Obsolete Science
While Rivers of Time is a well researched time travel series, paleontological knowledge has improved since the stories were written, rendering some aspects of its portrait of the prehistoric past obsolete. Dated material includes the following:
- Alamosaurus and other sauropods, portrayed as aquatic creatures forced to stay in the water much of the time, are now recognized as fully land-dwelling.
- Stenonychosaurus, portrayed as a pachycephalosaurid, is no longer recognized as a valid species, having been found to be identical to the Troodon, a raptor-like theropod.
- Gorgosaurus, portrayed as a type of carnosaur distinct from tyrannosaurs, is now included in the tyrannosaur genus.
- Tyrannosaurus and other fauna portrayed as living in the middle Cretaceous in fact appeared in the last five to seven million years of the period; the actual fauna of the middle Cretaceous included species such as Nothronychus, Pawpawsaurus, Protohadros, and Zuniceratops.
- The teratosaur of the late Triassic period is portrayed as a carnosaur; current thinking suggests that it and most other "carnosaurs" of the time were actually rauisuchians (with the exceptions of Liliensternus, Dilophosaurus, and their kin).
Read more about this topic: Rivers Of Time
Famous quotes containing the words obsolete and/or science:
“So much of truth, only under an ancient obsolete vesture, but the spirit of it still true, do I find in the Paganism of old nations. Nature is still divine, the revelation of the workings of God; the Hero is still worshipable: this, under poor cramped incipient forms, is what all Pagan religions have struggled, as they could, to set forth.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)