T. rex and vision

["Bonnie Blackwell, x 3332" <bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu>]

Maybe Grant was the just the ultimate example of someone who "stood 
behind his theories" so to speak (pardon the pun).  What people do in
high stress situations is a function of what they have been trained to do,
much more than logic.  Anyone who speculated that facing a full grown T.
rex is not stressful, regardless of how long you have been studying them,
needs to rethink the situation IMHO.  

There are two other issues here, however, that we should not loose sight
of while slamming JP:

1.  Would a T. rex who had been genetically adapted to finding hadrosaur
or ceratopsian prey, recognize either the sent or the shape of the human
to be good food.  One might speculate that having been exposed to numerous
rats and mice like K mammals, that rexie would say it wasn't worth the
effort.  (maybe lawyers smell more like snakes? or else it took a while
to process the information learned from grant and the kid to realize the
lawyer was prime food?)

2.  one thing JP really did was to demonstrate to the public that paleontology
does have a useful function in the real world.  here we have a paleontologist
who can survive (whether by shear good luck, or good thinking or whatever)
while others die.  for once in this movie the scientists were the good guys
(how many other A B or C movies can say that??) who have a useful purpose
in the real world.  

3.  one other thought:  frogs are scared of humans.  if that is genetically
ingrained, that might have been transmitted to rexie too.  though he seemed
unafraid of other humans.  

granted JP is fraught with problems.  it does have some good points, 
nonetheless.
b

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonnie Blackwell,                               bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu
Dept of Geology,                                (718) 997-3332
Queens College, City University of New York,    fax:  997-3349
Flushing, NY 11367-1597