Dinosaur and Animal Research

[jolem]

I was thinking about how in some TFs and some pictures there are some pretty accurate and non-accurate type of TFs especially if one is becoming a normal animal. I know TF is fiction and all but I think having the correct anatomy for some of the creatures like the pterosaurs for example, is great for learning about a few things that one might not never knew or bother to look up. Like I would never have known what digitigrade is have I not been running into this alot in other TF stories and pics. I think if you're going to do a full animal TF of a particular species, especially one that you don't know much about, you should do a little research about it before writing or drawing. TV Tropes was the one that got me thinking about it, here's the info all right there if you don't want to go to the site. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PteroSoarer
I'm thinking that this could be a good start from there before moving it away.

In prehistory, everything's better with dinosaurs.
This isn't quite as true about other extinct groups, but the public doesn't really hate them. They don't love them either. In fact, the other extinct groups are usually ignored. When they aren't ignored, most enthusiasts are inclined to wish that they were, because when they aren't ignored and are actually depicted in the media, it is too often a totally inaccurate depiction. Such is the sad case with pterosaurs, the Mezozoic flying reptiles*

often known as "pterodactyls" in homage to the first discovered species.
Mistaking pterosaurs for dinosaurs is understandable, if inaccurate. What is really egregious is how they are portrayed in media. The popular image of dinosaurs has changed dramatically in recent decades to fit the new scientific discoveries, but the popular image of pterosaurs has not changed much since the 1970's. Whereas feathered raptors and other anatomically correct dinosaurs are slowly becoming more abundant in the media, and obviously have become omnipresent in documentaries, most pterosaurs seen in media are carbon copies of reconstructions of several decades ago: leathery winged, naked and scaly skinned flyers that are essentially giant vultures or seagulls, as opposed to the diverse lineage of warm-blooded, pycnofiber-covered*

reptilians that had the most sophisticated wings of all time, and that were rivals to modern birds and bats in aerodynamic capabilities.
If you see a pterosaur represented in any piece of fiction, the odds are good that it will have at least one of the following common stereotypical traits. The list is derived from this website and this website, the latter one being a website set up specifically by pterosaur enthusiasts, but here the two lists are combined. The more wildly inaccurate a pterosaur depiction is, the more likely it will tick every box on the list.
• One: Confusing the names "pterosaur" and "pterodactyl" as if they were synonyms. "Pterosaur" means every Mesozoic flying reptile that had a common ancestor with the dinosaurs without actually being their descendants. "Pterodactyl" is either a description of a subgroup of pterosaurs or a genus name for a particular pterosaur, Pterodactylus. To put this into perspective, this would be worse than calling every primate you met a "gorilla".
• Two: Designing the pterosaurs with bat-like wings rather than anatomically-correct pterosaur ones. This ranges from having leathery wings made of nothing but skin to having the whole wing membrane being supported by all the fingers. In reality, pterosaur wings were made of tougher, more complicated materials and were supported by one finger. They should also attach at the ankle or at the lower leg, not at the hip, and they should be rounded and smooth, not pointed or angular.
• Three: Essentially, Pterosaurs Are Dinosaurs. Pterosaurs were a sister group to the dinosaurs, being more closely related to each other than to modern crocodiles.
• Four: Mix-and-Match Critters. Two pterosaur species will be combined into one hybridised design. This is a particularly good sign that the creators just didn't care, considering how easy it would be to sort out.
• Five: Bigger Is Better. The pterosaurs on show will be truly gigantic, far larger than the fossil record can justify. There is some Truth in Television for this belief, as creatures like Quetzalcoatlus currently hold the record for the largest wingspans ever known. However, this is at best 12 metres, and is based on scanty evidence. In fiction, beasts with much larger wingspans are exaggerations. This is all the more obvious when the species being shown didn't even approach that size.
• Six: Toothy Bird trope applied to pterosaurs. Specifically, this is when a pterosaur (like the iconic pteranodon) is shown having teeth, sometimes a horrifying set of gnashers, instead of a toothless beak. Occasionally this can be reversed when a normally toothy pterosaur (like Rhamphorhynchus) looks like it had a run-in with an angry dentist.
• Seven: Pterosaurs in fiction will grab objects with their feet and hoist them into the air, presumably to be carried away and eaten. Pterosaur feet were designed for quadrupedal walking on the ground, or for climbing vertical objects or branch systems depending on the species *

. No known pterosaur had prehensile feet with opposable digits, which makes any depiction of pterosaurs picking humans up with their feet inaccurate.
• Eight: Misplaced Wildlife or Anachronism Stew, unless it is crucial to the plot (for instance, a Lost World that contains a Sole Survivor species is discovered and the plot rests on that premise).
• Nine: Small Taxonomy Pools, perhaps because the creators wanted to avoid the Viewers Are Geniuses trope, because they simply hadn't heard of them, or because they just didn't bother to do their homework. Pteranodon is easily the most recognisable of all pterosaurs in popular culture, with Dimorphodon, Pterodactylus and Rhamphorhynchus coming a close second. Quetzalcoatlus may get a mention, but the chances of meeting any other pterosaur species in fiction is virtually nil.
• Ten: Missing fur. Pterosaurs are almost always depicted as scaly, despite the growing evidence that most, if not all, of them had fur of a sort.
• Eleven: Pterosaurs will have an inexplicable desire to attack or kill humans on sight. This one may be justified if the pterosaur in question is a Papa Wolf or a Mama Bear defending its nest, or has some other biologically plausible behaviour, but usually it's as if the pterosaurs have looked up the Humans Are Bastards page in advance.
• Twelve: Expect any fictional pterosaur that lands on the ground to be hopelessly lost. Real pterosaurs were more than capable of walking on firm ground - some of them were scarily competent at it.

Now add up the ticks, and if you've got a full twelve, congratulations. You have taken this trope Up to Eleven!

We should bring out rare facts that a particular animal's anatomy has and what part that many artists and writers actually overlook or got wrong most of the time.