Friday, October 22, 2010

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!

12 comments:

Golden Eagle said...

I love dinosaurs. :) I never really found the idea of digging up bones the most attractive, but I do like trying to puzzle out their history and imagining what they looked like.

Stina said...

My daughter (6 yo) wants to be a veterinarian & a paleontologist. :)

Guess she'll be in school for a while.

S.A. Larsenッ said...

Oh, I love dinosaurs and am a major history buff!! My seventeen year old and I were watching something last night that had to do with the pyramids and UFOs. We couldn't move. He wants to go into Anthropology. Yeah, he wants to be poor too. Hah.

Jayne said...

I am impressed that you wanted to be a writer or a paleontologist! As a very small kiddie I wanted to be a writer or a cat. I can still here the sigh my mum made... :)

Bast said...

I was always really into dinosaurs too. It kinda faded for me though. Good to learn more about you.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

You can always write about them!

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I always love hearing people's writing backgrounds. Thanks for sharing this :)

Colene Murphy said...

really neat! Paleontologist would be so cool!!

PK HREZO said...

I always wanted to be an archaeoligist... was a total Indiana Jones wannabe. Anything old with a story behind it...I love it!
yeah, what happened to those giant lizards?? I actually believe that God saw they didn't belong on Earth with man and rendered them extinct. i know that doesn't sit well with some. But it makes the most sense to me, since he created them in the first place. :)

Talli Roland said...

Interesting! I must say, I'm not a massive dinosaur person, but I do love reading history.

Have a great weekend!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

You could always still do it one day.

Southpaw said...

Oh me too! Paleontologist! I research them and drew them constatnly.