The difference could save your life
October 10, 2011
12:00 am
Andrewsarchus is cool because it’s the largest terrestrial mammalian predator as of yet discovered and it’s closest living relative is said to be goats, but it also bears some features to suggest it’s an evolutionary link between land mammals and cetaceans like whales and dolphins.
Is it bad that I knew what Andrewsarchus was but have no idea who Andrew Serkis is?
He’s most famously known for doing the voice and mocap footage for Gollum in Lord of the Rings, but he was also Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Kong in the 2005 King Kong reincarnation.
He was also Bowie’s sidekick in the Prestige! And played Einstein opposite David Tennant as… oh, I can’t remember, some important early C20 British physicist. Rutherford, I think.
Rutherford is from New Zealand
He’s also going to be Captain Haddock in the new Tintin movie. Which I am much too excited for.
And also in “Burke and Hare” with Simon Pegg, which I haven’t yet seen but sadly got rather bad reviews.
I’ve seen it, I really don’t understand why it got bad reviews.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH THE MOVIE JUST GOT A MILLION TIMES MORE EXCITING WHAAAT
He is also responsible for the game Enslaved, including the voice of Monkey.
Which, I would like to add, was a great game. <3
And he was the Raven King in heavenly sword
I can’t stop laughing at this one. Plus: I may be one of the only people who got the joke before scrolling down to see the last three panels.
He’s also slated to voice Captain Haddock in the new Tintin movie
Not sure what to make of the Tintin movie. From the preview, the story looks good, the dialogue sounds good, the environments are great…but the characters look disturbing. Deep in the bottom of the Uncanny Valley.
If you still haven’t watched it, then do so. It’s good. And maybe I’m just use to characters like that… They’re basically 3D versions of the original comics.
Probably. I had the same problem…of course, I didn’t bother googling it.
On a lighter note, I hope Jared’s ok. Do you think Mr. Fish could take Andrewsarchus? o.O
I totally want to see that!
mr fish has the power to destroy the world!
Of course Mr. Fish can take Andrewsarchus!!!!! Andrewsarchus can fit in Mr. Fish’s mouth!
A single Andrewsarchus, anyway… Not sure if they hunted in packs.
Mr. Fish is a dual type Water / Flying.
Andrewsarchus is probably either Normal, Ground, or Rock type, possibly a mix.
Mr. Fish has innate immunity to ground type moves, but is weak to rock type. At the same time, however, his water attacks are strong against both rock and ground types.
Thus, Andrewsarchus will almost certainly lose if it is at all Ground type, and otherwise it will be pretty evenly matched depending on how his stats play out. Much like his foe, I think Andrewsarchus would be focused on physical attacks more than anything else, and without either side having a clear type bonus over the other, it could be pretty neck-and-neck.
…
Gads, I’m such a dork.
~D.
Don’t forget that Mr. Fish is a Gyarados, and thus has intimidate (unlikely that it’s a dream world catch).
It’s a fossil right? Fossils are inherently ground-types. Fish could shred that thing.
Fossils are inherently Rock types. Not that it matters much without seeing its moveset.
Not that I’m a fan of Pokemon, but I’d think they generally trash earthly beasts on account of having types and elemental powers and things, while non-pokemon animals such as Andrewsarchus just have muscles and teeth.
*raises a guilty hand* I had to look him up too once I was done going 8D!!!! over the Andrewsarchus.
So what you’re all saying is yes, I should feel terrible for not knowing who this man is.
No idea who he is either. And reading the comments, I have no idea what he has to do with Turok.
He was Gollum in Lord of the Rings, Caesar in Planet of the Apes, Captain Haddock in Tintin, the general go-to guy for stop motion acting, and his name is pronounced the same way as a prehistoric carnivore’s.
Yes, if only because that means you’ve never seen LOTR.
Thank you for this webcomic. I adore it so, and think you must be quite the interesting person to have all these things percolate in your brain along with the werwithal to give them external form as a comic.
Nah, I had no idea either.
No, it’s not. Roy Chapman Andrews was a boss, and everyone should read his books.
See panel four, in which the move has been busted.
Also, who is naming all of these extinct critters in a manner most confusing?
Roy Chapman Andrews was responsible for this one, at least.
This stimulates my nerd brain in so many ways!
Short question: Jareth’s shirt is no reference to anything, is it?
Kind of Rainbow Dash-y I guess.
That’s what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to assume.
Is it bad that I thought of Rainbow Dash first when I saw that? Is it bad I saw that on my first read-through? Have I been watching too much pony?
