Re: "Dinosaurs don't count"

[dinosaur@museum.gla.ac.uk]

> "There were never more than a few species of the large dinosaurs 
> around at any one time...they were angolous to modern elephants and 
> rhinos: beautiful and interesting, but carying little information....
> Add to this the fact that dinosaurs, because they were land animals 
> rarely left fossils, and you have a situation where the kind of fossil 
> that is most interesting to the public is probably least interesting 
> to scientists"....

...using the same logic, I presume he implies that hominids are least 
interesting to scientists also.  We too are land animals rarely left 
as fossils and with very few species around at any one time!

Dinosaurs have challenged scientists at many levels and from many 
diciplines.  Perhaps this  James Trefil is not a scientist himself?  
There are many instances of people who call themselves scientists, 
but cannot accept factual evidence because it is contrary to their 
preconceived ideas and beliefs ..... but that is another story.

Dinosaurs are crucial in helping scientist obtain a clearer 
understanding of terrestrial life during the mesozoic.  Admittedly, 
there are a disproportianately large number of researchers working on 
dinosaurs than fossil bacteria, crustacea, annelids etc (which 
contribute more to the fossil record than the dinosaurs do).  Anyway, 
there is only one of us in Scotland, and I don't restrict my research 
to dinosaurs.

Neil

PS..... dinosurs are great to work with!
Neil 'Jurassic' Clark
Hunterian Museum
email: dinosaur@museum.gla.ac.uk