Interweb Science of the Week #1

The interwebs are deep and tangled. And there is often so much going on that it's difficult to keep up with all the news pertaining to science and natural history that I see on a daily basis. Be it a great blog post, a phenomenal piece of art, or a recently published electronic journal article, the interwebs are loaded with great material. But every now and again, I'll see something online that really stands out and grabs my full attention. And chances are it will grab yours too. So I figured I'd go ahead and share my favorite internet find of the week with you all here at Superoceras in a new feature I'm calling "Interweb Science of the Week" (ISW). I'm sure this is going to end up being a highly coveted distinction (haha), so I wanted to start out by setting the bar high.

This weeks ISW award goes to Atlantic Productions and Sir David Attenborough for their film Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough. That's right: a 3D pterosaur documentary hosted by Sir David. I can't imagine anything greater. I also can't believe this went completely under my radar, and has already premiered on the UK's Sky 3D channel on Christmas Day (thanks to David Mass over at ART Evolved: Life's Time Capsule for posting the video below yesterday). Has anyone had the pleasure of seeing it? Perhaps a release in 3D meant a lot of people didn't get to view the program? I certainly hope that isn't' the case, as the trailer looks amazing.

Flying Monsters 3D With David Attenborough from Atlantic Productions on Vimeo.

From that short clip alone, one can see that there are at least four pterosaurs featured in the film: Dimorphodon, Darwinopterus, Tupandactylus, and Quetzalcoatlus. These four genera collectively span 131.5 million years of pterosaurian evolution and represent the first group of vertebrates to take to the air. As much as I love birds, it really is a shame that no pterosaurs made it through the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event (sorry to disappoint all the "Ropen" hunters out there). This was an amazing group of animals and hopefully the film will get an IMAX release soon so more people (myself included) will get a chance to see it.

Be on the lookout for next weeks Internet Science of the Week award. If it looks like interweb science, and sounds like interweb science, it's fair game!