What is YOUR favorite dinosaur or other prehistoric animal?? A study of the general public’s (as well as the expert’s) ideas of the ideal extinct creature

I’ve loved dinosaurs ever since I can remember. I was three years old when I happened upon my first dinosaur museum experience in Toronto and it had me hooked ever since. (Note: this was BEFORE Jurassic Park ever came out. Yeah, I feel old.) At the gift shop, my parents bought me a little red cup with a picture of a Triceratops on it…

            … And that was it. From then on, I was destined to name Triceratops as my all time favorite dinosaur throughout my childhood and, to this day, it has stood the test of time. I didn’t care that it was an herbivore. In fact, I preferred it over any carnivore (all of those carnivores, like T. rex and Velociraptor, looked the same to me anyway...). I mean, come on. Triceratops had the best kind of weaponry there is on any animal ever!

Triceratops

Okay, that might be a bit much, but it still looked WAY cool. Three sharp horns, two of which were over three or four feet long! And the frill with all the extra smaller horns made it look even cooler. EVERY time I went to a museum with a Triceratops skeleton, I had to take my picture with it, no matter what. It was absolutely essential. And now, guess what. After all these years, my dissertation research is on jaw mechanics in plant-eating dinosaurs. Better still, Triceratops is part of it! (Albeit, it is one of many, many genera I’m looking at, but still.)

Pentaceratops (a relative of Triceratops) and me.

            Now, a big part of why I have liked dinosaurs is that I loved to draw them all the time. I have now been learning a lot about scientific illustration in grad school to help me out with creating publishable illustrations. One day, I thought to myself that it would be a lot of fun to draw my friends as their favorite dinosaurs or other prehistoric animal. So I (stupidly) posed this question on a couple Facebook statuses:

“What is your favorite DINOSAUR / PREHISTORIC ANIMAL?”

I got many responses. Way more responses than I expected and I said, “Well, damn. I can’t draw all of these, now, can I?” And that’s when it hit me. I could analyze the responses and see, both in the general public and in the expert world of paleontology/zoology/physical anthropology, who (and how many) finds what prehistoric animal the most interesting and, dare I say, AWESOME? What is each person’s ideal prehistoric animal?

I got answers from around 146 people. What I didn’t realize when I went into this was just how interesting the answers would be. Before I get into that, though, let’s look at the rankings of all of the answers that were given that made it past one vote:

Okay. I promise I didn’t make this up. Triceratops beat out everything else. In fact, it beat out Tyrannosaurus by 6 votes. That was the first shock to me. But it makes the case that herbivores are, by far, way cooler and more diverse than carnivores. (YES!) Granted, this is not nearly a statistically robust graph by any means. I would need a LOT more answers to get anywhere near that, but I figured this was a good start. The graph above shows all answers that got more than one vote. (I counted half-votes for people who gave me two answers because they couldn’t make up their minds.)

Check this out, though. Elasmosaurus (a plesiosaur) is in sixth place. After that, Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat. “Pterodactyl” and Wooly Mammoth are not too far off either. Why? Because they are the most publicly known non-dinosaurian prehistoric animals out there. If I ask someone who is not a paleontologist what their favorite non-dinosaurian prehistoric animal was, 90% of the time it would probably by one of those. I couldn't do that, though, because sometimes when I’d ask the question “What is your favorite dinosaur?”, some people would respond with “pterodactyl” or “plesiosaur”. Both things that are NOT dinosaurs. So I had to broaden the question I asked a little bit to all of prehistoric life to avoid that for now.

In any case, we have Triceratops first, then Apatosaurus, then Velociraptor as our top three answers. I had to take this a step farther, though. While getting responses, I got a lot of answers that were not QUITE the actual name of the animals. For instance, for Apatosaurus, I counted “Brontosaurus”, sauropod, and “Long neck” in the same category. Also, any time someone asked a descriptive question (i.e., “What’s that one that’s really big with a really long neck?”), I put that under Apatosaurus as well. Here are those answers parsed out in a small graph:

Funny, isn’t it? Most of the people that said Apatosaurus was their favorite dinosaur didn’t even know it’s actual name. Some knew “Brontosaurus” from childhood stories and movies, but that name has actually been invalid since the early 1900s. Some knew the term “long-neck” from the classic cartoon movie “The Land Before Time”, but that is all they based any knowledge of paleontology off of.

Little Foot, a "long-neck" from "The Land Before Time"

Well, that and “Jurassic Park”, which brings me to Velociraptor.

