Comments on: Mapinguary Madness

By: stormchaser

stormchaser — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:19:31 +0000

i find myself agreing with cryptoinformant the only way thay could keep a mylodon would be if it wanted to be there and i just dont see that happing

By: CryptoInformant

CryptoInformant — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:13:26 +0000

In fact, there was a news report a while ago about Microsoft hiring people to tamper with Wikipedia, and one guy hired people to modify the article on reality to say that “reality is a commodity” and to tamper with the information on the African elephant population, claiming that they are now in oversupply.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:28:23 +0000

True. Wikipedia is a good reference in general, and on diverse topics, but should not be used for academic or scientific citations. Whenever possible check other sources.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:07:36 +0000

I don’t rely on Wikipedia too much for any serious online research. As U.T. Raptor says, people mess with the entries and there have been proven hoaxes and dishonesty on the part of some contributors. I have spotted a few errors myself on there. For general interest, Wikipedia is Ok I guess, but it should not be treated as the final word on anything.

By: SoulTim

SoulTim — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:34:32 +0000

The journalists who write the stories are not the same people who select the headlines for these stories. An editor at the paper in question is the person who does that, and journalists generally have very little say in it at all. The person who selects the headline usually picks the most eye-catching line of the story, or they invent a headline out of nothing. Understanding that, it’s easy to see why the “big foot” headlines are chosen. Bigfoot is a familiar entity to Americans, while the notion of a giant ground sloth is not.

It should also be noted that most editors and journalists don’t have any scientific training, and are often completely clueless about scientific matters. As such, given the vague resemblance between Primates and Pilosa in general, it’s entirely possible that they do not realize that ground sloths are not primates.

By: bill green

bill green — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:37:09 +0000

hey loren this is a very informative new article about mapinguary. i realy like above photos as well. thanks bill

By: CryptoInformant

CryptoInformant — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:26:15 +0000

U.T.Raptor:
Yes, in fact, some people are PAID to bias articles, and, on things like cryptozoology, the posters often have their own agenda. For example, on their list of cryptids, nearly everything is listed as “discredited,” or “Hoax.”

By: CryptoInformant

CryptoInformant — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 03:22:56 +0000

Well, I’m not sure about pulling cows’ tongues out, but the Megatherium is something I am familiar with. It was primarily vegetarian, but would not pass up meat when the oppurtunity arose. Neither it nor Mylodon would pull cows tongues out, but would be more likely to slap their heads off. In fact, they could break a Smilodon in the same way you or I would break a stick. With a prolonged pummeling, they can turn enemies into “bags of chunky soup.” And yes, they were both smelly, and well armored under its skin.

About them being kept as food, I really don’t see how anyone would be able to tame and kill them, as they went where they want, and killed whatever got in the way.

By: U.T. Raptor

U.T. Raptor — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:30:03 +0000

Don’t take that Wikipedia business seriously, people mess with entries on there all the time…

By: Mothmanfan

Mothmanfan — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:36:02 +0000

the thing that got me was the,

“…the governor of Argentina, Ramon Lista, in the 1890s, said he saw a creature, which might match the description of a medium-sized, hairy ground sloth, while he was hunting in Patagonia.”

that probably got him a lot of publicity!