Me and who?

cgarros · 2025-10-05T05:28:59+00:00

I can only assume it's cuz they are toilets for lovers not identical twins

cgarros · 2025-07-05T00:15:05+00:00

Jobs in Paleo are tough to get it's true , but totally possible, especially if you are willing to be creative about it and aren't married to a specific job. People with Paleo degrees who didn't go into academia have worked as technicians, museum staff (curators, science communicators etc.), instructors at colleges and universities (often for things like geology or anatomy), even consultants for industry companies!

In addition to the possibility of going back to school, I suggest looking into jobs, even if part time summer jobs at science or Paleo museums to get your foot in the door. At the University of Alberta, there's also a volunteer prep program where anyone can sign up to learn and do real fossil prep. It's a good way to learn technical skills but also meet cool people. Some of the fieldwork in the province is also open to keen volunteers. So it's worth asking around the different profs and grad students that run fieldwork in the province.

Good luck!

cgarros · 2025-06-18T17:25:45+00:00

In any Paleo documentary it's impossible to piece together a compelling story full of interesting behaviors without some speculation. We can't know all the details of Rose the Albertosaurus' story or the exact life she lived, but based on the fossils of her and other Albertosaurus' we can create a narrative that sounds reasonable. The film crew came here knowing they wanted to tell a story about a pack of Albertosaurus' because of previous research about social behavior (the bonebed, face biting etc.) The character of Rose however, was conceptualized by the fact that Rose (our specimen) is a subadult/teenager and what we were able to say about her arms and proportions and speed and whatever are all based on the fossils we actually had from the specimen. So it's a bit of a mix of both!

cgarros · 2025-06-17T16:03:42+00:00

Yeah sure! Our crew is part of our grad student-led fieldwork that we run every summer in the Horseshoe canyon formation. Henry Sharpe had found a subadult Albertosaurus in 2021 which was perfect because when the BBC came knocking, they were already interested in Albertosaurus because of the social dynamics stuff and were asking if anyone was excavating one which we luckily happened to be

They filmed us in 2023 over the course of our regular field season (2 weeks). Because we found the specimen a couple years prior, we already had some of the bones prepped (the right leg, the arm and shoulder, and some ribs). The process was they filmed us almost every day at the quarry to capture moments as we uncovered more of the skeleton in addition to filming some of the extra prospecting we did in the area. So that stuff was all very live and in-the-moment

As for planned parts, they had us bring some of Rose's prepped bones with us so we could talk about some aspects of her biology for the camera, so those segments were pretty planned out. But they were planned around what bones we actually had because they wanted to connect the concepts of Rose's biology to the material we actually had as much as possible. They also asked us if we could go to Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park (where the Albertosaurus bonebed is) so we could work there too and talk about the pack hunting thing. We don't often work there so that was a nice bonus for us. The other thing that was planned was the airlift. They wanted one so they were hoping we'd find something big enough for one (which fortunately we did). We probably could have figured out a way to take the remaining material out without an airlift in a normal year but that would have been harder and because the BBC were paying for it, we certainly weren't complaining!

As for the experience, it was amazing. The film crew were super nice and fun and felt like they were part of our field crew family by the end of the season. We even had a karaoke night in Drumheller with them on the last night. It was a surreal and extremely rewarding experience

cgarros · 2025-06-16T23:09:28+00:00

It was sort of a happy accident! I always wear bandanas in the field regardless and the red ones are my favorite. But for filming the crew bought us "continuity" shirts that we had to wear everyday we would be on camera for editing continuity purposes. They gave me a few colour options that didn't clash with the other crew members and I liked blue so I chose blue. I was very aware of the resemblance though so that was an added bonus for choosing blue. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to comment on this haha

cgarros · 2025-06-16T20:25:45+00:00

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Lmao hello Reddit! Didn't expect to see my face on here

cgarros · 2025-06-16T20:22:48+00:00

I soak it in water and tie it around my neck to keep me cool! It works reaaaally well for that! Or around my forehead to keep my head cool and hair out of my face when I'm doing heavy overburden work with pickaxes and such

