Dr. Robert T. Bakker is the leader of the handful of iconoclastic paleontologists who rewrote the book on dinosaurs three decades ago. Along with other noted paleontologists such as John Ostrom and Armand de Ricqules, Bakker has changed the image of dinosaurs from slow-moving, slow-witted, cold-blooded creatures to, in at least some cases, warm-blooded giants well equipped to dominate the Earth for 200 million years. Long before feathered fossils were found, Bakker contended that some dinosaurs were endowed with insulating feathers. New research continues to lend strong support to this view, no longer in the minority.“I was fond of saying most of dinosaur science was wrong stuff, and that did offend a lot of people. Someone had to say dinosaurs had feathers,” said Bakker. “I want to put dinosaurs in context and in their chosen environment. I want you to be able to feel and think and smell what a Stegosaurus experienced. I want you to smell fresh fish on your teeth as a Ceratosaurus, then do this with the whole history of dinosaurs. Then I want you to finally understand how and why dinosaurs ruled.”
As curator of paleontology for the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Dr. Bakker has led the paleontology dig team in Seymour for the past two dig seasons, using a "CSI"-based approach, (for example, fossilized teeth uncovered are the “bullets” that help the team identify the victims and the predators in an ancient ecosystem) in order to discover the relationships between and the behavior of the species that lived in North Texas 250 million years ago.
In addition to his work with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Dr. Bakker is also the Director of the Morrison Natural History Museum in Colorado. He is also the author of many books on paleontology, including the groundbreaking 1986 book The Dinosaur Heresies: New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction. Bakker was among the advisors for the film Jurassic Park, and the character Dr. Robert Burke in the motion picture The Lost World: Jurassic Park is based on him.
62 comments:
How many degrees do you have and what in?
We realize that T rex haven't been found in this area, but where have they been found?
Were the Dimetradon and the "T Rex" living in the same time period?
Hi Brandon,
Dimetrodon actually lived millions of years before even the first dinosaur appeared - so he and T.rex would not have tangled.
Good question! Thanks for posting.
To everyone else who posted - Dr. Bakker is in New Jersey today and tomorrow accepting an award, but we'll get these answers for you as soon as he gets back.
Thanks!
Erin
Erin
Tarrington and Matt,
It's been a while since you posted your quest, but in the off chance you are still checking back for an answer...
Tyrannosaurus Rex was northern US - Montana and the surrounding area, including a bit north, into Canada (Alberta? It's late here and my mind isn't working right.)
Jerry Sparks.
:)
Is there any way you could tell Mr. Bakker that I am, and Always have been, His biggest fan? And that "You can think of Tyrannosaurus Rex as the 8000 pound road runner from hell" is my favorite quote from him? Oh, I also plan to become a paleontologist.
Hi there,
I will certainly let Dr. Bakker know. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear it. You might be interested in the Q&A post he did with students from Seymour high school. Check it out here: http://hmnspaleo.blogspot.com/2007/
11/your-questions-answered.html
Thanks for reading!
Erin
to WildClaw:
Thanks for the note. Yeah, T. rex is a superb maxi-predator. We've got some new specimens that we're studying here at Houston. And our sister-museum in Glenrock, Wyoming has footprints from the Pygmy Tyrannosaur, Nanotyrannus.
A lot of popular books say "T. rex had razor-sharp teeth." Not true. The rex fangs are thick and strong and blunt - shaped like toothy bananas. Much stronger and blunter than the fangs in rex's close kin, Gorgosaurus (we have a gorgo too - at the Woodlands Xploration-Station).
Why did rex have blunt teeth? I suspect because it had to kill Triceratop. T'tops had thick armor all over the neck and shoulders. To break through, sharp teeth wouldn't work. Rex needed extra strong armor-penetrating fangs.
I have a question for you: What's your favorite Cretaceous herbivorous dinosaur? And what's your favorite Jurassic plant-eater?
Hope to see you in Houston...
Dr. Bob Bakker
Dr. Bakker,
What a thrill to find this blog and learn more of the work that is ongoing in Seymour.
