The Paleontology of Chris Wildrick Is Overrated: A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words, 2008-present
For one of the most central projects to this series, Chris has collated 5 pictures of each of several dinosaurs. Each of these images is from popular culture, usually children's books. The question is, which of these images is the closest to your own mental image of that dinosaur species?
In other words, which of the 5 pictures of the ankylosaurus is the closest to the way you imagine an ankylosaurus looks like? This project will help determine what makes a particular way of representing a dinosaur more or less popular than its peers--is it scientific accuracy, pop cultural inertia, the degree of photorealism in the illustration style?
You can download the images and the form here--print it out and play it at home! Email your answers to me!
You can download the analysis of the results so far here.