Re: what if?

["Ilja" <nieuwlnd@let.rug.nl>]

----------
>From: Danvarner@aol.com

> In a message dated 8/30/99 2:11:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> thescelosaurus@juno.com writes:
>
> << My question is, then: How would dinosaur paleontology be different if
>  Brown had published his "Daptosaurus" in the 1930s, instead of Ostrom
>  publishing *Deinonychus* in 1969?-*Thescelosaurus*
>   >>
>
>   Probably there would be no difference. "Daptosaurus" was never published,
> but Stenonychosaurus inequalis was, by C.M.Sternberg, about the same time in
> 1932. Now more properly known as Troodon, Sternberg's illustration of the pes
> clearly shows the sickle-claw on digit#2. It was the suite of characters,
> including the unusual tail, that allowed Ostrom to more clearly envision the
> living animal over 35 years later. It was a matter of the right stuff, at the
> right time, with the right person to put it all together. Dan Varner.

I agree. Also, quite apart from the scientific data you have to consider the
social climes in which these people operated. VP in the 1930s was not in the
best of states, due to external (depression) as well as internal (low
scientific status, and a consequent lack of new workforce) reasons. One of
the reasons for the impact of Ostrom's and Bakker's work in the late 60s and
early 70s is IMHO that the world was in a sense 'ready for it'; public
interest for science had risen to a level that justified larger expenditure,
which in turn made more extensive research and fieldwork possible. I very
much doubt whether a _Deinonychus_ in the 30s would have had the same impact
it did later. After all, there were _Stenonychosaurus_ and _Velociraptor_.

Ilja