Actually this is how we've been reconstructing dinosaurs. They're probably all very wrong.
I want to believe…
Then you have physcs and how much weight the bones can lift before breaking.
We need to bring back the chonkosaurs
T. rex may have had lips, for example
Luscious kissable lips?
Lusty Cretaceous Maid
😗
It's a while ago. Now they're probably pretty accurate.
I remember someone mentioned online that the reconstruction of animals are more complicated than just tracing the bone line.
I am very interested if some experts are willing to tell us more.
Since none chimed in (in the past 6 minutes) , I, an idiot, will share what I think I know. When reconstructing the faces of people from a skull, either with clay or software, they model the various tissues--muscles, fat, skin, etc according to models based on samples. How they would do this for a creature that isn't very like any current living creature I don't know. It is probably educated guesswork?
I just read an article on this process for a neanderthal and in that particular instance they used data from humans since I guess it was close enough.
But, for example (referencing a recent meme) how do they know spinosaur had a sail and not a hump back and neck muscles like a buffalo?? Seriously though I'm sure they can tell which bones have attachment points, how much force they can withstand, etc.
Over the last few decades there have been massive improvements on telling which bones have attachment points for muscles and hints at how strong the muscles are likely to be, but it takes a long time to replace all of the existing artwork with newer and more accurate artwork.
Even with improvements to the muscle structure, any part of the body that has fatty buildup like breasts would be missed without soft tissues being preserved. I am fairly certain that a hippos nose and lip area wouldn't have enough detail to reconstruct accurately. Heck, tyrannosaurs most likely had lips to cover their teeth, but that is based on other animals with similar teeth all having lips to protect the teeth from dryness and rot that doesn't apply to crocodiles who live in a very wet environment.
As another idiot, there is a difference between tusks and teeth. They are different, tusks don't contain enamel for example and I think aliens could also determine this difference. It's rare for teeth to stick out like in the reconstruction.
They would also be able to determine that hippos can open their mouth extremely wide. Making it more likely for the long "fangs" to be at least partially covered and not exposed like the tusks of elephants.
Often, dinosaurs are depicted with mouths showing their tooth. This is debated and more and more scientists think they had closed mouths, like most animals today.
Other than that, the proposition of fat is very hard to reconstruct. Reconstructing a hippo you would have other mammals in mind and reconstructing dinosaurs, scientists take reptiles but they could as well take birds so this is a big question.
For context: I'm an idiot too
I'll be honest, I double-checked your username to make sure I'm not going to read about Undertaker at the end
They can get some idea from the bones of muscle attachment points and how strong of a muscle would have been attached.
They might look cute and cuddly, but hippos are freaking mean. And they hold grudges longer than a snubbed karen-in-law
I mean, the alien reconstruction is like looking into the soul of the hippo
Yes, it captures the essence of the animal perfectly right.
The Alien Picture of Dorian Hippo.
Mandalore: "I would believe a hippo has boss phases in real life."
They are also faster than they look.
I don't get how they can have so much energy to move such a bulky body quickly. Aren't they also herbivores?
They are, but they spend most of their time in the water, so they aren't supporting their own weight.
Every once in a while one of them forgets they aren't top of the food chain, and attempts to fight an elephant. That goes poorly for the hippo.
I dunno, I think aliens would be smarter than that and we’re projecting our history of being overly simplistic on our dino reconstruction. Why put it on the aliens? It’s already an us issue.
Because the post is not about aliens. It's about people. Aliens serve here to help you see the problem from the outside, to not use what you know about the animal. It's supposed to show you the reflection of our way of thinking about fossils.
How can anyone say that an Alien archeologist would make the same minimalist assumptions that humans have made as opposed to making their own assumptions about the muscle and cartilage structures based on the creatures they're familiar with or current creatures alive on earth at the time.
Don't fixate on the alien part. That part is not supposed to be realistic, because it doesn't really represent aliens - it represents us people.
It's the same kind of alien trope used in Star Trek to represent different aspects of humans. It's not what aliens would probably really be like (trully alien).
It's a tool for illustrating human behaviour and it works decently well.
Uh oh... Looks like SOME alien got offended...
I am and I am!
Did you know the bite force of a hippo is 1820 psi? For comparison, the bite force of a lion is 650 psi, which could easily crush your rib cage as it can only withstand 630 pounds of force.
Imagine a hydrolic press pushing a coke can through your leg.
Is Pepsi okay?
It's fine I'll have water
[...] which could easily crush your rib cage as it can only withstand 630 pounds of force.
...How is this known? Also is that calculated with the skin/muscle/connective tissue buffer in mind? If so, that honestly raises even more questions...
There is a method of execution known as pressing, which was the crushing of someone under immense weight. One famous example occurred during the Salem witch trials where a man, not a woman, got so sick of salems bullshit that he refused to talk when questioned and so the town tried to get a confession out of him by stacking rocks on top of him, with the only response being "more weight". He eventually died from the crushing pressure of the rocks. Another famouse example involves an elephant crushing a person, though it was common to crush the limbs then the head.
Thanks! I was aware of that execution method, but I've never read of a precise amount of weight employed in the process.
How is this known?
Scale in mouth, bite?
Honestly, knowing what I know about the last slide, it might as well be the middle slide.
How it looks: This creature would use it’s oversized teeth to impale it’s prey and it’s massive muscles gives it a crushing bite.
The truth: I eata da plant
The truth: I eata da plant and also indiscriminately murder everyone who comes too close.
And then eat the meat sometimes
They only eat meat that's already been killed – the perfect flexitarians
But since they indiscriminately kill whatever is close enough, they may supply themselves with said "meat that's already been killed"
Oh hey, it's Tusky Tooth, the cryptid mascot of the Alabama turn named after him.
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