Does this mean that Jared is a “brony”, then…? I wouldn’t actually be surprised, he seems the type, heheh.
I think not. Rainbow Dash’s symbol is often a cloud and/or a sort of lightning bolt instead of an actual rainbow.
… what?
Its a lightning bolt rainbow and a storm cloud. I will assume Jared’s a brony for it will make me happy.
David Bowie as the goblin king in a Rainbow Dash t-shirt. Image ingrained.
Yes! Someone else who thought that as well.
One tiny critique is this- Andrewsarchus had sort of ‘hooves’ on it’s toes and not big cat-like claws. but it doens’t matter really. Good stuff as always.
Most of the renderings I’ve seen do the “hooves” like thick nails growing out of the bones of the last digit on the toes. I was going for that look, but evidently didn’t pull it off very well.
How would they know if the Andrewsarchus had hooves or not? Wikipedia says the only piece of it ever discovered was a large skull.
Because the skull resembles other complete Mesonychids that they extrapolate from there. Kind of like, if you had a skeleton from a Shetland pony and then you found a Clydesdale horse skull, you could probably extrapolate what a horse looks like from what you know about ponies and how they compare to the skull you’re holding. It’s fairly common practice with fossils, as conditions for fossilization are very specific and we have to work with what we can get. Sometimes they have as little to go on as leg bones or vertebrae.
Also some recent studies demonstrate that it was not a true mesonychid (phylogenetically speaking) and it was actually closer to extant even-toed hooved mammals than true mesonychids were. This implies that its toes were probably closer to real hooves than mesonychids’.
The shirt in panel 2, the dance in panel 4… it feels like Coelasquid is trying to tell us something fabulous, I just can’t quite put my finger in it. On it.
I’m not going to deny straight guys the right to wear rainbows and wiggle-dance.
THANK YOU! Rainbow shirts shouldn’t only be for homoseuals and hippies- EVERYONE should be able to wear a shirt that mimics the refraction of light through rain! :D
Heck yeah after all it takes a real man to have the guts to wear that stuff and walk down the street not caring what anyone thinks.
Jared is clearly just a Rainbow Dash shirt! Light blue, rainbow, it all makes sense.
Looks like no one told Jared that helmets are for mooks, or more likely he was told and didn’t listen. That’s almost as bad for his chances of survival as wearing a redshirt would be.
My poor sleep-deprived brain! To me it looked like the Commander was giving Jared a boost *into* the container of raw meat!
Gives the whole strip a darker meaning – as though the Commander was *trying* to get Jared savaged by the Andrewsarchus.
Yeah, unfortunately there was a lot of text to cram into a little panel and the crowbar got kind of obscured.
I didn’t really mean that as a negative :D
He thought it would toughen Jared up…like when dads push their kids into swimming pools to teach them how to swim. >___>
Personally, as cool as Andy Serkis is…I’d rather see an Andrewsarchus.
From a safe distance.
I love that look on Commander’s face in panel two where you can tell he’s thinking “The hell is WRONG with this kid?”
I love little historical tidbits like that. Someone needs to create a comic like that. Have em call it “The More You Know…” :3 I remember playing Turok back I think on the 64 or Cube. Either way, I couldn’t beet the damn thing without using gameshark. XP
This dinosaur will now always be Andy Sarchus to me. And I love how the Commander is putting more effort into correcting the kid’s pronunciation than in prying him out of Andy’s jaws.
Eh, He’s got the riot armour and when it reaches the meat crate at the end of the hall it’ll probably put him down, he’ll be fiiiine.
It’s so not a dinosaur D:
Whoops.
Yeah, when I saw the tag line of Turok, I was like, “Hahahaha. Man, Jared’s about to get pwned!”
In case you missed it being mentioned before, Andy Serkis is the incredibly famous stunt actor well known for voicing and motion capture of Gollum. He’s done a lot of other stuff, too.
Andy serkis is going to play captain haddock in the new tin tin movie.
Both funny and informative, a deliciously appetizing treat on this droll Monday afternoon. Well done Ms. Turnbull.
And gollum in the hobbit next year.
I like how they’re just standing around watching him get crunched.
God… over the years I had almost forgotten about Turok. I have a copy of Turok #1 in my bedroom cabinet right now that’s been there for an eternity. I never thought in those day’s he’d get to be so popular.
hahaha agree with TCC i have turok son of stone #1 too. thats as much as i know about whats going on here .. i know there was some kinda videogame made of a “turok” but i have no idea if its the same guy or not.
