| I got to know Dale Russell through the dinosauroid, which I wrote about for Omni magazine. It helped interest me in dinosaurs and evolution, and looking back I think that the real importance of the dinosauroid was as an educational tool. Its strangeness caught your eye, and his explanation behind how dinosaurs might have evolved into such a creature made you wonder about evolution. That was a wonderful tool for getting people -- kids, young science writers, or whomever -- interested about evolution, and such an interest helps you learn more about evolution and understand what it means.
I also read his An Odyssey in Time and it found a wonderful 'big picture' view of the Mesozoic. And I got to know Dale a little, and found him a kind, gentle and very knowledgeable person.
-- Jeff Hecht
Posted for Tom Johnson. _____ I'm sure that the upcoming obituaries will address
the many contributions and accomplishments of Dale A. Russell. Of course his dinosauroid model made
headlines, but that was just another manifestation of his ability to see the
âbig picture.â Iâd encourage anyone
unfamiliar with Dale Russell to go to the university library and get two books
in particular: A Vanished World, and An Odyssey In Time. He used a
multidisciplinary approach to understand dinosaurs and their world, and wrote
about it in an entertaining manner.
Tom Johnson Loveland, CO On Sat, Jan 11, 2020 at 9:18 AM Thomas Richard Holtz < tholtz@umd.edu> wrote: Greetings,
We have very few details on this at present, but Dale Russell (noted Canadian paleontologist who did extensive work on dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles, among other topics) passed away on Dec. 21 last year. Obituary is forthcoming.
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