Does HMNS envision or currently offer any hands-on courses and projects for more serious students of paleontology? I home school one very dino-obsessed ten-year-old girl who has amassed an amazing knowledge base of the dinosaur world, and I am seeking authentic opportunities for her to learn more.
Besides books and the museum, can you suggest some other ways (from your experience) that I might support her love for these creatures and this business? Do you ever lecture through HMNS? If not, do you offer any behind-the-scenes tours or opportunities of that sort whereby I might find greater support for my daughter's passion?
I most sincerely appreciate any advice or news that you can provide at your convenience.
Best regards,
Debra Pearson
Willis, TX
Hi Debra,
Thank you for reading the blog! I hope you and your daughter will check back periodically for updates on the Paleontology department's digs in Seymour.
I have forwarded your comment to Dr. Bakker, and will post his reply here as soon as I receive it.
Until then, you might be interested in visiting The Woodlands Xploration Station, a satellite educational facility of the Houston Museum of Natural Science. In addition to 12 full-size dinosaur skeleton casts currently on display, they are in the process of building a paleontology prep lab, where paleontologists, volunteers and even visitors like your daughter will work on excavating one of the plaster jackets they brought back from Seymour. (You can read more about that here It should be open within the next few weeks; you can call 281-364-7200 for the times it will be open.
Dr. Bakker does give lectures at the main Museum in Houston; however, none are currently scheduled.
If you have any other questions, please let us know. Thanks again for reading!
Best,
Erin
Hi Debra,
Thanks for the kind comments about our Texas fossils digs. Yes, we do have hands-on opportunities. The exact nature of the project depends on age of the student and their background. David Temple, our resident curator, has organzed a skilled posse of volunteers who clean bones and make plaster replicas. Give him a hollar.
Paleontology is a wonderful introduction to all of science. Digging and thinking about bones leads the mind to ponder ecology and animal behavior, anatomy and the mechancs of joints and muscles. Plus - fossil bones encourage folks to meld artistic appreciation of nature with an analytic approach.
Yep - I give talks five or six times a year at Houston. The next will be on "Dinosaur Mummies". And I help David with special programs for kids and parents, where we explore prehistoric fingers and toes from tracks.
Dr. Bob Bakker
(Check the Museum's Web site for more details on upcoming events.)
Thank you, Ms. Blatzer and Dr. Bakker. I have posted some questions for Mr. Temple, and I look forward to his ideas.
I forgot to mention that we visited Xploration Station for the first time this week and were impressed. Our family truly appreciates the hard work that you all do in the name of science.
Best regards,
Debra Pearson
Dr. Bakker:
Our 5th grade class read an article about you in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. We've filmed a research video and would like to send it to you. Where should we send it to make sure you get it? Please contact Scott Feille or Doug Mocek at 817-922-6850, or you can email us at scott.feille@fwisd.org.
Thanks for your time.
Dr. Bakker, Since I was a young boy, I have wondered how the long necked dinosaurs breathed effectively. Their long necks represent a large amount of "dead air", which must require larger lungs than otherwise necessary. And since the air they breath in would be somewhat "fouled" they must be warm blooded to have efficient oxygen transfer. The noise of the air rushing in and out thru the relatively small bronchial passages must have been brutal. Unfortunately, I have never seen anything written on this. Can you shed some light, if you have time, on the mechanics of the breathing problems, if any, of the long necked dinosaur. Thank you.
Gene
Hi Gene,
Thanks for your comment! I have forwarded it to Dr. Bakker and I'll post his reply here as soon as I receive it.
We just posted information on his new book for kids - I hope you'll check it out and come back soon for more info on the team's dig in Seymour.
Thanks again!
Erin
From Dr. Bakker:
Great question!! All us paleo-physiologists and bronto-respiratory-therapists worry about sauropods inhaling & exhaling.
No animal alive on land has such a long neck as a sauropod - see my sketch of Apatosaurus louisae (that's the one mounted in Pittsburgh).
One thing is clear: these dinos breathed like birds. We mammals and most other vertebrates have dead-end lungs. We inhale, air goes to the lungs, sits there, then comes out the same direction.
