BRONTOSMASH! in a kids’ book
February 15, 2019
Thanks to a comment from long-time reader Andrew Stuck, I realised he is also the tweeter @dinodadreviews, who pointed us to Xenoposeidon in a kids’ book. Now, a review on his website of Ted Rechlin‘s comic-book Jurassic has pointed me to what I think is the first depiction of the BRONTOSMASH! hypothesis in a kids’ book:
This is nice work: it captures the mass of the animals, and resists the nearly ubiquitous tendency to make their necks too slender and elegant. The necks do look rather too short here, but I think we can explain that away as perspective foreshortening.
You’d have to say, though, that it owes more than a little inspiration to the third of Brian Engh’s early sketches:
I suppose there are only a certain number of ways to draw two apatosaurs fighting.
Anyway, it’s great to see what we consider a solidly supported palaeobiological hypothesis out there influencing young hearts and minds. We should also take this as a well-deserved prod to get on with the actual paper, which after all was meant to follow hard on the heels of our 2015 SVPCA presentation.
By the way, folks: the spelling and punctuation is “BRONTOSMASH!”. Not “Brontosmash”, not “BRONTOSMASH”: all in capitals, with an exclamation mark. It’s “the BRONTOSMASH! hypothesis”.
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
February 15, 2019 at 7:28 pm
I prefer to pronounce it as “BrontoSMASH!” The lower case, un-emphasized “Bronto” reflects the moment as they rear and then begin to come together with the “SMASH!” then occurring as the second element of the action. It makes it more dynamic by aurally and visually reflecting a process rather than just an instant. But that’s just me.
February 15, 2019 at 8:47 pm
Well, Mike from Ottawa, I get what you’re saying. But canonically, one is equally excited about all the parts of the word, hence BRONTOSMASH!
February 16, 2019 at 7:55 pm
I can’t believe I spelled it wrong in both places! I shall amend this posthaste…
Thanks for another shout out! :D
February 17, 2019 at 2:01 am
It’s a really great book, with amazing art! My oldest Sam (now 6) and I have had a ton of fun reading this together repeatedly.
Is BRONTOSMASH! accompanied by a metal guitar riff? And spoken in the voice of a monster truck announcer? Because if not, it should be.
February 17, 2019 at 10:14 am
Ideally, yes; but it’s hard to get that across in the typography. I tried “♫ BRONTOSMASH! ♫”, but people read it as classical music.
February 18, 2019 at 6:37 pm
🤘BRONTOSMASH! 🤘
February 18, 2019 at 6:42 pm
YES!
February 21, 2019 at 4:59 am
SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! At the Tri-County Motor Speedway, see Apato versus Apato in an earth-shaking saurian apocalypse. You’ll be knocked out of your seat by an event that could only be called….BRONTOSMASH!