Post by citipati on Oct 11, 2015 23:03:32 GMT
Also known as Weeb's Pet Peeves in Dinosaur Writing.
- Using scientific nomenclature in settings where there is none; aka one Velociraptor mongoliensis calling itself a Velociraptor mongoliensis and knowing that it's prey are some form of Protoceratops and they exist in Cretaceous Mongolia. I have seen this done a lot and it... really sticks out like a sore thumb. Be creative! Think about what the creatures might use to describe each other; would it be by the sounds they make? How they look? How they behave? LIMITLESS VARIETY. You can include a small appendix for those who need to know what they are.
- Using our scientific nomenclature in dinopunk settings where common names would be preferrable and other ways of classifying would be much better. For the first part, we call animals by their common names a lot more often than we do their scientific ones (exceptions are found in the pet trade or scientific fields) and constantly referring to animals by their science name is... tiring. You don't call a horse Equus ferus caballus unless you're writing a paper. It's a horse. Or a mustang, a clydesdale or a shetland. These people would have different names for all the different dinosaurs and they probably wouldn't split them into the eight bajillion genera we have based on scant remains, which segues into the next part. Our classification of dinosaurs is a Very Specific thing based on years of thinking they were giant sluggish monsters and slowly working our way up from that. People who would be living with dinosaurs as extant creatures would immediately know them as they were; bird-like in the case of theropoda, ungulate-like with hadrosaurs and ceratopsians and SMALL MOVING MOUNTAINS for sauropods. That's not even touching things like pterosaurs and ichthyosaurs.
- For the love of god don't reference Jurassic Park unless you're writing something in a universe where it exists.
- Dinosaurs Are Animals. I have seen a lot of palaeofic fall on it's face by giving every large animal Sudden Hominid Intolerance Tantrum Syndrome. Where they flip their shits to get rid of anything anthropoid by either eating it, trampling it or just chasing it for miles. Sci-fi and fantasy creatures are also prone to these outbursts for no particular reason. Unless they have a reason to or are aiming to match hippos and african buffalo for levels of RAEG, your critters will probably ignore the tiny fragile bipedal naked things.
- Accuracy is subjective. All we have of dinosaurs is birds, and they are by no means the perfect analogue for something that has been dead and buried for millions of years. Don't be afraid to stick rigorously to scientific accuracy; speculation is fun!
- So Lonely Alone. Don't write your dinosaurs as being all there is; they lived with countless other creatures too! Pterosaurs, early mammals, invertebrates, crocodylians, turtles, fish EVERYTHING. Without an ecosystem your poor beasties would starve!
Feel free to add your own or tell me that I'm a crankypants old git 8'D I JUST LIKE TO HELP and babble and get carried away thinking about what this sort of stuff would mean in alternate worlds and other things.
- Using scientific nomenclature in settings where there is none; aka one Velociraptor mongoliensis calling itself a Velociraptor mongoliensis and knowing that it's prey are some form of Protoceratops and they exist in Cretaceous Mongolia. I have seen this done a lot and it... really sticks out like a sore thumb. Be creative! Think about what the creatures might use to describe each other; would it be by the sounds they make? How they look? How they behave? LIMITLESS VARIETY. You can include a small appendix for those who need to know what they are.
- Using our scientific nomenclature in dinopunk settings where common names would be preferrable and other ways of classifying would be much better. For the first part, we call animals by their common names a lot more often than we do their scientific ones (exceptions are found in the pet trade or scientific fields) and constantly referring to animals by their science name is... tiring. You don't call a horse Equus ferus caballus unless you're writing a paper. It's a horse. Or a mustang, a clydesdale or a shetland. These people would have different names for all the different dinosaurs and they probably wouldn't split them into the eight bajillion genera we have based on scant remains, which segues into the next part. Our classification of dinosaurs is a Very Specific thing based on years of thinking they were giant sluggish monsters and slowly working our way up from that. People who would be living with dinosaurs as extant creatures would immediately know them as they were; bird-like in the case of theropoda, ungulate-like with hadrosaurs and ceratopsians and SMALL MOVING MOUNTAINS for sauropods. That's not even touching things like pterosaurs and ichthyosaurs.
- For the love of god don't reference Jurassic Park unless you're writing something in a universe where it exists.
- Dinosaurs Are Animals. I have seen a lot of palaeofic fall on it's face by giving every large animal Sudden Hominid Intolerance Tantrum Syndrome. Where they flip their shits to get rid of anything anthropoid by either eating it, trampling it or just chasing it for miles. Sci-fi and fantasy creatures are also prone to these outbursts for no particular reason. Unless they have a reason to or are aiming to match hippos and african buffalo for levels of RAEG, your critters will probably ignore the tiny fragile bipedal naked things.
- Accuracy is subjective. All we have of dinosaurs is birds, and they are by no means the perfect analogue for something that has been dead and buried for millions of years. Don't be afraid to stick rigorously to scientific accuracy; speculation is fun!
- So Lonely Alone. Don't write your dinosaurs as being all there is; they lived with countless other creatures too! Pterosaurs, early mammals, invertebrates, crocodylians, turtles, fish EVERYTHING. Without an ecosystem your poor beasties would starve!
Feel free to add your own or tell me that I'm a crankypants old git 8'D I JUST LIKE TO HELP and babble and get carried away thinking about what this sort of stuff would mean in alternate worlds and other things.
