The response to and rejection of Brian Ford’s Too Big to Walk, a 21st century effort to reinstate the aquatic dinosaur hypothesis

Abstract

ABSTRACT In magazine articles, a BBC Radio 4 interview and the book Too Big To Walk, Brian Ford argued that the dinosaurs of the Mesozoic were not adapted for terrestrial life, but were aquatic. Bemusement and rejection were expressed by palaeontologists, in part because evidence contradicts Ford’s proposal, but also because the aquatic paradigm underwent testing and rejection during the 20th century. Evaluation of the case as presented by Ford reiterates the fact that non-bird dinosaurs as a whole were unsuited for aquatic life; this does not contradict proposals that certain groups (like Spinosauridae) or species (like Spinosaurus aegyptiacus) were amphibious or aquatic. Ford framed the reaction to his proposal as a demonstration of the palaeontological community’s insistence that outside views are unwelcome and used a ‘post-truth’ narrative in promoting his hypothesis. Ford relied on the belittling and dismissal of expert voices, the employment of ‘alternative facts’, inaccurate reporting of pertinent events, and unironic use of terms like ‘fake news’. In this article, I review Ford’s discussion of the aquatic dinosaur conversation and report events as witnessed via my direct involvement.