UPDATE: Exploding carcass researchers win award

Two years ago, we brought you the fascinating story of some German and Swiss researchers who had investigated whether the carcasses of prehistoric “whales” (aka ichthyosaurs) ever exploded, which could explain why bone fossils are sometimes found scattered about instead of all together. 

And today we have an update on their work.

Here’s how we summarized their results in February 2012:

In what has to be one of the most disappointing scientific results of the 21st century, the scientists conclude that ichthyosaur carcasses probably did not frequently explode and scatter bones. Rather, they conclude that dead prehistoric whale-like creatures would have sunk to the sea floor and would have only resurfaced when “they remained in shallow water above a certain temperature and at a low scavenging rate.” Subsequently, bone scattering would have supposedly occurred as the carcass floated around and decomposed gradually.

Killjoys, we say! Here at TheExplodingWhale.com we simply refuse to allow “science” to subvert the awesomely cool idea of exploding dinosaur carcasses!

Alas, others would disagree with our position:

And even though we remain strongly in favor of exploding dino carcasses, we’ve got two more related items to share from these heretical researchers. 

First, lead researcher Achim Reisdorf did a “Science Slam” in November 2013. However, unless you understand German, you probably won’t learn much from it:

But don’t despair. The English speaking among us can listen to “So Bizarrely Twisted,” the first episode of Science Slam Sonic Explorers, based on Reisdorf’s Science Slam above:

Psst! Don’t miss the “bonus scene” at the end of the above video. Even though their results say otherwise, I think this team secretly loves exploding dinosaur carcasses, too!