Birds do it better. They inhale, air goes to big air sacs in the body cavity, then goes through the lungs from the rear. And then continues forward and out the trachaea. No U-turn. No dead-ends.
Apatosaurs and other sauropods usually have big air-cavities in the vertebrae, identical to those of birds. That means there were even bigger air sacs around the gut. So sauropod dinosaurs must have had a "No U-Turn" air pathway.
Bird-style air-pathways should have made inhaling/exhaling easier and more efficient. Example: an ostrich has a neck four times longer than a deer's of the same body weight, but the ostrich has twice the efficiency (extracts twice as much oxygen from air for a given amount of energy spent on breathing).
I'd think that long-necked sauropod dinosaurs were far more efficient than any "normal" vertebrate without the bird-style system.
--Dr. Bakker
Hey Dr. Bob,
Are you still doing Dinamation digs at Como Bluff? It's on our agenda to return there sometime for another fun-filled week.
John and Gayla
a.k.a "Film Minor and Religious School", Como Crew '97
Dr. Bakker,
Thank you for your response to my question about Sauropod breathing capabilities. This explains something I have wondered about for a long time. I have another if you have time.
Who decided where the nostrils are placed on the Apatosaurus? My beady little brain tells me that this is not correct. I guess if you feel the animal had no need for a sense of smell, or had a bill instead of a fleshy snout, it might be correct but I cannot believe this. Additionally, I can just see all the debris blowing into its eyes as it breathes out, especially when feeding. I can think of no evolutionary advantage of having nostrils located where they are currently depicted. So, the question is why has this been done? Thanks, Gene
Dr. Bakker:
Hi!, my name is Rafel Vivas and I'm a biology student from Monterrey, Mexico. I heard about the discovery of the footprints from baby stegosaurs that you with other scientist discover last year. I don't know if there is some scientific article that talk about it. I f you had one, could you please sent me a copy from the document please? really I would apreciate your help so much.
I always had admire your job, and you with other paleontologist really had influenced me to be interested in dinosaur paleontologist, and I want to specialisate in that area, maybe doing a Major.
Well Dr. I`ll be waiting your answer. My e-mail adress is:
thundersaurus_vivas@hotmail.com
with all my respect:
Rafael Vivas Gzz.
Off topic ... but about 35-30 years ago in Melbourne Australia I met an American by the name of William Hall and who had a doctorate of Zoology. We discussed the Warm-Blooded Dinosaur Theory I had read about in Scientific American, and Dr Hall said that he knew 'Bob' Bakker. I would very much like to contact Dr Hall again. Perhaps if Dr Bakker reads this he might recall DR Hall, and perhaps know how to contact him.
Thank you
Bob just got an 8.2 over at beardrevue.com. That's a pretty awesome beard.
My burning question (that's been nagging at me for a while):
Can the fact that dinosaurs became extinct after the K-T event be considered as evidence that they were warm-blooded?
The cold-blooded ancestors of modern day crocodiles and turtles survived the post-KT-impact holocaust (namely, the food scarcity that followed) because they simply did not need to eat as much. The big dinos would be the first to die out after the impact. The smaller dinosaurs (that had not evolved into birds and hence, lacked the advantages of flight) would be out-competed by mammals in their ecological niches.
I've read many arguments for dinosaur endothermy that discuss (plausible) dinosaurian food intake in detail, but haven't encountered any so far that connect these dots - that large (as they were getting towards the end of the Cretaceous), warm-blooded animals would not be able to survive the food shortage following the K-T impact. I'd be thrilled to hear Dr. Bakker's thoughts on this.
Thanks in advance! I'm a huge fan, but I'll save the gushing for another time!
Shan
Singapore
Ever since I was a young boy, I've had a passion to search for Dinosaurs fossils. This dream was completely fulfilled recently, when I was invited to join Dr. Baker and his expert team to dig at Seymour. It was quite an experience and lots of fun, too. We discovered new fossils and I learned allot of details about the Permian creatures there, as well as making several new friends.
Many, many thanks to Dr. Baker for his knowledge sharing about these creatures and this opertunity to be a part of the team. I am looking forward to another trip to Seymour in the near future.
