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Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Largest theropods

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Original - The largest known Theropods relative to a human.
Edit 1 - Redrawn, incorporating information from seven sources. Please see the image page for details.
Reason
Large informative encyclopedic image that gets the reader's attention and makes the subject more interesting. Useful at a variety of articles.
Articles this image appears in
Tyrannosaurus, Theropoda, Spinosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Largest organisms, Dinosaur size, Mapusaurus
Creator
Dinoguy2, converted to .svg by Dhatfield.
  • Even if this is true, it detracts from its value as a visual aid because it is strange to have four dinos with two legs visible and one with one leg visible. Also, the largest dinosaur is standing but we can see both its legs. Mangostar (talk) 18:22, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • To Capital photographer - skin colour is a complete guess in scientific circles, see this and this for a green and a red version of the same dinosaur. Since the colours are meaningless, why not help the visually impared? The teeth on the lower jaw of the Carcharodontosaurus are not shown because the source images do not show teeth - quite possibly because a lower jaw has not been found. I don't intend to 'make up' detail. Not sure if your comment regarding the poor quality of illustration of the teeth is with respect to the edit - teeth in the original were admittedly dire due to pixelation in the source. In response to your concerns about scientific content, see the response to Papa Lima Whiskey below.
    • I know that. Hence I said more organic colours, in other words, colours more common in nature. I didn't ask for an approximation of what dinosaurs may have being coloured like, just some more apropriate colours other than bright red, green,etc. Capital photographer (talk) 06:46, 3 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • To Diliff - red tail now inserted in proportion with the dinosaur, accuracy improved beyond the information available in the original down to approx. 1/10 pixel of the original. No comment with regards to aesthetic 'quality' - I don't have the required perspective. Dhatfield (talk) 15:19, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • To Papa Lima Whiskey - firstly, thanks for your advice, but there are technical reasons for not working with the alpha channel:
  1. Some software does not support gradient transparency, reducing interoperability and maintainability for the image
  2. The WP renderer has problems with some transparency mappings, as I experienced with this image.
Secondly, you may not be looking as closely as a student would. Among what we can learn is: Tyrannosaurus rex had very small forelimbs relative to the other Theropods and two fingers, but was more heavily built in the body with a larger head. Spinosaurus, the largest, had a 'sail', a very uneven distribution of teeth and unusual skull shape relative to the other large Theropods. Gigantosaurus, despite its name, was a large but otherwise 'middle of the road' Theropod with a balance of power (Tyrannosaurus Rex) and agility (Mapusaurus). Mapusaurus and Carcharodontosaurus, despite their size, were built for speed and agility with body shapes similar to the smaller Eustreptospondylus. If you were a student who dug a little deeper you would note that according to the Theropod phylogeny, Gigantosaurus, Mapusaurus & Carcharodontosaurus belong to the family Carcharodontosauridae, explaining their similarity while Tyrannosauroidea and especially Spinosauridae are on divergent branches. You might then notice that Carcharodontosauridae isn't shown in the phylogeny and ask the maintainers why, thus improving Wikipedia. Anything can be illustrated with enough text but a picture is worth 50 words, minimum. Dhatfield (talk) 15:19, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • It is not easy to see the differences in overall size between these, due to the lack of transparency that I mentioned that would also allow you to follow body outlines more closely. The last time that Wikipedia had problems rendering a file, the nomination was suspended until the bug got fixed, rather than the file promoted with the necessary features removed. To illustrate differences in arm length or shape, it would be better to make a separate diagram, because people won't know what to focus on with the minimal information you initially provided to go along with this image. (I could also mention that the detail on jaws and forelimbs feels vague for a vector image, but Fir already said that.) Finally, making one diagram to point out that another one is missing something borders on WP:POINT and is not a good reason for promotion. We have an abundance of templates for pointing out problems. Please use these, or be bold yourself. Thank you. Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 15:33, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • The bug you refer to was my edit :) Unfortunately, given that flesh is not preserved by the fossilisation process, all images of dinosaurs are artists conceptions - I'd rather not add to a long and proud tradition of making stuff up. Fair comment regarding the caption, but I'd prefer if it was written by someone more knowledgeable than myself - de Bivort? I don't get the WP:POINT reference - this image was in no way made to point out the phylogeny problem, I just learned it while researching the answer to your question. You think I'd do that to achieve that? I'd praise the man who channels his frustration so productively. Fir0002's comment was regarding the original and the edit was a direct result - please keep the crit specific, otherwise I can't work from it. Thanks. Dhatfield (talk) 16:48, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • First, I'm saying if you are going to use the effect of this image on the fate of another image as an argument to get this image promoted, then, yes, I do believe you are committing a WP:POINT violation. Maybe that is not what you were aiming for. Second, I believe I have been quite specific in my criticism. General consensus among palaeontologists suggests that the shape of hands and fingers closely follows the bone structure. We have no reason to assume otherwise, as bulky soft tissue on the appendages is a very rare occurrence among extant animals. So if you want to draw accurate hands, just imagine the bones with a bit of skin on them, and you'll be fine. Alternatively, sticking to the skeleton entirely would be an acceptable solution afaik. In your diagram you (or rather, the people whose drawings you used as models) have already extrapolated soft tissue between the ribs and pelvis, for instance. The bottom line for me is that an image should not get promoted in spite of technical insufficiencies, just because the requirements haven't been implemented yet. In fact, part of your argument seems to equate to saying that because it's possible to make video players that interpret various video formats incorrectly (and there probably are some), we should promote stills instead of videos whenever a video is required. I hope this makes it clear enough that you are acting on a flaw of logic. Papa Lima Whiskey (talk) 17:27, 2 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]