Now, I grouped Velociraptor, Deinonychus, and “raptor” in the same category too because, let’s face it, any non-paleontologist who says Velociraptor is thinking of “Jurassic Park’s” portrayal of Velociraptor, which is actually a Utahraptor or Deinonychus with a cooler name (Velociraptor is actually quite a lot smaller than that seen "Jurassic Park").  

"Velociraptor" from "Jurassic Park"

Most people said Velociraptor, but quite a few non-paleontologists said Deinonychus as well, which I was pleased about. The term “raptor” snuck in there by some people, which irks me a bit, but I’ll get over it since that is, again, what much of the media and the movies call them.

Thankfully, most people who picked Triceratops actually said the real name, except for one person, who said “three-horn” like in ‘The Land Before Time”. 

Ducky, a "swimmer" from "The Land Before Time"

A few people said “Ducky” like in “The Land Before Time” rather than Parasaurolophus or Saurolophus because, unfortunately, not a lot of people actually know what a hadrosaur is called outside of paleontology enthusiasts.

Parasaurolophus

Six people said “Saber Toothed Tiger”, while only one person actually said “Smilodon” (its actual genus name). This was not surprising at all, but again, it’s a sign of how prehistoric animals are being portrayed to the general public.

More people said "plesiosaur" instead of Elasmosaurus, too.

Also, here's the breakdown of "T. rex" vs. "Tyrannosaurus", just for kicks. T. rex won by a landslide, probably because its easier to say. Everyone knows T. rex.

Tyrannosaurus from "Jurassic Park"

I’m happy to see Archaeopteryx (early avian ancestor), Stegosaurus, and Ankylosaurus make this list, though. It shows that many people know at least a bit more diversity of dinosaurs outside of the norm, although I wish the numbers were larger. What it all comes down to, though, is what prehistoric animal they thought was the coolest looking. It didn’t matter to them that they didn’t know what its name was, as many did not. They just knew it looked cool at some point in their lives when they saw it.

I guess what I’m trying to emphasize is that we need a much larger push to get paleontology out there more in the general public. We need to teach every one of ALL ages that paleontology is real and it is important. Movies are fantastic ways to get the public more interested in paleontology, and more movies have been and are coming out, but we need to take it a step farther. Let’s start teaching more about them in schools, in documentaries outside of mere fanciful animated dinosaurs running around with brief commentary, in books, in the news, anything you can think of. Paleontologists and evolutionary biologists need to make their research known in the media to a much greater extent. This will gain more public interest and, ultimately and hopefully, improve upon how much scientific interest is received in the general public. Hopefully we can get that ball rolling soon and I look forward to being a part of it.

~ Ali

P.S. ~ Here are all of the genera which only had 1 (or one half) vote. Oh, and a good majority of these are from paleontologists/paleoanthropologists. :) Some of these are way cool. Look them up if you haven't heard of them!

Rhamphorhynchus

Amurosaurus

Phorusracus

Brachiosaurus

Confuciusornis

Camptosaurus

Thylacoleo

Compsognathus

Oviraptor

Spinapotychus

Therizinosaurus

Silvisaurus

Styracosaurus

Champsosaurus

Raptorex

Palaeopropithecus

Ceratosaurus

Trilobites

Beelzibufo

Gallimimus

Psephoderma

Orodromeus

Patriofelis

Ornithomimus

Tsintaosaurus

Argentinosaurus

Hyracotherium

Afradapis

Zalmoxes

Homo ergaster

Neanderthal

Homo floresiensis

Anacodon

Pezosiren

Meganeura

Iguanodon

Titanoboa

Diplodocus

Diacodexis

Tetonius

Glyptodon

Phoberomys

Some Drawings of Ornithischian Heads

Here are some dinosaur heads I drew. Mostly in graphite and colorized in Photoshop. Each is made a little differently and they need some work done on them, but they're good enough for the dissertation for now. I need to turn this thing in! Ha.

Heterodontosaurus

Stegosaurus

Edmontonia

Parasaurolophus

Pachycephalosaurus

Triceratops

~ Ali

Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, and Kin: A Look at the Crazy, Crazy Jaws of Armored Dinosaurs

Hello again!

I've finally decided to post some more illustrations I'm doing for my dissertation...

These are illustrations I've done for my chapter on the jaws of Thyreophora (stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, and kin). It's one of my descriptive chapters which I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what should go where and what is important to illustrate that would need more than just words alone.

