I just had to rerun this post from 2011, an appalling example of what passes for science these days.
See how quickly they slide from a pure product of their imaginations into talking and writing about it as if it were a real thing. It’s like reading a natural history of the jackalope.
“Once upon a time, boys and girls, Pan Prior lived in the forest…”
You could be embarrassed for these people, if they didn’t cost so much.
P.S.–Absolutely no relation to Maddy Prior.
It would be astonishing if any prehistoric creature, assuming we could ever get a look at one, turned out to look just like scientists imagined it. Working with bones, trackways, skin impressions, etc., they do their best to reconstruct animals they’ve never seen. Even the most convincing picture of a dinosaur is only a best guess.
Then there are those who go so far beyond guessing, they get flat-out lost…
https://leeduigon.com/2011/02/12/more-fantasy-disguised-as-science/