Sunday, March 13, 2005
Dinosaurs! #3
- remember calvin? ever wonder why he was so into dinosaurs? this is very telling...
- Early Pictures
the tricerotops skull is a cast. it's fun to watch and see how every little kid, without exception, has to climb on top of it. i think it's a wonderful way of allowing little kids to experience dinosaurs in a way which is both easy and comfortable.
my first dinosaur bone is the shiny one on the piece of paper. it's a piece of vertibra from the tail end of a hadrosaurus. it's shiny because i had just coated it with vinac. the other bone, splintered and not shiny, is a limb bone of some sort, probably an arm.
pictures of the visitor desk
# posted by Mick @ 4:46 PM 
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so why do little kids remember everything about dinosaurs?
my roommate is a paleontology major and cleans bones for both the campus paleontology lab and the museum of the rockies bone bank(where i clean bones). he redefines the word "enthusiast". he got me into this even though i've been a dinosaur lover my whole life.
speaking with him about the fenominal memory little kids have regarding dinosaurs is interesting and illuminating. this conversaton took place last month.
Q: why do little kids remember everything about dinosaurs?
A: because it's important. it's like santa claus, or the tooth fairy. it's a magical world, but it's real. and we have proof."
there's something we've noticed about the kids who watch us clean bones and talk to us about dinosaurs. every single one of them can place the triasic, jurasic, and cretaceous periods correctly in order. almost all of them can place the correct dates to these periods. only about half of them will even try to spell the periods when asked.
the organization of dinosaur history is apparently vastly more important to kids than the practical presentation of this knowledge. ask a kid which period t-rex comes from and they know. ask a kid to spell something and they don't seem to care as much. the value placed on the organization of this magical real world outweighs putting into 21st century intellectual context.
example: it's more important to know about what killing function best served dynonnychus and how it worked than to actualy spell the name. it's more important to know if it could've fed on a tricerotops, hitoricaly and geographicaly, than to know how many tons either of them weighed.
the story is what's important. the story is what they remember.
my roommate is a paleontology major and cleans bones for both the campus paleontology lab and the museum of the rockies bone bank(where i clean bones). he redefines the word "enthusiast". he got me into this even though i've been a dinosaur lover my whole life.
speaking with him about the fenominal memory little kids have regarding dinosaurs is interesting and illuminating. this conversaton took place last month.
Q: why do little kids remember everything about dinosaurs?
A: because it's important. it's like santa claus, or the tooth fairy. it's a magical world, but it's real. and we have proof."
there's something we've noticed about the kids who watch us clean bones and talk to us about dinosaurs. every single one of them can place the triasic, jurasic, and cretaceous periods correctly in order. almost all of them can place the correct dates to these periods. only about half of them will even try to spell the periods when asked.
the organization of dinosaur history is apparently vastly more important to kids than the practical presentation of this knowledge. ask a kid which period t-rex comes from and they know. ask a kid to spell something and they don't seem to care as much. the value placed on the organization of this magical real world outweighs putting into 21st century intellectual context.
example: it's more important to know about what killing function best served dynonnychus and how it worked than to actualy spell the name. it's more important to know if it could've fed on a tricerotops, hitoricaly and geographicaly, than to know how many tons either of them weighed.
the story is what's important. the story is what they remember.
last week was extra dead and we only had a few visitors(1 child enthusiast). she was a vegetarian and her favorite dinosaur was T-Rex. i happened to be wearing one of my vegie shirts and we had a nice talk about that(i gave her mom some recipes). this 10 year old girl listed at least 10 dinosaurs T-Rex could have fed from(i only recognized half the dinosaurs she listed), they existed in the same time period and same geographic area. so i had to ask her:
Q: why is t-rex, a carnivoir, your favorite dinosaur?
A: because he probably didn't even have to hunt. he was a scavenger so he probably didn't have to kill much at all.
it's amazing how she picked a dinosaur that related to her life and knew everything about it. we have casts of a t-rex claw and a real tooth, both of which she immediatly identified. wow.