Troy B. (T-rex)
Ever since I was a young boy, I've had a passion to search for Dinosaurs fossils. This dream was completely fulfilled recently, when I was invited to join Dr. Bakker and his expert team to dig at Seymour. It was quite an experience and lots of fun, too. We discovered new fossils and I learned allot of details about the Permian creatures there, as well as making several new friends.
Many, many thanks to Dr. Bakker for his knowledge sharing about these creatures and this opportunity to be a part of the team. I am looking forward to another trip to Seymour in the near future.
Troy B. (T-rex) spelling corrected
Dear Dr Bakker,
We live in Indiana and homeschool our 4 kids. My oldest son James has met with you at the Children's Museum along with Pete Larson and Nate Murphy ( I am not sure if you remember him or not.) He is still working on being a paleontologist. He recently articulated a deer skeleton that we collected off the side of the road. We enjoyed the special on Leonardo and hope that we can make it down to Houston to see it and have a religious experience like you did. James is currently volunteering at the State Museum and is going to hopefully work at the Childrens Museum with Victor and Dallas in the paleolab. I went to U of H with David Temple and worked with him in the Anthropology Dept. Good Luck working at the Museum. Rosie Gonzalez Kinsey
Dear Dr. Bakker,
My name is Andrew Meek and I'm currently a 2nd year BSc student pursuing a major in geology, and a minor in biology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I plan on becoming a palaeontologist, it's the only thing I've ever wanted to do since I could pronounce the word, and am very determined to do so.
You've always been a personal hero of mine and I was dumbfounded when I stumbled upon this website, to find that you actually respond to posts people make here. Never one to pass up a chance, I've decided to take a shot and try to get in touch with you and perhaps ask you some questions.
As I said before, I'm extremely determined to become a palaeontologist and I'm especially interested in vertebrate palaeontology, specifically dinosaurs. In the upcoming summer I hope to find a way to work at a dig and learn as much about palaeontology as possible by getting some hands-on experience in the field. I was wondering; might there be any opportunities to work with you and your team out in the field?. I am willing to do absolutely anything it takes to become involved, and I would be happy doing any job that would be available for me, I'm very eager to learn.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
Andrew Meek
Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada
Dr. Bakker,
I just realised that I had forgotten to leave my contact information. If you do decide to respond to my post, my e-mail address is ameek8@gmail.com.
I hope to hear from you and thank you again,
Andrew Meek
Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada
Dear Dr. Bakker,
My name is Devon Moody and I am a senior writing and art student at the University of Evansville. I am a huge fan of your work (when I saw "Raptor Red" in a bookstore I just about died). I am currently working on a series of dinosaur paintings for an art class. I understand that you are both a scientist and an artist (I loved the "dancing dinosaurs" article and its illustrations) and I would love to hear any advice you would have to give.
Also, if you don't mind talking about religion, I am curious to know your views on the debate between creationists and the overall scientific community. As a minister, how do you ballance science with faith? I am interested in your views as I am a christian who believes in evolution.
Thank you for reading this! Have a super day!
Devon Moody
devmoody@yahoo.com
Dear Dr. Bakker,
My name is Wyatt Spriggs, and I am a high school student. I am currently writing my senior paper and i was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me about dinosaurs. Thanks.
Wyatt Spriggs
mvhsfootball77@hotmail.com
I would like to ask if your position on Pterosaurs being within Dinosauria has changed at all since 1986? Seeings as much more fossil evidence must have come to light, do you think that Benton's "Avemetatarsalia" is where you would start "Dinosauria?
Thanx,
Chuck
Dr. Bakker,
I am 46 years old, and have been a dinosaur nut as long as I can remember. I recently saw your piece on the "Leonardo" dinosaur mummy, and thought it was absolutely fascinating.
Question: As one who has long wrestled with reconciling Biblical Christianity with scientific discovery, I was especially interested in the updated edition of your book, "The Dinosaur Heresies", and your new one "Bones, Bibles, and Creation". I assume that these are as yet unpublished, as I cannot find them anywhere. Can you tell me when these might be expected?
