Mea Culpa: The dinosaur that missed the rainy season

John Rentoul rounds up the errors and omissions in last week’s Independent

T rex, 150 million years before its time (Getty )

Tyrannosaurus rex is the best-known dinosaur, which is probably why we used a picture of one (or a picture of what one might have looked like) to illustrate an article about how “volcanoes caused ancient climate change that allowed dinosaurs to dominate”. But, as Nigel Fox wrote to remind us, T rex didn’t turn up for another 150 million years or so.

The article also included a deadening “conditions”, as if it were a bad weather report: “These changes are known as the Late Triassic Carnian Pluvial Episode, and the intense rainfall conditions that arose are known as a ‘mega-monsoon’ climate.” I think “heavy rain known as a ‘mega-monsoon’ climate” would have been enough.

Nearly equal: In an article about the election in Iceland, we said that the prospect of a majority female parliament was reversed after a recount: “With female candidates winning a total of 30 seats, the Icelandic parliament continues to be dominated by men.” As there are 63 seats in the parliament, men are clearly a majority, but John Harrison thought that “dominated” was overstating it. We should have let the numbers speak for themselves.