{"id":107,"date":"2010-08-27T07:26:38","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T12:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthurian.com\/?p=107"},"modified":"2010-08-27T07:31:01","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T12:31:01","slug":"depictions-of-dinosaurs-in-standardized-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/107\/depictions-of-dinosaurs-in-standardized-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Depictions of Dinosaurs in Standardized Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

As with many children, I was always interested in dinosaurs and I have kept that love of paleontology with me as an adult. I’m not a paleontologist but just a run-of-the-mill (35yr old) kid who loves dinos and tries to keep up with current trends in paleontology and evolutionary science. So, naturally, it pains me to see out-dated depictions of them, especially on standardized tests, specifically this year’s New York State Grade 8 Science assessment<\/a>. And while these problems are not directly related to the question being asked, I contacted the New York State Education Department<\/a> and suggested that the graphics and terminology be updated to reflect a more current outlook on dinosaurs and their evolution.<\/p>\n

\"2010<\/a><\/p>\n

Where to begin? Firstly, there is a typo: the image and first answer refer to a “theodont”; the correct term is “thecodont<\/a>“. Unfortunately, “thecodont” is considered to be an obsolete term and all modern paleontologists use the term “archosaur<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the dinosaurs in the associated image are shown as tail-draggers. Most dinosaurs are no longer depicted as tail-draggers, especially since Bob Bakker published The Dinosaur Heresies<\/em><\/a> back in 1986 and a body of evidence points to birds as being the descendants of dinosaurs<\/a>. Even Charles R. Knight<\/a> didn’t depict dinosaurs as tail-draggers in his 1897 painting, Leaping Laelaps<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Thirdly, Coelophysis is a distinct species that did not evolve into theropods or sauropods<\/a>; theropods were well established by the time of coelophysis.<\/p>\n

I do have to give some leeway in the depiction of Triceratops, though. John Scannella and Jack Horner have recently shown that Triceratops may be a juvenile Torosaurus (http:\/\/www.informaworld.com\/smpp\/content~db=all?content=10.1080\/02724634.2010.483632<\/a>) but this paper was published after the Grade 8 Science assessment was administered.<\/p>\n

Like I’d said, I realize that the “problems” I see are not directly related to the specific question being asked but, overall, they do reflect a dated outlook on dinosaurs and their evolution. Unfortunately, the reply I received from NYSED says, “Thank you for your comments. The graphic was referenced to a source. Perhaps it was not reflective of current conventions in the dinosaur world! We appreciate the information you have provided”. One can only hope that next year’s assessment — and the textbooks being used in science classes — might be updated to reflect a more current view of dinosaurs and their evolution!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As with many children, I was always interested in dinosaurs and I have kept that love of paleontology with me as an adult. I’m not a paleontologist but just a run-of-the-mill (35yr old) kid who loves dinos and tries to keep up with current trends in paleontology and evolutionary science. So, naturally, it pains me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthurian.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}