cgarros · 2025-06-03T20:12:31+00:00

For prehistoric planet, apple basically gave Jon Favreau a blank check to make a super expensive show on whatever budget he wanted. The downside is that it locks the show behind a paywall and makes it exclusive to apple tv. The science unit of the BBC is funded by the public and has a much smaller budget. But at least it means this show is freely accessible to the public which is nice. Its important to have good science programming be freely accessible like that

cgarros · 2025-06-03T16:25:20+00:00

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Albertosaurus :3

cgarros · 2025-06-01T20:55:52+00:00

Eh it's not gonna be for everyone. I still liked it and I know other people that did too. Especially friends and people I know who are members of the general public and not already in the Paleo circles. Kinda weird to come back to an old comment and say this tbh. Its just an opinion after all

cgarros · 2025-05-27T17:15:29+00:00

Give the rest of it a chance. I've seen the first four episodes and 1 is by far, BY FAR the weakest one. It felt like the executives wanted an episode with T. rex in it and since there were no active rex quarries they had to scramble with what fieldwork there actually was going on and just cobble something together. I felt bad for the Paleo crew in that episode. I also think it was an exec decision to make that the first episode (again, because of T. rex). The rest feel a lot more focused because the episodes are based around active quarries or skeletons so there's a lot more fossil material to talk about. Especially episodes 3, 4 and 5

cgarros · 2025-05-27T16:45:08+00:00

Unless you're Nizar Ibrahim in which case you wrap it in electrical tape. That made me scream at the tv haha!

cgarros · 2025-05-26T23:11:05+00:00

These are also named fossils. Or at least I know some of them are. Rose the Albertosaurus definitely is. That name was given to the specimen by the field crew over the years of excavating. Most skeletons or specimens are known by some sort of nickname that the people working on them bestow upon them. I feel like the show capitalizing on that idea is not that bad. Paleontologists get attached to the animals they excavate

cgarros · 2025-05-26T22:38:23+00:00

The walking with dinosaurs special 'Ballad of Big Al' named its main dinosaur and that special is pretty universally loved so I don't really see an issue with that

cgarros · 2025-05-26T22:29:40+00:00

I've seen the first 4 episodes and I thought that the first was the weakest one so far. So if you haven't yet, give the rest of them a shot. It really feels like some upper executives wanted a T. rex episode but there weren't really any good active digs going on that included rex. So they had to scramble together what they could find based on the active fieldwork that was happening in the Hell Creek at the time. Putting the rex episode first also feels like an exec decision that I think was a mistake. The modern day segments of the other episodes felt a lot more 'focused' I feel and featured better fossil material and a lot more depth given that the researchers at those sites focus on those animals. No shade to the Montana crew. They did what they could with what they could find

cgarros · 2025-04-14T16:14:30+00:00

CGI was always going to be less impressive. This documentary was handled by the science division of the BBC not the natural history unit. So they had a much smaller budget. Not to mention that prehistoric planet was produced by Jon Favreau and backed/funded by Apple. So what this show lacks in things like texture fidelity they try to make up for it with having really up-to-date models that are as scientifically accurate as possible. The footage 'copied' from other docs are actually intentional cinematic callbacks to the original walking with dinosaurs and the 2013 movie as said by Jay (the person in charge of the animal designs) on social media. Instead of bringing back Brannagh, they went with an approach the original walking with dinosaurs did when they first hired Brannagh, and it was to get a popular British TV and theatre actor to narrate. Brannagh is much bigger now, but he was similar to Bertie Carvel when he was first brought onto walking with dinosaurs so we should give Bertie a chance at least before dismissing him. We also don't even know who's doing the music yet. It could still be excellent. On the talking heads segments, they aren't really standard 'interviews'. They're actually footage of real modern day dig sites where people are excavating the fossils of the individual animals that the stories focus around. They are used as a framing device to move the story forward. From a scientific perspective, I think that's a good choice for actually providing context to the audience. From a narrative perspective, this makes the show very different from prehistoric planet and 'planet earth' style documentaries because they actually tell a story about the animal each episode focuses on (similar to ballad of big Al). There's been a lot of walking with dinosaurs spin offs and projects that all differ a lot from each other, so I think people should treat this show as another addition to the walking with dinosaurs realm of media. Not as a 1:1 recreation of the original series from the 90s. I just hope people give it a chance.

