In Defense of Fred & Earl

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Date
I have to confess that although I did not collect fossils or even rocks
(Ugh!) as a child, I did watch a lot of Flintstones episodes. Later in life
I even developed an inordinate fondness for the "Jim Henson's Dinosaurs"
T.V. show (but I was already a serious Henson fan by that time). I do not
think that either of these highly successful memes is the source of
continuing misconceptions about the temporal relationship between dinosaurs
and man.

First, let me state my position on the dinosaur-man question right up
front. Dinosaurs and man did walk the Earth at the same time! They still
do. In fact, there are a couple of dinosaurs looking in at me from outside
my window as I write this. However, if, by the term "Dinosaurs," you mean
non-avian dinosaurs, that's a different matter ;->

One of the more obvious running gags in the Flintstones is that prehistoric
animals take the place of modern pets, domestic animals, household
appliances, construction machinery, etc., etc., etc. The humor is pretty
plain and I have yet to run across a child who actually believes that
marine reptiles ever functioned as domestic garbage disposals. It's only
when the threshold of adolescence is crossed that these beliefs are taken
seriously by some (see below).

The humor in the Henson's Dinosaurs is altogether more sophisticated.
Whoever writes (or wrote) for that program has much more than a passing
familiarity with the scientific and business side of paleontology. For
example, I seriously doubt that many 9-year old's get the joke about the
names of Earl Sinclair and his boss, Mr. Richfield. In case you've
forgotten (or are too young to remember) Sinclair Oil, whose logo happened
to be a green sauropod (probably an aptosaur), was bought by Atlantic
Richfield in the 60's in what amounted to a hostile takeover. I worked as a
consultant for ARCO while I was finishing my Ph.D. and although I remember
my ARCO days very fondly, the image of ARCO (= big oil) as a overbearing,
somewhat dim-witted Styracosaur is paleo. satire at its finest. But it's
adult satire, not the strictly slapstick juvenile satire that characterizes
the Flintsones. That the Flintstones proved much more popular than Henson's
product probably reflects the fact that while almost everyone is a child at
some point in their lives, only a small percentage of us go on to work in
the paleo. biz. You have to know quite a bit about paleo. to get all the
jokes in Henson's show. For many, it failed because they didn't have the
background to really appreciate it.

Over the years I've heard many paleontologists decry both of programs as
the source of popular misconceptions about the relationship between man and
the non-avian dinosaurs. Personally I've never had anyone tell me that they
believed that man lived with the "Dinosaurs" on the basis of scientific
evidence presented in either or these two T.V. fantasy sitcoms (and I'm the
kind of guy who invites the Jehovah's Witnesses in for coffee and a chat).
If anyone did adance this sort of argument I suspect that they would simply
be engaged in a somewhat desperate attempt to justify an irrational belief
by pointing to "the media" and saying, in effect, "The media made me do
it!" Such arguments are very common in our culture (look at the popularity
of astrology, UFO's and Mystic Meg) but are so intellectually barren that
they don't need to be actively refuted. Besides, what's the alternative.
Ban programs like the Fintstones and Henson's Dinosaurs or force them to
carry a warning label? That's political correctness taken a shade too far.

Now, what I REALLY want is a baseball jacket like Robbie Sinclair's that
says "Rampaging Trilobites" on the back. Anyone know where I can get one?


Norm MacLeod

P.S. For all you die hards out there check out the following web pages:

http://www.chickasaw.com/~cchamber/flint.html
http://www.sci.kun.nl/thalia/funpage/dinosaurs/dinos_en.html



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Norman MacLeod
Senior Scientific Officer
N.MacLeod@nhm.ac.uk (Internet)
N.MacLeod@uk.ac.nhm (Janet)

Address: Dept. of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum,
         Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD

Office Phone: 0171-938-9006
Dept. FAX:  0171-938-9277
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