Thyreophorans, or the "armored dinosaurs", are known to be some of the most bizarre dinosaurs to have ever existed. Why? Because not only do they have bones on the inside, but they've got bones on the outside, too. It is what is known as dermal bone, meaning bone that develops in the skin. Now, there are a lot of vertebrates living today with dermal bone which serve the purpose of (among others) a shielding protection against predators (i.e., turtles, armadillos, and loads more). Thyreophoran dinosaurs take this to the extreme and are covered with plates and scutes, some to the point of making them look like enormous tanks that could kick any predator's--well, you know.

This post will just show illustrations I've made for the chapter. In a future post, I will talk more about how these critters used their jaws:


Basal Thyreophorans

So the most basal (earliest forms) of thyreophorans consisted of things like Lesothosaurus (although, maybe not anymore?), Scelidosaurus, Scutellosaurus, and Emausaurus. I've only done illustrations for Lesothosaurus and Scelidosaurus, though, because that was all I was really able to observe for this study.

This is Lesothosaurus, one of the first thyreophorans to have existed. It's a tiny little guy that walked on two legs and a pretty long, skinny snout. I've decided to do side views of skulls in micron pen to show, with line-work, the different morphologies on the skull.

 Lesothosaurus had your standard leaf-shaped teeth with little, tiny sharp projections coming out the top edge of them (on left below). These teeth are ideal for cropping plant material, especially for such a small dinosaurs going after tougher plants. They also had teeth at the front of the upper jaw (premaxillary teeth; on right below) that were good for puncturing plants when first nipping them, like our incisors. I've done these and many other illustrations of different elements in graphite pencil which I then put into Photoshop and played with contrast and textures.

There is a bone at the front of the jaw (which you've all probably heard me boast about at some point or another) which is unique to all of the dinosaurs I am studying (within the group Ornithischia, which Thyreophora is a part of). It is a little bone at the middle of the front of end of the lower jaw that might have been used for mobility at this junction. I'll get to that in another post, though. For now here are some views of the predentary in Lesothosaurus (overhead view on left; side view on right):

 And here's an underside view looking at the predentary-dentary bone articulations (based on Sereno, 1991):

I've also included a view drawings of Scelidosaurus material as well. Scelidosaurus is a little more derived than Lesothosaurus and has a lot more dermal bone, or armor, that surrounded its body. On the left below is the jaw joint articulation (quadrate bone of skull nested within jaw joint). On the right is a side view of the back of its lower jaw, showing the coronoid eminence and retroarticular process morphologies.

Aaaaaaand just for kicks, here is a Scelidosaurus tooth! More spade shaped and bulbous.

Stegosaurs

The next group I talk about is stegosaurs. Everyone knows stegosaurs, right? It means "roof lizard" and is named so because of its insane-looking huge plates sticking out of its back (and huge spikes on its tail). These were enormous creatures that walked on all fours and had incredibly tiny heads for such a big body. Below is an ink illustration of a Stegosaurus skull:

The teeth in stegosaurs are also more-or-less leaf shaped. They have ridges on the sides and little more subtle bumps along the top edge (seen below on left). Premaxillary teeth (shown below on the right) are only seen in Huayangosaurus, the basal-most known stegosaur. More derived stegosaurs, however, have evolutionarily lost premaxillary teeth.

 

The predentary of Stegosaurus is also shown below (side view on top left; overhead view on bottom left) and the predentary-dentary articulation at the front of the jaw (view from below on right):

I've also depicted the jaw joint from behind. You can see that it is bicondylar (two spheres) like in Scelidosaurus above and rests in a cupped surface in the mandible.

Ankylosaurs

Lastly, the beloved ankylosaurs, or "fused lizard". (By the way, don't take anything away from the term "lizard" when I say it in a name meaning. Dinosaurs aren't lizards. It's just etymology. Ha!)

Ankylosaurs are the huge tanks of armor. They have so much plating and scutes on their backs that no predator could have done anything to it from above. All it would have to do is hunker down and and Ankylosaurus could be chomping on a little bush as Tyrannosaurus kept trying to peck at it (given it was stupid enough to do so, which I don't think so... Maybe?) Some (not all) of them also had club tails that they used for EXTRA protection. Below is an ink drawing of the skull of Euoplocephalus (without the predentary):

Okay... I just have to point out that these guys have THE most bizarre jaws I have ever seen. Their tooth rows are insanely curved. But again, I'll get to that in a later post. For now, here are images of the teeth. On the left is an example of one of the dentary teeth that run along the jaw line. They look very similar to stegosaur teeth, except their little projections on the top, or denticles, are a lot sharper and more specialized for slicing and dicing. On the right is an example of a premaxillary tooth, which is only seen in some of the basal-most ankylosaurs, but not most of them (both teeth are illustrated from Silvisaurus):

 

The predentary bone in ankylosaurs is really weird too, because really all it is is a single bar that runs along the front of the jaw and hardly connects well with the rest of the jaw at all.

