Re: Dinofest '98

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Date
     I remain puzzled why dinosaurs attract such attention. Why no 
     panderichthyidfest, agnostidfest, multituberculatefest, 
     coccolithophoroidfest, mesonychidfest, ctenocystoidfest, 
     seymouriamorphfest, [insert-your-favourite-group]-fest? Not that I 
     demand any of these things, of course.
     
     I find dinosaurs, although lots of fun, conceptually less interesting 
     than some other extinct groups, but that's just a personal thing. As a 
     kid I found fossil fish much more fun, and I can't explain why -- 
     perhaps the displays at the Natural History Museum seemed nicer to a 
     five-year-old. 
     
     I suspect media interest picks up the interest in dinosaurs that 
     exists, thus fuelling more interest, generating a recursive positive 
     Fisherian runaway feedback loop out of all proportion to reason, 
     expectation or the dictates of common sense.
     
     It would be a shame to give young minds the impression that dinosaurs 
     are all that paleontology has to offer. I don't buy the usual line 
     that kids get into dinosaurs first and branch out into less trendy 
     fossils once their interest is whetted.
     
     By the way, I finally got round to seeing the Lost World. I'm glad 
     that the script stayed relatively far away from Crichton's book (very 
     poor, I thought), and made a film which I thought was better than 
     Jurassic Park in many respects.
     
     Henry


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Dinofest '98
Author:  paleonet@ucmp1.berkeley.edu at Internet
Date:    18/08/97 14:53


Dinofest  '98 will be held in Philadelphia, hosted by the Academy of 
Natural Sciences April 17-19.
     
Details at http://www.dinofest.org/
     
Michael