(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews.)
Prompt: Share one interesting fact that you know.
All right. I actually know a lot of random, often-obscure facts, but whether they're interesting or not depends on the audience. So for this prompt, I'm going to go with a fact that I hope will just be sort of generally interesting, because it's about dinosaurs and dinosaurs are interesting.
Except that I'm kind of lying to you, because this particular fact isn't about a dinosaur. It's about Dimetrodon:
Dimetrodon, you see, was a staple of every book about dinosaurs that I read in my childhood. They showed artists' illustrations, speculated about whether the sail on its back was a way of adjusting its body temperature or perhaps attracting mates, told us about what the creatures ate...
And all the while, those books were lying to me.[1]
Dimetrodon, you see, isn't actually a dinosaur. It's a synapsid, and it predates the appearance of actual dinosaurs by about 40 million years. Which is a pretty big stretch of time for A Child's Book of Dinosaur Facts to completely ignore.[2] And that's leaving aside entirely the fact that the synapsids are actually more closely related to mammals than they are to reptiles or birds.[3]
So there's one interesting fact that I know: Dimetrodon were A) really cool, and B) not dinosaurs.
[1] Yes, I'm still bitter about this.
[2] Really, really bitter.
[3] So, so very bitter.
I'd be bitter too, Michael. I know what you mean, I remember seeing these guys in every dinosaur book I had.
ReplyDeleteThey were nearly as ubiquitous as Tyrannosaurus Rex.
DeleteI’m a little bitter, too. LOL.
ReplyDeletePicture books should be accurate.
Right?
DeleteIt is so hard to correct preconceived notions.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely true.
DeleteThis makes me realize I need to dig more into early natural history. I'd definitely pin the label "Dinosaur" on that critter.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm picturing a dimetrodon wearing a little pin that says "Not A Dinosaur"...
DeleteSo, are you bitter about this?
ReplyDeleteInteresting fact, thanks for sharing.
Well, colour me shocked. I never knew that.
ReplyDeleteSome Christians used to think all dinosaur fossils were faked anyway. I've never felt terribly disillusioned by reading new information that seems to contradict older information about dinosaurs.
ReplyDelete