Re: Dinofest '98

[Zola <zola@xxxxxxxx>]

At 08:10 AM 8/18/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Henry Gee wrote:
>     
>>     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. 
>
>
>Hear hear. The popular perception seems to be that an interest in dinosaurs
>is (could be) a pathway to a more general interest in paleontology. I wonder
>how true that is in practice. My experience is that dinosaurs are more of an
>infatuation with kids and not a symptom of an interest in paleontological
>things per se. It would be interesting to know what led those people into
>it, who actually made a career of paleontology. I, like Henry Gee, found
>fish (and mammals) more interesting than dinosaurs as a child, possibly
>because where I grew up there were fossil fish but no dinosaurs. I would
>suspect that actual hands-on experience with fossils (any fossils) at a
>young age will be more conducive to a life-long interest than reading any
>number of books on the subject. (Although reading Bjorn Kurten is what got
>me on to mammals in particular.)
>
Personally, I suspect that the general interest in dinosaurs will benefit
the field in the form of people who are more willing to support it, which
is always helpful.

Sincerely,

Jonet Greene


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