Instaurs

Instaurs are digital content entities that personify dinosaurs for social media audiences. The term combines Instagram and dinosaurs, but the concept extends beyond any single platform and includes short-form videos, illustrated posts, and interactive media created to evoke the Mesozoic era in a contemporary format. The concept emerged with the rise of educational accounts and museums using social media to teach paleontology to broad audiences.

Typical instaurs involve stylized depictions of species such as Tyrannosaurus or Triceratops, presented through photos, animations, or stop-motion. Creators often accompany posts with captions that provide paleontological context, timelines, and occasional caveats about uncertainty. Content may employ 3D models, augmented reality overlays, or diorama-style scenes to make ancient life relatable and visually engaging.

Uses and impact: instaurs serve education, outreach, and entertainment goals. They can illustrate growth of ideas, fossil discovery processes, and climate change implications in deep time. Some projects partner with museums or scientists to ensure accuracy and may invite audience participation through polls, prompts, and citizen science tasks.

Reception and cautions: while popular for engagement, instaurs face concerns about oversimplification, speculation presented as fact, or anthropomorphism. Best practices emphasize accuracy, clear labeling of fictional elements, citations to sources, and disclaimers when depicting hypothetical scenarios. Communities often develop style guides to balance storytelling with scientific integrity.

Instaurs exist as a flexible genre rather than a defined canon, with evolving formats including reels, stories, and interactive filters, enabling creators to experiment with the prehistoric narrative in a modern digital landscape.