Q: why is t-rex, a carnivoir, your favorite dinosaur?
A: because he probably didn't even have to hunt. he was a scavenger so he probably didn't have to kill much at all.
it's amazing how she picked a dinosaur that related to her life and knew everything about it. we have casts of a t-rex claw and a real tooth, both of which she immediatly identified. wow.
there were a number of other students who decided to actualy go do cool stuff and travel somewhere and so i picked up 4 extra shifts in the bone bank over spring break(because i don't usually go anywhere cool). i did have a great deal of fun cleaning bones and i think i finaly understand how to really clean them. the whole week was pretty much dead and we had very few visitors.
there was only one shift which afforded me the opportunity to chat with little kids who loved dinosaurs. they're regulars and they all showed up together. we spent about a half our talking about dinosaurs and this conversation proved to be very revealing.
Q: "why is it so easy for you to remember everything about dinosaurs?"
A: "because they're so cool. they could eat me real easy, but they're dead, so they can't."
i've been thinking about this response for several days now. i think the issue present is about control and power. the unquestioning authority of dinosaurs rulling this planet for a period of time so vast we cannot comprehend is contrasted with their extinction causing a lack of power. from the mind of a 6 year old, the dinosaurs represent(should the 6 year old suddenly be wisk away to the mesesoic) all of the totalitarian authority adults represent but without actual influence. in essence, removed from the powerful control of the dinosaur, little kids get to bask in their "coolness" without having the authority exersized on them.
the picture with the triceratops skull cast is a wonderful example of this. 6 year olds are more aware of the fact that, skull or cast, the tricerotops doesn't really care if they walk along the horns or crest. adults, instead, immediatly think about possesion and worry that the museum doesn't want kids walking on it. not one little kid has ever asked if they can play on the skull but most parents repremand them for it and almost all of them look at us nervously.
there was only one shift which afforded me the opportunity to chat with little kids who loved dinosaurs. they're regulars and they all showed up together. we spent about a half our talking about dinosaurs and this conversation proved to be very revealing.
Q: "why is it so easy for you to remember everything about dinosaurs?"
A: "because they're so cool. they could eat me real easy, but they're dead, so they can't."
i've been thinking about this response for several days now. i think the issue present is about control and power. the unquestioning authority of dinosaurs rulling this planet for a period of time so vast we cannot comprehend is contrasted with their extinction causing a lack of power. from the mind of a 6 year old, the dinosaurs represent(should the 6 year old suddenly be wisk away to the mesesoic) all of the totalitarian authority adults represent but without actual influence. in essence, removed from the powerful control of the dinosaur, little kids get to bask in their "coolness" without having the authority exersized on them.
the picture with the triceratops skull cast is a wonderful example of this. 6 year olds are more aware of the fact that, skull or cast, the tricerotops doesn't really care if they walk along the horns or crest. adults, instead, immediatly think about possesion and worry that the museum doesn't want kids walking on it. not one little kid has ever asked if they can play on the skull but most parents repremand them for it and almost all of them look at us nervously.
one of the books i read over spring break was "The Dinosaur Heresies" by bob bakker. it was the first "real" book i ever read about dinosarus and it was too dense for my 10 year old mind. my roommate has a huge dino book collection and spring break afforded me some time to do my own reading. class text books become so obtuse after months and months, regardless of subject.
in the preface, bob bakker describes when he first became a dino addict.
