations, it is worth noting that this, exactly this, is how Ornithomimids were explained, with no variation at all, in every dinosaur book ever. Often, the point would be emphasized with an illustration like this one:

_Prehistoric World_ Series - Ornithomimus, 2006

Hmm... for some reason the pose and color scheme on that ornithomimid looks familiar. Well, never mind that now. Here's a really gross version of the "egg-eating Struthiomimus" meme:

_Prehistoric World_ Series - Ornithomimus, 2006

Lastly, here's a very strange theory illustrated: fish-eating ornithomimids! What?

_Prehistoric World_ Series - Ornithomimus, 2006

Therizinosaurs and Other Colossal-Clawed Plant-Eaters, published in 2006, gives us this memorably ugly depiction of one of my favorite dinosaurs. Seriously, what the hell?

_Prehistoric World_ Series - Therizinosaurus, 2006

For it's next trick, the book declares that the ever-mysterious Deinocheirus, generally agreed to be an ornithomimid, was a therizinosaur!?

_Prehistoric World_ Series - Therizinosaurus, 2006

Next post, more outdated maniraptors.

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Sketch of the day!

Have some gesture drawings from election night!

11.6.12 Sketchbook Page 3