RE: Nick Hotton

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Josh Smith
>
> Robert Purdy wrote:
>
> > Nick Hotton, a long time friend and colleague, died
> > yesterday evening at home.
>
> This is truly a sad day in our science.  Nick "the three-eyed" Hotton
> was a great guy, and the first person that I met when I showed up at the
> Smithsonian in 1994.  He was influential both in my becoming a
> paleontologist and in going to Penn.  He will be sorely missed.

I would like to add my feelings on this as well.  My first meeting with a
real paleontologist was with Nick Hotton, when I was an annoying brat
dragging my dad to see Bakker give a talk at the Smithsonian.  We had a
brief but informative talk prior to the presentation: Hotton's comments gave
me some warning to be cautious in studying fossil reptiles.

Hotton was one of the most outstanding scientists in his field:
Permo-Triassic terrestrial vertebrates.  His work in other fields
(dinosaurs, evolution of herbivory, etc.) also continue to be cited in the
literature.

As Josh said, he shall be sorely missed.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-314-7843