Thanks for all you do, Dr. Bakker.
Roger W.
Dear Dr. Bakker,
I am 12 years old, can identify 70 species of dinosaur on the spot, and am a published author. I am also getting my first pattent soon, but anyways my question is, Has there ever been evedence found of predators hunting predators? While I am fully aware that carnivores of same and different species battled over territory and mates, but did any carnivorous dinosaurs ever hunt other carnivorous dinosaurs? Please respond thank you
Sam.
I am an amateur fossil hunter,but I have something very interesting. I have a fossilized egg that you can see the embrio perfectly in a fetal position. It seems to be a reptilean egg.I have also found some fossilized teeth a few dino type,one seems to be hominid or neandertaul. please contact me at sjdeyo33@yahoo.com thank you,Jeff Deyo in san leon
Hello Dr. Bakker,
I am interested in becoming a paleontologist. Do you think that this field of work is hard for girls to get into? I have been going to Ice Age digs for the past ten years at Saltville, Virginia. Now that I'm entering High School I was wondering what classes are best for me to take.
Sincerely,
Hannah.
my name is jeff deyo. the least you can do is reply to the lesser human.you are a dinosaur.no wonder people poach fossils.scientists need to remember the purpose of science. take a hike dino dude, i will try another avenue.the houston area got shafted with a curator. amateurs will always find things.dinosaurs like you are the reason for the black market!need i say more?
Dear Dr. Robert Bakker, I was very honored to meet you on November 3 at your lecture at the Houston Musuem. I was very excited to have the opportunity to talk with you. Thank you for the poster that you gave me. My goal in life is to become a Paleontologist. I've studied alot about extinct animals but there is still more that I need to learn. I would like it if you could give me some guidance on how I could get actively involved with you and activities to help me learn all I can.
Dear Dr. Bakker,
You were the first person to introduce me to the world of paleontology when I was but a small child. I am now a senior in high school and am planning on going into geology and paleontology. I hope you can recommend a few colleges which you consider to have the best programs in the field.
Sincerely,
Nickolas Greene
Hi,
My name is Joseph.
I have read your book The Dinosaur Heresies. It was interesting
I am interested in becoming a paleontologist when I am older.
Joseph
We live in Wichita Falls, close to Seymour where the recent Dimetradon fossil dig has taken place. My 10 year old son is very interested in the dig since it is so close to home. Will there be opportunities for students in the local community to attend the dig or possibly attend on an individual basis once the dig resumes?
Dear Dr Bakker,
I was watching a doco on T-Rex that suggest that T-Rex should be looked at as a scavenger and not as a predatory hunter. Although I have heard that some scientists see T-rex as an ambush predator. But I was wondering if T-rex could behave like a Komodo dragon which will ambush its prey by biting it a couple of times and then just sitting back and wait for it's prey to either die outright from infection from a septic bite or until it was weak enough to take it down.
But I was wondering if, like the Komodo dragon, that not only have a toxic bite due to rotten flesh and bactia in around their teeth, but they also secrete a venom within their saliva. Might it not be possible that T-rex may have have also secreted venom through their saliva, thus making their bites mortally septic, so that it just needs to get close enough to make one or two bites, and then just hang around for it's prey to either becomes weak enough to take out with ease, or wait for its prey to die of infection?
regards,
Brett...
Dr. Bakker,
I have no background in paleontology. I've never even taken it in school, so forgive me if some of my ideas are less informed or my assumptions a little off, but I've had a theory I've been muddling over for years and would like to bounce it off of someone who knows what they're talking about.
A long time ago, I read a story about how an Apatosaurus, what we used to call Brontosaurus, had too long a neck for its heart to pump enough blood to its brain. The animal couldn't exist, yet there it was. Later I'd heard a narrator in some documentary state that after a certain period, no animals larger than our modern elephant existed. Anything larger than an African Elephant had died off.
The K/T boundary is part the evidence for the comet/meteor theory. This crater or that crater is the other.
