Sunday 28 February 2016

Depictions of Dodos in BBC's 'Primeval'


The television series 'Primeval' depicts many prehistoric and extinct animals as if they still existed in present times. Airing in 2007, it makes heavy use of computer generated models to depict creatures which no longer exist. The way they depict the anatomy of the Dodo seems to vary a lot even just between these pictures, with the thigh of the above bird being much less defined than the bird in the lowest image. The bird is designed to look very raptor-like, even though it is a Late Holocene era species as opposed to the typical Velociraptor, alive during the Late Cretaceous era. The dodo would perhaps be further evolved away from a dinosaur-like appearance because it's ancestors are pigeons, not dinosaurs; a flightless bird could not evolve from a lizard which had no wings at all, and the Dodo was alive at a time when humans were around, unlike dinosaurs.


Whilst I want to reference the pigeon more in my designs - they are the Dodo's closest living relative, after all - the way 'Primeval' designed their Dodo still has a good amount of anatomical and historical backing, and as such is a good point of reference. I wish for my Dodo to be smoother and friendlier, like a common pigeon, as opposed to reptilian-looking, because it's more approachable and caricature-like.


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