He saw them for what they were, and was much more interested in the real dinosaur tracks imprinted in the same stone. Bird actually saw a pair of such forgeries at a trading post in Gallup, New Mexico, along with dinosaur tracks removed from the Glen Rose area, shortly before he left to investigate the site himself.īird wasn’t fooled by the fakes. And a few local people carved fake human tracks in the same stone. Strangely, though, hoaxed human tracks did have a role to play in Bird’s decision to initially visit the tracksites.īird wasn’t the first person to notice the dinosaur tracks, and selling the sauropod and theropod tracks was a cottage industry in the vicinity of Glen Rose. He found many dinosaur footprints and trackways-one of which he and his crew partially excavated and anachronistically placed behind the AMNH’s “ Brontosaurus“-but no human tracks. Bird found human footprints associated with dinosaur trackways in the vicinity of Glen Rose, Texas.īird didn’t find any such thing. About halfway through the program, Cremo says, “Some researchers found human footprints alongside the footprints of dinosaurs.” The quote is a line out of context from Cremo’s interview, but is played in a section claiming that American Museum of Natural History paleontologist Roland T. Ancient Aliens producers clearly did not care about the credentials or expertise of the talking heads they employed-just so long as someone said the right things in front of the camera.Īnd the creationists didn’t disappoint. Dye is credited as a biblical archaeologist without any mention of his young earth creationist views. Creationist Michael Cremo is identified only as the author of Forbidden Archeology, and Willie E. Instead, they borrow evidence for fundamentalist Christians, who are never actually identified as such. Surprise, surprise, they provide no actual evidence for their claims. Aliens the movie-the various ancient alien experts do little more than assert that such an event must have happened. While the main point of the episode is that aliens exterminated dinosaurs to make way for our species-a sci-fi scenario accompanied by some hilarious, mashed-together footage of dinosaurs fleeing from strafing alien craft, perhaps a preview of Dinosaurs vs.
(Courtesy of author, taken at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles) Ancient Aliens uses the same tactic-the fictions come fast and furious.ĭespite what basic cable cranks might say, Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops were not driven to extinction by aliens.
If Gish’s opponent tried to dig themselves out, they would never be able to make enough progress to free themselves to take on Gish directly.
When giving public presentations about evolution and creationism, Gish rapidly spouted off a series of misinterpretations and falsehoods to bury his opponent under an avalanche of fictions and distortions. This is a common technique among cranks and self-appointed challengers of science it is called Gish Gallop after young earth creationist Duane Gish. There was so much wrong with the Ancient Aliens episode that I could spend all week trying to counteract every incorrect assertion. What results is a slimy and incomprehensible mixture of idle speculation and outright fabrications which pit the enthusiastic “ancient alien theorists,” as the narrator generously calls them, against “mainstream science.” I would say “You can’t make this stuff up,” but I have a feeling that that is exactly what most of the show’s personalities were doing. The episode is what you would get if you dropped some creationist propaganda, Erich von Däniken’s Chariots of the Gods and stock footage from Jurassic Fight Club into a blender. Given my restrictions, I have little choice but to try to encapsulate the shiny, documentary-format rubbish in a more coherent and reader-sensitive way. If they did, my entire review would be little more than a string of expletives. I’m actually glad that my editors don’t allow me to cuss a blue streak on this blog. I steeled myself for the pain and watched the mind-melting madness unfold. But then I heard the History Channel’s slurry of pseudoscience had taken on dinosaurs. Or, at the very least, watching the show would kill about as many brain cells as a weekend bender in Las Vegas. I had a feeling that if I watched the show-which popularizes far-fetched, evidence-free idiocy about how human history has been molded by extra-terrestrial visitors-my brain would jostle its way out of my skull and stalk the earth in search of a kinder host. Until now, I have assiduously avoided Ancient Aliens.