My theory: Not one huge impact, but thousands, maybe millions of meteors hit the earth. But not single or even multiple catastrophic meteor like Shoemaker-Levy 9. I theorize that it was a shower of meteors that mostly burned out in the sky, raining iridium-laden ash and rock, smoking to the Earth. A meteor shower, rather than a bombardment, over a long period of time, maybe centuries. Perhaps a large impact or two to explain the craters. Enough to explain the vegetation dieing off. Enough to explain why there's this layer over the entire Earth. And also to explain why animals over a certain size died, but not because life got harder or size made them more tempting prey for desperate predators.
All those micro-meteors raining down added mass to the planet. They laid down a roughly 2 inch layer over the entire planet. I don't know the math at all, but I would imagine that that much mass added would increase the gravitational pull of the planet itself. This was all new material, not the same finite matter spewed up from volcanoes, as one theory posits. I think those animals were just too big to live after the added mass. Maybe they didn't die because of it, maybe they adapted and evolved because of it, but I can't see animals that size surviving now, even in a zoo. Their mass would kill them. Reverse that thinking and ask what would have to change to imagine the same creature living 65 million years ago.
Again, I apologize if my leaps are incorrect, this is pretty much why I'm asking you. I haven't been able to get a 'real' response to this idea.
On The Jurassic Trail
If you go to Eastern Oklahoma and venture down the Illinois River, this will be the one running along scenic hwy 10 north of Tahlequah, OK, you will be in Jurassic hunting territory. How do we know this? While taking a canoe trip with a Baptist church group in the early eighties I spotted numerous dinosaur tracks laid out in perfect three toed symmetry in a sandstone layer jutting out into the river. Go when the water level is very low, and you will see the "game trails" I discovered there written in stone for Dr. Bakker to stamp "Certified Dinosaur Trail" on with his academic dino-analytics. I noted the behavior by evidence was a casual gate of the impressionists but there were those carnivore hint s and clues also.
Kenneth D. McLaren II
linux.penguin@gmx.com
PS: Remember who sent you. (You might name it the McLaren Dinosaur Trail or something aye!)
Surely, the dude is absolutely fair.
hello, i have a part of a bone, and
i don´t know from which dino the bone are. have search in the web about pictures, but i can´t find photos for to see the bone.
maybe when you see it, then you say oh, that is from that dino.
can you help me? i can send a picture?
Uwe
Hello, have here the picture adress
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lolewunder/sets/72157628855901321/
Uwe
As there any way to let Dr. Bakker know of a fan page that was created on facebook on his behalf?
Just wondering where Dr. Bakker is now. Hoping he will get a chance to visit us on his facebook fan page
I started a Dr. Bakker fan page on Facebook a couple years ago. Now I'm having a number of people clicking the like button. Some he has meet in the past even someone who went to the same University. Is there any way to get Dr. Bakker to view the page and maybe say hello or leave us a message? Here is the link. Thank You. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Robert-T-Bakker/294432510580842
Hi,Doctor Bakker, I am with the GT class of Lake Travis High School. You may not remember ,but we met at the HMNS when there was a get together for the opening of the new Paleontology Hall . My name is Sarah Kupka and I won a T-Rex poster from you by guessing the dinosaur. The GT class is doing a journalism section and we are supposed to interview a famous person,if possible, and it would be awesome if you could do an interview with me for it. It can be over the phone,in person, via Skype or email. If you could get back to me at either skupka0@gmail.com or (512)487-4355 with your answer,that would be great.
my son has written you a letter after watching several documentaries. He is 6. Can you please send me an address to send it to? I asked him if he would rather meet lebron james, joe mauer, or bob bakker, he said "bob bakker". please reply to: baddinkster@gmail.com
Dr. Bakker ,
I agree with you that almost all dinosaurs if not all disappeared long before the so-call big rock from space theory
Over time most of these dinosaurs had evolved to different species or been wipe-out by a virus or bugs.
I am looking at the great horses that where here over 14,000 to 13,000 years ago .
Two issues I have with this . One the great ice age and small mini ice ace that could had push these horse down south and the other is a virus the wipe-out the horses that did not give the species enough time to recover from the long ice age plus other Earth things..