Games are based on the comics. I used his comic/animated movie look, though, it stays fairly consistent, his game appearance changes with every incarnation. In the last one he was just a flat-out space marine.
thats just wrong. but hey, love your comic, especially the one with dhalsim riding m. bison. i got a couple people to read over just that one page alone. on a side note, my link to the main page doesn’t work anymore, did you change anything recently? just curious.
At least the savage Andrewsarchus had the courtesy to knock
I thought it was his knees…
I think it was Turok, but I like the thought of a knocking Andrewsarchus a lot more.
That andrewsarchus is called Andie for me. And weirdly enough, looks like a humoungous puppy.
Aww. Something only an Addams Family would love and pet.
That’s what happens when you wear a helmet. First one eaten.
DOES NOT HELP AGAINST HEADSHOTS EITHER, K THX.
Quick, Jared! Use an Ultra Ball!
The Life of an Andrewsarchus, narrated by Morgan Freeman.
Andrewsarchus played by Andy Serkis in a Mo-cap suit. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Happy Thanksgiving Coelasquid!
Thank you for putting up a comic today!
(Canadian Thanksgiving for those of you that think I’m early)
This. Is. Hilarious.
I, too, understand why he was so excited. I just love Ninja Theory games. And while in Heavenly Sword Serkis’ character was overshadowed by Flying Fox, Nariko and Kai, he really shined in Enslaved.
Also, Jared looks really good in this armour, despite being skinny nerd. He should wear some manly clothes more often.
As a paleo buff this brings me great joy
don’t you think jared deserves an audience with andy sarkis after all he’s been through? love his litle kid wiggle dance. oh i’m so excited i cld just pee!
Yet another reason I must discover a fossil, you get them named after you! My favorite is still the Cosmoceratops Richardsonae, or the ornate horned face of Richardson :D
Honestly was not expecting a science joke. Well played.
Seeing The Commander putting on body armour and having his big, beefy shoulder exposed just makes me want to beg for a Commander Pin-up.
While not the way I swing, I wholeheartedly agree
All I have to say is this… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
…poor Jared… XD
You mean Jared isn’t excited about meating a preditor that stands taller than the average human at the withers? Wow, I would be.
Pun intended?
Maybe it was punintentional.
I’ll never tell!
Aw, I love Turok, got most of the games and the 90’s comics.
I’m begging to see more of him XD
Hah! I live on a Dairy! a *goat* Dairy!
I am somewhat proud now.
Wow. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Suddenly, I’m 15 again.
Jared’s excited butt-wiggles absolutely just made my day.
Panel 4 just KILLS me.
I recently heard Andy Serkis being interviewed on NPR…it was awesome. :’D Total geek-out moment.
I want to hear a jamaican say the title of this comic.
Monly guys doin monly tings.
…Who even IS Andrew Serkis anyway? :|
Better read the previous comments where I’ll probably find the answer anyway! :D
Is this a sign that Jared is dead?
JARED CANNOT DIE AND EVEN IF HE DID THE COMMANDER WOULD JUST GO BACK IN TIME AND SAVE HIM! YOU HAVE JUST BEEN COMMUNICATED WITH VIA BILLY MAES FORMAT! ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I imagine the Andrewsarchus shaking Jared around like a ragdoll or one of those knotted ropes that dogs love to chew on. It doesn’t kill Jared, but it is one of the least pleasant experiences of being held in the jaws of a prehistoric mammal.
Mr Fish could come to his rescue. However, one does wonder if a pokemon has any fondness for its master, or if it is bound to servitude in some other way.
D: oh my hes geting nommed no doubt
Hooray for the original Turok and not whatever the hell the Xbox thing was.
This is officially the most amazing thing I’ve read all week and I would like to thank you for making it.
Took me awhile to get the entire joke (understood the mispronunciation part, but not why Jared was so excited). I knew what an Andrewsarchus was, but it took a trip to google for me to remember who Andy Serkis is.
When I was a kid I took a trip to Edmonton to this marine biology museum, and I can remember seeing a life-sized robotic Andewsarchus.
Posts Tagged ‘Andrewsarchus’
1 item.
Actually at this point I really want to know the outcome of the hypothetical Andy Serkis LARP and barbecue. Guy seems like the type who would make good idle barbecue chitchat, and I can’t see how the LARP would go bad. Well other than the normal ways.
By obvious ways, you mean like him biting off your fingers?
I like “big awesome barbecue” best, but wiggle dance is a close second.
You know the more I think about it, the more I think Monkey from Enslaved would fit right in here.
