When the smash-success "Jurassic Park" first hit theaters in 1993, it inspired a generation of dinophiliacs and helped to usher in a new “golden age of paleontology.”
But it also froze the public’s perception of dinosaurs in time, and popularized inaccuracies that people still believe are true today.
So what happens when everything we learn about a scientific field comes from a fictional monster movie? In this episode, three "Jurassic Park" super-fans (one paleontologist and two podcasters) try to sort it all out.
Featuring: Gabriel-Philip Santos
University of Michigan Museum of Natural History.
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CC BY 2.0 https://bit.ly/3MvdKy4
LINKS
Want to learn more about dinosaurs? Check the publish date before you check it out from the library! And here are some recommendations from producer Taylor Quimby:
- Check out Smithsonian’s The Dinosaur Book. (Pretty much all of the Smithsonian books are good for younger readers.)
- Want to get a more global perspective of where dinosaurs have been discovered? Check out a dinosaur atlas book.
- For older readers, or anybody who loves a good coffee table book, check out Dinosaur Art II, which features a number of excellent paleoartists. (Taylor has the first one and loves to show it off.)
- Also: Here's a truly disheartening read about people who think feathered dinosaurs are an attack on masculinity.