 

(Overhead view of Euoplocephalus predentary)

 

(View from behind Euoplocephalus predentary showing flat articular surface that would press up against the two dentaries)

(View from beneath front of Pinacosaurus jaw showing predentary articulation with dentaries [note: this predentary is more arched than in Euoplocephalus)

Finally, below I've illustrated the jaw joint of ankylosaurs (in this case Edmontonia) from behind. The quadrate (of the skull) is very wide at the bottom and rests in a very open basined jaw joint surface of the mandible which is also very curved.

Anyway, there it is! Again, in another post in the future I'll talk more about the jaw mechanisms these guys were using, but for now I just wanted to get these illustrations out there. Feedback would be great! 

Thanks for stopping by!

~Ali

Walking with Dinosaurs 3D: A Personal Movie Review from a Non-Movie-Critic Paleontologist

So last night I saw “Walking with Dinosaurs 3D” in theaters.

One word: Phenomenal.

This was, by far, one of THE most gorgeous animated animal movies I have ever seen (especially in terms of dinosaurs). The animation was incredible. The amount of intricate detail that was put into creating each animal was unreal. And what’s even more amazing is the amount of variation they put into creating each individual of a species while still making it recognizable as that species, so they can tell one individual (or character) from another. Even the fluid movements of each animal were realistic and the combination of that with the visual appeal of beautiful real-life landscapes worked perfectly. Hands down.

I also thought they did a good job introducing most of the dinosaurs, with a little snippet on each taxon that showed up (a few being Pachyrhinosaurus, Gorgosaurus, Edmontosaurus, an ankylosaur of some sort, Troodon, and Alexornis—oh, and a pterosaur), although, I wish they would have spent more time talking about each one like they did with Gorgosaurus. He got a little more informative attention for some reason. (And did anyone notice they didn't introduce Parksosaurus at all?? Poor guy. I like Parksosaurus!) I will make a note to say, however, that it did feel slightly awkward because I could never tell if I was watching a movie or a documentary. It was sort of this weird purgatory between the two and it made me a little uncomfortable, but once you get past that feeling, it is REALLY an enjoyable movie.

Now, I’m not going to go too much into the details of the story, because it is pretty much more or less the same storyline you always see in a dinosaur movie (which, let’s be honest, what else do they really have to work with?). Cool looking plant-eating dinosaurs (in this case, the AWESOME Pachyrhinosaurus [perfect choice, by the way]) are migrating from one place to another from season to season. They, of course, keep running into carnivores along the way that the herbivores can’t actually communicate with for whatever untold reason. Also, the main character, Patchi the Pachyrhinosaurus, starts off a small, dinky runt and apparently turns out to beat out the bully and become the biggest badass dinosaur that ever walked the face of the earth.

That said, I mainly want to get into the discussion of the fact that there were voiceovers:

Sorry to most of my paleontologist colleagues out there, but I LIKED the voices.

Not to say it wasn’t annoying from time to time and some of the dialogue was pretty much the cheesiest thing ever. BUT, nevertheless, it was good that they put it in. Why? Because that is how movies work! If you’re going to have a movie that is an hour and a half long, dialogue helps keep the attention span. Not only for kids. For EVERYONE. If someone doesn’t pay attention for even a couple minutes to a certain interaction two dinosaurs have with each other that is important to the story line… that’s it. The rest of the story is gone. Dialogue helps that keep moving to keep you on track.

Let me put it this way. How many of us loved Land Before Time as a child? (And I’m talking about the original; not the crappy 50 other ones that were made.) I know I loved it as a kid. And guess what? That stuff was nowhere NEAR accurate, and yet it made me love dinosaurs that much more! And they talked. A LOT. It’s a kid’s movie. Walking with Dinosaurs 3D is pretty much just a prettier, more accurate version of Land Before Time (with a debatably less fun storyline). Name me one GOOD animal movie that was at least an hour and a half that didn’t have dialogue in it and we’ll talk. (Oh, and it can’t have any humans in it talking either. OR written dialogue, like in a silent movie, because guess what? THAT’S STILL DIALOGUE.)

