Friendly Friday

I wasn't sure what to talk about today so I thought I would talk a little about myself. If you enjoy this, I might make it a weekly thing.

I always wanted to be a writer. I used to make up stories in my head all the time. My mom used to give my sister and me paper and pencils and told us to write. It's no surprise that we both want to be authors.

Anyhow, my mom, ever practical, told us that we would have to do something else in order to support ourselves until our writing careers took off. After first, I didn't want to hear it, but she did have a point. So I started to brainstorm.

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Shortly thereafter, I watched Jurassic Park and decided that I would be a paleontologist to support my writing career. Getting paid to dig up bones, how cool is that? Sign me up! My aunt even bought me paleontologist Barbie (which I still have, btw)

When I informed my mom, she sighed. Apparently paleontologists are also poor and have to beg for grants in order to dig.

That was disappointing.

I still read up a lot on dinosaurs. Even back then I enjoyed doing research.

If you like dinosaurs, you have to read the book Raptor Red. It's fantastic. I've read it countless times. It's told from the POV of a raptor!

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I still read up on dinosaurs when I get the chance. Earlier this week, there was an article on cnn about Tyrannosaurus Rex. Appareantely there is evidence that T-Rexes were such scavengers that they would eat any dead dino, even dead T-Rexes! Those cannibals!

A couple of months ago, I watched a show about dinosaurs and theories about their extinction. (If you haven't already guessed, I'm a huge nerd, lol) I never knew what to think of the whole meteorite/extinction theory prior to watching the show and now I'm more certain that the meteorite may have killed some dinosaurs, but that they were already dying out before the large rock hit.

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There were many reasons why they became extinct. First, on Pangaea, there were a lot more volcanoes than there are now. And there were huge eruptions that would kill most of the vegatation in the region. This would weaken the dinosaurs in the area. Gradually, the eruptions grew closer together so that the earth didn't have a chance to regrow all of the vegetation and reset itself before another one hit. This contributed to the dinosaurs dying.

Also, there is evidence that the water level greatly receded before the dinosaurs died out. This revealed new land bridges. Dinosaurs began to migrate to new parts of pangaea and brought with them germs and diseases that other dinosaurs weren't immune to. This also greatly reduced the number of dinosaurs.

Finally, the meteorite hit and killed what few remaining dinosaurs there were. If an asteroid alone had killed the dinosaurs, there would be a massive amount of dinosaur bones in that rock layer in the soil. There are very few dinosaur bones to be found in the ashes though.

So even though I never did become a paleontologist, I still developed a love for the giant lizards. And I still would love to go out on a dig . Anyone want to join me?

Oh, and if you get the chance, visit the Author Hotspot. I'm talking about Mertales. I would love it if you stopped by!