Don’t worry about Jared, he’ll bounce right back!
I rememebr as a child knowing what an Andrewsarcus was, but at some point in the last ten years the sheer AWESOME of it had faded. This was a beautiful way to be reminded. I shed a single tear, at the beauty of it.
-pausesniff-
of that may just be my cold. I still love it’s name. Officially my favorite dinasour. I’m going to inflict facts abotu it on my friends :)
As previously stated, Andrewsarchus is not a dinosaur, he is a mammal. A bitey, bitey mammal :|
Shhhh. I’m well aware it’s a mammal. I like saying dinosaur, and it confuses the crap out of the science-brainy, but paliantoligy-inept friends of mine. It also amuses me to screw with the nature of things. Most people don’t understand it’s an anaimal, and not a person, so it hardly bears consiqience in the average conversation.
Oh god, I am such a nerd for this one. You are my hero.
OMG I’ve been wanting to see Turok here for so long. He seemed exactly the kinda guy for the agency to pick up, please tell me we will see more of him.
He gets work too regularly, he just still has ties in the community.
Today, I learned what an Andrewsarchus is.
Hooray for educational humor!
What I like about this comic is even if I don’t get a reference (or in this case, both references), it’s still amusing as hell. XD
What…? Prehistoric mammals? Sorry, was staring at the CDR’s bared shoulder. Something about a guy putting on body armor…
Srsly, though. Gotta love a land mammal whose name begins with Andrew.
PS – The CDR’s look while the kid screams for mercy is pure awesome.
Hurr. I think the funniest part is the Commander’s realization of what Jared was thinking is the best part.
Also, love the old Turok games.
The joke totally caught me off-guard and I loved every second of it. Commander in the last three panels looks fantastic. Well played.
I’m not used to any other accents than Boston and Norfolk…is there a difference between Serkis and Sarchus anywhere in the anglophonic world?
‘HWARF’ is now my new favourite comic strip sound effect. I really needed a laugh today, and this has more than done the trick. XD
Is it nerdy to point out that Andrewsarchus had more hoof like feet, as they are actually related to modern day sheep and goats?
It’s closer related to hippos and whales, which makes way more sense.
Oh boy I identify so hard with Jared there.
Andy please return my calls
Love the prehistoric mammal nerdness in this strip, but the thing about Andrewsarchus is that only it’s skull been found, and only one skull, mind you, and things like the Discovery Channel (no hate there, btw love me some DC) are giving out bits of information and making things up too. We don’t have enough to know what it was related to or what it even really looked like, or even what it ate.
>.> No hate. Just some information from a HUGE paleontology nerd.
Big skull, teeth. Enough to make most people dweeb out. :)
although, the idea that it might have (theoretically) been the very distant ancestor of goats explains much of my frightening childhood experiances with them. :\
BTW Ursus maritimus tyrannus. Bigger than your Andrewsarchus
Anyway the biggest was the Arctotherium.
Actually, Indricotherium was the biggest mammal… oh, you mean just bears. Oops. -shares nerdformation with you anyway-
i think it would be hilarious if you re-named yourself chibichibi cocoa pop one time :p or chibichibichobits.
I learn more fun facts in this strip. Not only does it carry across so well that I laugh even WITHOUT getting the joke sometime (this strip for example.) I learn something new. I had no idea what the punchline was, but the way you drew it with the expressions, the body language and the art made it hysterical! Then I looked everything up and I laughed again when I actually got it. Now that’s talent. ;)
I see that Andrewsarchus has its own tag. Here’s hoping it becomes a recurring character with Turok!
I love dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals when I was a kid! I still love them but not as much anymore. I don’t know who Andy guy is and I don’t care much but I google him and still don’t get it. But I know what an Andrewsarchus is. Your drawing of one looks great! :D
You don’t know how happy it makes me that you used the old, comic-faithful Turok as opposed to the terrible one made for the horrid 360 game. This webcomic brings me back to the 90’s and the good old days of Turok on the N64! Two millions thumbs up for you!
I had to look up both Andrews to get the joke.
I still laughed.
Is it bad I want to see Fate/Zero Rider and Waver show up sometime later?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laEOUMEX7cA
This is the first time you made me laughed out loud. Amazing punchline and timing XD
you know, it still could be andrew serkis!
Poor Jared. That’s gonna leave a lot of marks.
That said, though, given the kind of place Commander is running, I suspect that is future technology low-profile powered armor. At the very least, it should keep him alive long enough for Mr. Fish to come to his rescue.