Now, some people complain that their mouths weren’t moving and they were somehow telepathically talking. Well, I’m sorry, but it’s much better than them having lips and talking, like in Disney’s Dinosaur from years ago. Dinosaurs don’t have lips. We all know this. (SCIENCE!) So, again, just to make the movie run along better, dialogue helps it keep going. (Also, Homeward Bound was fantastic, and they were talking telepathically. So it's okay!) Now, maybe they could have had a narrator talking, but that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun. I know I laughed quite a few times and the people around me laughed as well throughout. It was funny! (Again, in a cheesy way, but still… THAT’S OKAY!)

So, to sum up: GO SEE IT. Paleontologists and non-paleontologists alike. It’s a great and fun movie for all ages. And to a lot of my colleagues out there who don’t like the dialogue, it’s just for fun. It’s a movie. It has nothing to do with the fact that they underestimate how smart kids are in understanding a storyline with no dialogue. It is just a matter of attention span. It’s human nature to zone out from time to time. Words help keep you in check in most long stories. They didn’t just make this movie for us paleontologists to be pleased with. They made it for everyone. And pretty much everyone I talked to who is not a paleontologist and who IS a movie lover agrees with how it was done. So just embrace it and have fun with it! After all, this movie is going to influence so many more kids to get into the field and into science in general!

Because, let's face it…What better way is there to get kids interested in science at a really young age than exposing them to DINOSAURS?!

Peace out. I need to get back to writing my dissertation now. Hah!
~ Ali

Predentaries: A Poem

Sooooo, just a on a whim (and from a couple requests) I have written a little poem about the ornithischian predentary bone.

I am SO sorry about the next minute of your life that you are about to lose:
________________________________

Predentaries
A poem by Ali Nabavizadeh

The predentary bone is one to ponder;

Unique, peculiar, and full of wonder.

It sat in front of many a dinosaur jaw;

In hopes that plants are what it saw.

They came triangular, round, or square;

And no other jawbone could compare.

For it was on its own, all lonesome and sad;

Thinking of the counterpart it never had.

I cannot stress enough, however;
That this tiny bone did much to sever;

The innocent plant life that grew around.

It would chop it up before making a sound.

Stegosaurus and those duck-billed creatures;

Are only a few who shared this feature.

Ankylosaurus was also among them

And that Triceratops, with three horns; a gem.

Heterodontosaurids—they started it out,
(Or at least that’s what phylogenies seem to talk about).

Who knows, though? It’s hard to tell these days;

Because us paleontologists cant agree on what trees go—and what stays.

The function of this peculiar bone;

Has long been thought to be nipping plants on its own.

I’m willing to bet my life, however;

That this bone did much more than just sever.

It sat in the middle, proud and bold;

With two dentary bones on either side that rolled;

Around their long axes as the animal chewed;

While rotating around each predentary joint—‘Yum, food’.

The predentary bone would stay just still;

As the other bones would show off their skill;

Chewing the plants on both sides of the jaw;

While Mr. Predentary grabbed more food to gnaw.

So you see, my friends, predentaries worked wonders;

Although researching their function gives me mental blunders.

It is safe to say that, though it does have some class;

The predentary bone is just a pain in my ass.

~ Ali

SVP 2013 in L.A.!

SVP is one of my favorite times (if not THE favorite time) of the year. It’s a time when I get to be reunited with all the people who love paleozoology and comparative anatomy as much as I do, if not more so. That doesn’t happen very often for me, considering I live in Baltimore, where there are very few people interested in talking about dinosaurs and such (outside of, you know, everyone asking me questions about it, of course). I always love seeing all of my old colleagues and friends as well as meeting many more new ones. And the absolute best part of it, for me, is getting to see what type of research everyone has been up to within the past year as well as being able to get my own stuff out there and hearing everyone’s feedback on it. It’s exhilarating and rewarding at the same time.

