Re: dinosaurs and man

[bivalve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Campbell)]

>        I have another question:  has popular culture, like the
>Flintstones, tainted the American understanding?  It sounds a little
>ridiculous, but is that one reason why the public is so ill informed?

I'd hope that people can figure out that the Flintstones are ficticious.  I
think greater problems exist when a purportedly accurate source is grossly
in error, such as almost all scientific stories in the national media. The
number of people who don't know the difference between paleontology and
archaeology would probably be less if news articles had it straight.
(Incidentally, asking for information on Paleonet shows a commendable
interest in getting accurate information.)  Likewise, "Jurassic Park"
billed itself as science rather than science fiction, but had many errors.


David Campbell   "old seashells"
Department of Geology
CB 3315 Mitchell Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC 27599-3315
bivalve@email.unc.edu