Fish is an absolutely gigantic flying sea monster who can think with portals and could probably shred the building if he let loose a Dragon Rage; Andrewsarchus, whilst huge, is no match for Mr. Fish… Right?…… Right?
I really hope so. However that turns out, though, I wonder what in the hell Turok was thinking, bringing a freaking prehistoric murderbeast into the
buildingcity. I mean, Mr. Fish is domesticated, and we know they have a local Pokemon park, so it’s not such a stretch that there’s a Pokecenter and a Pokemart around for Jared to patronize so he can deal with Mr. Fish’s care, but that thing understands only blood and fighting. I doubt the local vet, or even the city zoo, has the facilities to deal with that monstrosity.normal people get a dog, but turok couldnt find a petstore, so after murdering a entire pack he stole a puppy and raised it the end :D
btw you do know Mr.Fish is used as a blunt weapon right?
and the fact that 1 of his four tricks is already occupied by ”roll over Mr.Fish fishy fish fish” doesnt spell out much help for jared :p
But he is a monster and they always know how to fight so mr.fish can own that thing and shallow it up like it’s candy
Mr.Fish aint a monster D: you have to look past his grusome exterior and you will find a huge bundle of love!
And then he eats you.
a mans love goes trough the stomache!
Well, actually, it seems Andrewsarchus was more like an Entelodon that a goatwolf (so, RUNNING carnivorous land hippo, which is manly as well).
Oh, and whales and dolphins are still quite related to goats; they are pretty much marine even-toed hooved animals. Early whales looked like musk deer; then like ottergators.
And, too bad there are larger Entelodonts and that polar bears can be larger… Oh well, gotta love the old Andy as seen here, awesome critter.
My brain pinged when Commander corrected Jared with “Andrew”. The actor prefers Andy.
And now I will never again forget precisely what Andrewsarchus is. I will start inappropriately dropping them into tabletop games and giggling randomly over who it isn’t.
Only got this because of walking with beasts, FUCK YEAH!
It took me a googling to get, but I like it.
I’m…just surprised that they had a body-armour suit in Jared’s size.
Dalet
I know this likely isn’t the point most people are looking into but…
Yes, LARPing followed by BBQ is manly indeed. It makes me feel awesome to know I have done these two activities in that order.
why am i the only person here who doesn’t know what LARPing is?
You may not be the only one, but here it is incase you haven’t checked it yet.
Live-Action RolePlaying. It varies from group to group but the more common types tend to be padded medieval fantasy, essentially putting on a costume and whacking people with foam padded sword and through cloth balls that represent magic spells like fireballs and thunderbolts.
As I said, that is only the most common. I’ve heard of hardcore LARP groups that wear close to full riot gear and use almost no padding on weapons (just enough to keep from cutting someone with edges of the object), and other genre’s including, Sci-fi, gangster, zombies, etc…
….zombie larp zounds awsome
hardcore zombie larp!
WTFH DUDE YOU JUST BIT OF MY HAND!! THE AGONY!!!!
sigh dude stay in character =__=
Live Action Role Play. Halfway between D&D and SCA.
-nods- Indeed. I swear at every inter-regional gathering I have gone to there has been at least guy that fits the stereotypical British Historian look and persona.
TUROK!!!!
SON OF STONE!!!!
ah woo!
sucks to be Jared…
Colesquid, tell me how you never fail to make me giggle? <3
i must know
Hi, I am replying to answer your question, which in reality was just a device you used to get me to talk to you.
Considering I just watched rise of the planet of the apes and had to explain who Andy Serkis was to my fiance, this is amazingly well timed.
I’m going to ask the obvious question here.
Why did they have an ice-age apex predator in their office O.o?
…the need to have a closet full of carbon-fiber body armour I can understand.
You know, your buddy has something cool he wants to come show you. “Check out my sweet new mustang” “check out my early mammalian predator”.
I love the fourth panel.
I may only know Andrewsarchus from Cage of Eden, but I’m still stoked to see more of the massive murderous mutton (yes that’s the only word for goat that starts with an m that I could think of).
I’m sure somebody mentioned this and I missed it, but:
Dat shirt…..Jared’s a brony?
Uh… Who is Andrew Sarchus?…
Suddenly I understand this comic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrewsarchus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Serkis
Lol I was so happy I recognized that thing. Im like “hold up, that sounds familliar. Reminds me of cage of eden.” Then I saw that thing come through the door im like “I learned something from a manga :c” lol but tje head is a bit off. Its supposed to be huge. Like a chibi. But bigger.