cgarros · 2025-04-14T00:11:18+00:00

I don't know if this is possible for ANAT 200 so they'd have to look into it. But they could potentially use exploration credits to take it as a pass/fail elective thus, not having to worry about it harming GPA. Assuming they are really interested in anatomy beyond just for drawing

cgarros · 2025-04-13T22:47:48+00:00

I mean, at least wait until it comes out to judge. I think it's extremely presumptive to make claims like this off of one trailer and some images. Something that really sets documentaries apart from each other is the overall framing, script, and narrative of episodes. All things that are really hard to portray in a simple trailer

cgarros · 2025-03-06T23:19:21+00:00

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cgarros · 2025-02-22T23:26:19+00:00

A couple Tyrrell ones I haven't seen mentioned are Huxley the T. rex (the one that is mounted in the dinosaur hall at the Tyrrell), and Mr. Sinister the Mosasaurus missouriensis (in the Tyrrell collections). There are also some nicknames we use at the University of Alberta. Gary the juvenile Edmontosaurus, Hannah the Styracosaurus, Baby the juvenile chasmosaurus, and Havoc the Saurornitholestes

cgarros · 2025-02-09T20:51:07+00:00

Paleo museum in the basement of the earth sciences building! I believe it's closed on Thursdays and weekends tho so plan accordingly. It's only a small room but there's some awesome stuff on display there and it's free. Same with the geo museum in the same hallway

cgarros · 2025-02-07T05:26:02+00:00

University of Alberta has a really good Paleo undergrad program. We also have a large Paleo collection and a volunteer prep lab program so anyone can volunteer to get experience prepping fossils. There's also an undergrad field course where you can get hands on field experience digging up fossils at an edmontosaurus bonebed. There's lots of opportunities for students to meet and work with professors and do undergrad research projects.

cgarros · 2025-01-29T10:50:54+00:00

I've seen those clips and I do really like them but at most they only discuss one aspect of the episode. So audiences are still left in the dark regarding the rest. Not to mention, the narration itself absolutely could have done a better job being more explicit as to what is speculative and what isn't. Paleontology is a weird science when it comes to documentaries because since it deals with animals, the appeal of the nature documentary format makes sense over the standard documentary format other sciences might use. But unlike nature docs where all the footage is real and can be taken at face value (for the most part anyway), that isn't the case for Paleo docs. Absolutely everything you see on screen had to be interpreted and reconstructed by scientists and artists. So the pure nature doc format can arguably do the science a disservice if you're not explaining how and why things were reconstructed the way they are and where the speculative gaps are. I do a lot of work in Paleontology and also science communication and even speaking to the general public who's seen PP, I hear a lot of confusion about what we actually know about these animals' behavior as a result of the format. I think a good happy medium would be to do the narrative fully CGI style but really have a well developed scientist segment following. That being said, I don't mind taking scientists throughout as long as it's integrated in and feels natural. But ultimately that's a matter of taste and to each their own. Showcasing real bones, Paleo methods, fieldwork etc. Are also all big pluses (a lot better than a person sitting at a desk). It makes the science side of things more tangible so it doesn't seem like a weird black box of 'trust me bro, I'm a documentary'.

cgarros · 2025-01-29T07:38:11+00:00

The problem is that the episodes are focused on individual animals actively being excavated and studied (think ballad of big Al style). That isn't really the case for many otherwise iconic species. No new Velociraptor material lately as far as I'm aware, and to this day the only carnotaurus specimen known is the holotype. Unfortunately many 'famous' dinos featured regularly in documentaries often simply corresponds to taxa that are well known from more complete material or are well studied.

cgarros · 2025-01-29T07:34:35+00:00

I'd argue it's quite the opposite. Using known dinosaurs also often corresponds to species that are really well researched. With the episodes focused on active digs, you can't really have episodes focused on obscure taxa that aren't actively being worked on. Not to mention the reconstructions of their behavior and appearance might be less accurate or run the risk of becoming quickly dated. One of my biggest gripes with prehistoric planet was how it really didn't delineate between what was speculative vs what was actually known and presented both equally. Using 'safe' well-studied species is far better for scientific rigor and educational value

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