Surely, they thought, it's just a phase that he'll grow out of. Lots of kids my age got hooked on dinosaurs for a while--it was a childhood disease, like mumps or chicken pox, and if left alone, most kids recovered and then had a lifetime immunity to dinosaurmania.
he goes onto explain how his mom would take him to the american museum of natural history twice a year. i was lucky. my parents would take me there at least once a month, sometimes twice.
for the life of me, i cannot seem to remember anything about those frequent visits in the form of plaques or case tags. all i remember are the exibits, most of them. i remember explaining to my dad why the t-rex wouldn't stand up the way they had him possitioned because of his legs and the cramping of his tail(things i learned from talking with people who had read books like bakker's).
i wish i remembered more about the dinosaurs from my childhood. dinosaurs are not the disease. the disease is anything which helps you to forget their magic.
in the preface, bob bakker describes when he first became a dino addict.
Surely, they thought, it's just a phase that he'll grow out of. Lots of kids my age got hooked on dinosaurs for a while--it was a childhood disease, like mumps or chicken pox, and if left alone, most kids recovered and then had a lifetime immunity to dinosaurmania.
he goes onto explain how his mom would take him to the american museum of natural history twice a year. i was lucky. my parents would take me there at least once a month, sometimes twice.
for the life of me, i cannot seem to remember anything about those frequent visits in the form of plaques or case tags. all i remember are the exibits, most of them. i remember explaining to my dad why the t-rex wouldn't stand up the way they had him possitioned because of his legs and the cramping of his tail(things i learned from talking with people who had read books like bakker's).
i wish i remembered more about the dinosaurs from my childhood. dinosaurs are not the disease. the disease is anything which helps you to forget their magic.
does anyone remember just how many dinosaur and dinosaur related comic strips there were with calvin and hobbes? i'll find some working links to comic strips involving calvin and dinosaurs(the ones i've found so far refuse links).
bill waterson speaks about dinosaurs in the 10th anniversary edition.
The dinosaurs I put in Calvin and Hobbes have become one of my favorite additions to the strip. Dinosaurs have appeared in many strips before mine, but I like to think I've treated them with a little more respect than they've often recieved at the hands of cartoonists.
When I was Calvin's age, I had a nicely illustrated dinosaur book and some dinosuar models, so it was a natural step to have Calvin share that interest. The first dinosaurs I put in the strip were based on my childhood memories of them. Back in the 60's, dinosuars were imagined as lumbering, dim-witted, cold-blooded, oversized lizards. That's how I drew them in the first strips, and these drawings are now pretty embarrassing to look at. when I realized that dinosaurs offered Calvin interesting story possibilities, I started searching for books to rekindle my interest in them. It was then I dicovered what I'd missed in paleontology during the last twenty years.
Dinosaurs, I quickly learned, were wilder than anything I'd ever imagined. Tails up, with birdlike agility, these were truly the creatures of nightmares. My drawings began to reflect the new information, and with each new strip, I've tried to learn more and to depict dinosaurs more accurately. I do this parlty for my own amusement, and partly because, for Calvin, dinosaurs are very, very real. Dinosaurs have expanded Calvin's world and opened up some exciting graphic possibilities. The biggest reward for me, however, has been the fun I've had exploring a new interest. I enjoy dinosaurs more now than I did as a kid, and much of the job of being a cartoonist lies in keeping alive a sense of curiosity and wonder. Sometimes the best way to generate new ideas is to go out and learn something.
a paleontologist briefly discusses the comic strip here
bill waterson speaks about dinosaurs in the 10th anniversary edition.
The dinosaurs I put in Calvin and Hobbes have become one of my favorite additions to the strip. Dinosaurs have appeared in many strips before mine, but I like to think I've treated them with a little more respect than they've often recieved at the hands of cartoonists.
When I was Calvin's age, I had a nicely illustrated dinosaur book and some dinosuar models, so it was a natural step to have Calvin share that interest. The first dinosaurs I put in the strip were based on my childhood memories of them. Back in the 60's, dinosuars were imagined as lumbering, dim-witted, cold-blooded, oversized lizards. That's how I drew them in the first strips, and these drawings are now pretty embarrassing to look at. when I realized that dinosaurs offered Calvin interesting story possibilities, I started searching for books to rekindle my interest in them. It was then I dicovered what I'd missed in paleontology during the last twenty years.
