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Bogus Dinosaurs
| Article
# : |
20445 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1992 |
1,921 Words |
| Author
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David B. Weishampel
David B. Weishampel is associate professor of cell biology and
anatomy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in
Baltimore. |
Dinosaurs have exerted a profound fascination over young and old for nearly a century, ever since the early collectors began bringing gargantuan skeletons of long-necked plant-eaters and ferocious meat-eaters back to museums from the great fossil fields of western North America. But only recently has Madison Avenue begun to realize the commercial value of these majestic animals of the past. Now dinosaurs are featuring in books for our children, as well as showing up as toys, as televisions celebrities, as fast-food mascots, as creatures in spaghetti dishes, and as embossed emblem on toilet paper. As a dinosaur researcher, I feel that it may be time to say, "enough is enough". But of course, this dinosaur mania is unlikely to stop in the foreseeable future, thanks in large part to the cleverness of marketers of dinosaur toys, books, software, and games, The commercial world has seized on a good thing. Our overarching intrigue for these incredibly large, seemingly ferocious and puzzling beasts of the past.
Scientists, too, have seized on dinosaurs, particularly lately, with a vengeance. Last year marked the 150th anniversary of coining of the name Donosauria. In 1841, Sir Richard Owen, a British anatomist and paleontologist, set aside a handful of colossal reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic Era, some 225 to 65 million years ago, to be crowned Dinosauria. With such a long history, dinosaur paleontology probably ranks as one of the most venerable of sciences. Keeping this in mind, I am pleased to tell you that present day dinosaur research is as active as it's ever been. For example, there are more knew kinds of dinosaurs being discovered today than ever before. Literally springing up almost daily, nearly half of all dinosaur species have been discovered and named over the past 20 years! And we are beginning to gather fascinating information about these animals as well parental care, pack hunting, herding behavior, complex social organization intelligence, warm bloodedness, and evolutionary success. Dinosaurs are clearly not the stuff of evolutionary mistakes as was formerly thought.
Dinosaurs, discovery, and data
How do scientists know what dinosaurs looked like or how they acted? Virtually all our information about these two fascinating aspects of dinosaurs comes from fossils. And these fossils are often hard to come by. About 400 species have been discovered, and some dinosaur paleontologists estimate that fewer than 20 percent of all dinosaurs that ever lived have so far been discovered. And of those that have been unearthed, many are represented by little more than a museum drawer full of bones and
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