Just maybe like your dinosaurs ran into the same trouble as our late horses did on the North America great continent . The great Mammoth may had gone the same way . We will not know until the DNA sample come in from the blood that was found inside of this Mammoth frozen as you should be up to date on that
Dr. Bob, my name is Eddie & i am a big fan. Now i never paleontology in collage but, i have listen to you guys speak.
If someone wants to learn about an extinct animal, watch it's closest living relitives. So anyone who thinks T-Rex was a scavenger is not doing their science. Most true scavengers are small in size like cyotes & jackels. They even still hunt mice & what not. If Horner thinks T-Rex could not hunt because it had small arms, then ask him how did Gastornis catch it prey? It had no arms & hunted animals the size of house cats, not it's own size.
Thank you
Dear Dr.Bakker, I am writting you because maybe you can with all your knowledge & experience can stop Ken Ham he is teaching people & especially children that dinosaurs are only a few thousand years old & were on Noah's Ark if you can believe that he is a creationist & he has a very large following & he needs someone like you who has credibility to maybe show the world who & what he really is (a liar&a fraud)he just can't teach this to kids to anybody it almost a crime thank you for listening.
Get in touch if you can, Bob. Alan Rice long ago from Boulder:
arr80@columbia.edu
Robert Bakker thinks size shows which group of animals is superior. He is right. But it is small size, not large that shows a group of animals is superior. The therapsids were superior to archosaurs, the mammals were superior to the dinosaurs.
The therapsids, including the mammals, successfully evolved small species. Those small, numerous species carried diseases that killed large therapsids, including mammals.
The large therapsids, including mammals, could not handle both the diseases and the competition from the archosaurs and dinosaurs.
The archosaurs and dinosaurs had the advantage of not having really small relatives to infect them.
My wife and I have given copies of Raptor Red to many, many young grooms to help them understand their wives and sisters in law. Our son married a twin and we see the raptor come out in one or both all the time
Greetings Dr. Bakker,
We met & dug together several times in the early 2000's. I was with Nate Murphy's Judith River DI bunch…oh. well. Enjoyed all of the camaraderie with the "paleochicks". Not sure if Kathy Kanak kept up communication with you over the years but we spoke recently. Kathy, her mom Vi and I also dug with your group at Como Bluffs, great educational opportunity and fun too.
Are you still in Wyoming or in Texas?? Are there still opportunities to do week long digs. I enjoyed your microsite dig as much as or more than unearthing the big bones!!
Bee Well,
Lori Hennigar Snead
Hi Dr. Bakker, my name is Luis and I doubt you'll read this comment but I can't seem to find a way to get in contact with you besides this. My girlfriend has wanted to become a paleontologist ever since she can remember; however, lately there have been a couple of people and situations attempting to keep her from reaching that dream. You are her idol and I would really appreciate it if you could get in contact with her to prove to her that she should follow her dream. This would really mean a lot to her. I'd love to hear back from you soon.
Hello, Dr. Bakker, my name is Kyle and I have just recently finished reading your book The Dinosaur Heresies and I would just like to say that I agree with all of the theories you presented as there is no evidence that I have seen that suggests you are wrong. On topix.com's dinosaur forum there is a member under the alias Coelophysis that is challenging all of your theories using physical characteristics and palate science and making claims that dinosaurs have no relation to birds and even claiming that T. Rex is just a bipedal crocodile with tiny forelimbs and that Spinosaurus has ball joints in its sail and is by far the most advanced dinosaur and had a bite force greater than that of T. Rex when Spinosaurus had jaws designed only for fishing. Could you please assist me in putting an end to this person's lies?
the admiring young paleontologist,
Kyle Fessenden
RB do you have any digs for the amateur?
Dug in Malta for 6 years and once with you at Como Bluffs and loved your post dig/ dinner lectures.
Best Regards, Paleochick1
Is there a chance for an short (7-10 questions) email interview with Dr. Bakker?
All the best – Szymon
Dear Dr Bakker,
Is it possible for me to have your email so that I can contact you and share my interest of dinosaurs and other reptiles with you?
It would be extremely kind if you if you could reply regarding this matter.
Yours Sincerely,
Ramaswamy Narayanaswamy
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