Dinosaurs, I quickly learned, were wilder than anything I'd ever imagined. Tails up, with birdlike agility, these were truly the creatures of nightmares. My drawings began to reflect the new information, and with each new strip, I've tried to learn more and to depict dinosaurs more accurately. I do this parlty for my own amusement, and partly because, for Calvin, dinosaurs are very, very real. Dinosaurs have expanded Calvin's world and opened up some exciting graphic possibilities. The biggest reward for me, however, has been the fun I've had exploring a new interest. I enjoy dinosaurs more now than I did as a kid, and much of the job of being a cartoonist lies in keeping alive a sense of curiosity and wonder. Sometimes the best way to generate new ideas is to go out and learn something.
a paleontologist briefly discusses the comic strip here
so last week, while cleaning bones in the fossil bank, i had the opportunity to ask jack horner about why he thinks little kids have such great memories for everything dino. sadly, i was unaware that he had conducted 10 interviews in the previous 4 days(that's what anne told me) and most of them were pretty lame interviews, like this one. the sarcasim is thick enough to poke it.
he basicaly just asked my questions back at me. it helped me clearly state my thesus, that (1) little kids remember everything about dinosaurs because they represent a magical world, of which we have proof, that can be visited any time and (2) the issues of size and gore are graphic enough and on such a large scale so as to imprint directly into their memories.
very brief bio of jack
since last week, i've spoken with 2 other "high ups" in the museum and both of them seem to have no idea about why little kids have such phenominal dino memory. i noticed, neither of them seemed to have even wondered about this. i found that surprising.
calvin and hobbes is an area i want to talk about more. the dinos portrayed show the magical world kids enter into where they can engage them in unique ways. i see that as very relevant.
he basicaly just asked my questions back at me. it helped me clearly state my thesus, that (1) little kids remember everything about dinosaurs because they represent a magical world, of which we have proof, that can be visited any time and (2) the issues of size and gore are graphic enough and on such a large scale so as to imprint directly into their memories.
very brief bio of jack
since last week, i've spoken with 2 other "high ups" in the museum and both of them seem to have no idea about why little kids have such phenominal dino memory. i noticed, neither of them seemed to have even wondered about this. i found that surprising.
calvin and hobbes is an area i want to talk about more. the dinos portrayed show the magical world kids enter into where they can engage them in unique ways. i see that as very relevant.
I wanted to go into more depth about these dinosaurs but I have unfortunatly ran out of time. I think little kids have great memories with dinosaurs because they're special, cool, important, real, and we have proof of EVERYTHING. And when we don't have proof, we have cool theory.
And dinosaurs make a good story. They were the dominant land animal group for hundreds of millions of years and that is worth remembering, even if it's spun into a tall tail, a comic book, or a childrens bedtime story.
Don't forget! The museum of the rockies is having a new dinosaur hall open up June 18. It will be called "The Hall of Horns and Teeth". Horns and Teeth are very memorable, so come and see the opening!
And dinosaurs make a good story. They were the dominant land animal group for hundreds of millions of years and that is worth remembering, even if it's spun into a tall tail, a comic book, or a childrens bedtime story.
Don't forget! The museum of the rockies is having a new dinosaur hall open up June 18. It will be called "The Hall of Horns and Teeth". Horns and Teeth are very memorable, so come and see the opening!
Hello. I'm "The Roomate". I've been quietly watching Mick in his search to understand just what it is about dinosaurs that enthralls young children. I've seen him pose these questions to the experts in the field to which they had no answers. After much consideration, I've come to this conclusion: Mick, you need look no further than yourself for the answers you seek. You are one of the few people I know who've managed to keep that child-like wonder through adulthood. I've watched as you've imagined how a T-Rex might lay down to sleep. If you were to look in the mirror, the reflection would look a bit like Bill Watterson's Calvin. Don't lose that quality!
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