Blog-osaurus Rex

Sixty-five million years ago a group of magnificent animals known as Dinosaurs roamed the planet, a fact that absolutely blew my mind as a young child. I was indeed one of those completely obsessed "Dino Kids" that we all know. I had dinosaur clothes and dinosaur toys, I watched dinosaur movies and made my parents read me dinosaur books thousands of times, I ate dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets on dinosaur shaped plates. It got to the point where I knew the names of dinosaurs my parents couldn't even pronounce. The best was I could say Pachycephalosaurus. 

I think what intrigued me so much about these creatures was just how long ago they existed. They lived so incredibly far in the past that their skeletons literally turned to stone. It sparked my imagination knowing that there was some much to the earth than what we see today. When I was little I wanted more than anything to be a paleontologist; digging up fossils and trying to understand what life was like millions of years ago sounded amazing.

The idea of discovering a dinosaur fossil seemed like most exciting thing in the world. At the time I thought you could find a dinosaur bone anywhere but unfortunately I never could convince my mom to let me dig up the lawn. 

Another major part of my dino love came from the film Jurassic Park, I had never seen anything like it. This movie truly brought dinosaurs to life for me, before they were just facts and illustrations now they were living-breathing animals right before my eyes. I marveled at the special effects, it all seemed so real. I loved the size and majesty of the Brachiosaurus(the long neck one), the raw power of T-Rex and the frightening intelligence of the Velociraptors. I experienced the same overwhelming awe that Dr. Grant first felt and the sheer terror when it all went horribly wrong.

As I mentioned earlier my parents read me a ton of books but of all the books they read one really stood out. The book had beautiful illustrations but what really stuck with me was its last page: it discussed how dinosaurs had gone extinct, then went on to say that the american bison had, at one point, nearly been hunted to extinction by humans. This small environmentalist sentiment was so powerful to me, what right do we have to end an entire species existence. The arrogance and disregard that so many people have for the planet still sickens me to this day, It's truly haunting the sheer amount of damage that we have done in the relatively short 200,000 years that we have lived here.

Lucky my love of dinosaurs has not gone extinct but simply evolved, it may not be as obvious but there will always be a place in my heart for my long dead dino friends. I will leave you, my faithful readers, with one question: 
If you could be one dinosaur which would you be?