Triceratops at L.A. County Museum

That’s the reason the world of paleontology never ceases to amaze me. There are always so many new ideas and things to see and learn; things we would never really even expect. I can’t tell you how many new species have been discovered or even how many new things we have learned about species already existing in the literature (I mean, look at Deinocheirus… WOW!) It blows my mind. It makes me truly happy that I decided to stay in this field as an undergraduate and into my graduate years. I never would have experienced any of this if I hadn’t. (And on top of everything, paleontologists KNOW how to party. But we’ll leave that as an aside.) ;)

Stegosaurus and Allosaurus at L.A. County Museum

I’ll just talk about the first day a bit, to keep this as brief as possible. (And also because it was mostly ornithischians and this is an ornithischian blog!) The first days’ morning talks were all about ontogeny, or life history and growth, in dinosaurs. It’s fascinating to me how things like histology are being used more and more to assess how these animals grew and adapted to life as they grew. Histology can teach us many things, both in extant and extinct creatures, and it is nice to see more and more people looking into it. 

Corythosaurus at L.A. County Museum

The first afternoon talks (at least the ones I went to) were all about ornithischian dinosaurs. I started off the session with my talk on ornithischian jaw mechanics and was glad to get it out of the way right from the start! I got some really good feedback on it, so I’m really glad I got to get it all out there. The rest of the talks were mostly about new taxa, phylogeny (basal Ornithischia, Ankylosauria, etc.), morphometrics (e.g., ceratopsian skulls), taphonomy (e.g., pachycephalosaur domes), and function in ankylosaurs (e.g., tail club function) and marginocephalians (e.g., the existence of nasal turbinates in pachycephalosaurs). Quite honestly, this is always my favorite day of talks given the subject matter; but, of course, I’m biased. (Ornithischia, FTW!) I was a little upset that there weren’t any ornithopod talks, but there were some good posters on the subject. Posters are always fantastic, because you get the rare opportunity to talk to people one-on-one about their research. In some ways I think it's a lot better than talks, but each has their pros and cons. That evening, everyone was invited to the L.A. County Museum of Natural History, which I had never been to before. Needless to say, I was wandering around like a little kid looking at dinosaurs for a while… :)

Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus at L.A. County Museum.

On the following days, there were talks about sauropods, theropods, and dinosaurs in general. Lots of neat stuff on phylogeny (e.g., Diplodocidae and Coelurosauria), brain endocasts (e.g., Troodon), functional morphology (e.g., myological implications in arm reduction in theropods), and many other new taxa (and new material in Deinocheirus. Again. WOW.) I also did go to a bunch of non-dinosaurian talks as well, such as some on mammalian and reptilian functional morphology, especially (for instance, jaw stuff). Last but not least, there was a series of talks on bird origins and the origins of flight, which is always fascinating to watch (…and I am SO glad I’m not involved with that stuff.) Haha!

Struthiomimus at L.A. County Museum

The other events during SVP are always a lot of fun as well. On the second night there are the student roundtables (where students are advised on different issues regarding grad school and paleontology as a whole). 

This night, incidentally, fell right onto the same night as Halloween; so, of course, LOTS of people were dressed up. It was awesome.

I dressed as a starving PhD candidate with a trench coat, cup, and a sign that read “PhD Candidate. Please help. GOD BLESS”. So, more or less, I dressed as myself. :) It was good fun. 

And I have to say my favorite part was probably the enormous pterosaur that was walking around.

On the third night there was a silent and live auction, where there was a TON of goodies and books and things being auctioned off. The live auction is always my favorite part because you get to watch people battle it out for really high priced items (as I did for an oviraptorsaur mug. I lost. Haha.)

On the final night, there was a very lovely banquet, with SVP President Cathy Forster as the emcee. 

We saw lots of fun dinosaur and paleontologist movie clips throughout, partly because of Stephen Spielberg getting the Joseph T. Gregory Award for his service to the field (new generation paleontologists being influenced by Jurassic Park, his money donations for research, etc.). 

There was a lovely tribute to those we had lost in the past year. Included among them was Dr. Farish Jenkins, Dr. Wann Langston, and, of personal influence to me, my good friend Dr. Derek Main and my esteemed mentor from my undergraduate years, Dr. Larry Martin. Larry was and is the reason I am where I am today in the field of paleontology. I owe a great deal to him and will, like all of his other students, do everything I can to carry on his legacy proudly and with dedication.

My table at the banquet with fellow students of Larry Martin's from my years at KU.

After the banquet was, of course, the after party. Music, dancing, drinks, and an all around good time. You could tell we were having a good time especially since pretty much everyone was dancing and singing along to “I am a Paleontologist” by They Might Be Giants when it came on. 

It was fantastic and because of all of this, it is safe to say that I am excited for next year’s round of SVP fun and shenanigans. Until next year!

~ Ali