Wednesday 11 March 2009

My Dinner

In addition to the sumptuous feasts I prepare on a nightly basis for my darling husband, we have the occasional quick frozen meal that in theory even he could prepare (actually I do him a great disservice - he cooked some amazing quesadillas a month or so ago).


Yes folks, Bernard Matthews Turkey Dinosaurs. In theory there is some turkey in there (according to the ingredients, as much as 42%!), much like there's apparently chicken in a Chicken McNugget.


You'll see there are only three types of dinosaur available - a generic theropod, a generic ceratopsian and a generic stegosaur. Paul likes the stegosaur but will never turn down a theropod.

Now, apart from the fact that I actually photographed my dinner, here's an example of how I perhaps have too much time on my hands to think and plan mischief. I read the "facts" on the back of the packet.


I must apologise for the blurriness of the photo. It looked fine on my phone and on my teeny laptop screen, but looks shite at work. Anyway, the top "fact" said:

Did you know? Stegosaurus had a brain the size of a walnut!

As far as I know, that's moderately accurate. I've seen a brain size of 2.8oz quoted, but as I've tended to regard any non-sauropodous dinosaurs as a bit less cool I'm not up to speed on the literature. Gets more dubious though:

Triceratops had the biggest head of any land-living animal.

Definitely not true. The largest skull of any land-living animal belongs to Torosaurus at over 2.5m long. Triceratops still had a pretty big skull, but this is the sort of fact that any self-respecting six-year-old would be able to correct Bernard Matthews on.

Tyrannosaurus rex's closest living relative is the chicken.

Aaaaaaggghhh! Okay, I would have allowed this, IF they were Bernard Matthews Chicken Dinosaurs. But they're not, so I won't. According to the Tree Of Life, the most basal birds are the Palaeognathae, which include the ostriches, emus, kiwis and tinamous. So they, and not the chicken, are the closest living relative to Tyrannosaurus rex.

Does anyone else pick up on these little errors? Should I seriously get a life, stop photographing my food, realise that processed turkey, chips and barbecue sauce does not constitute a balanced meal for two adults, and consider adding some vegetables to the mix?

1 comment:

  1. I'm not sure on this one. but I read about a recent study of the torosaurus that suggests that it is infact a mature adult of the triceratops. if this is correct, then that would mean that bernard matthews were right about the head, as because the triceratops was discovered before torosaurus, the species will retain its name.

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