Robert T. Bakker Dinosaurs Quotations

Dinosaurs are the jumper cables to the human mind. Kids can't curb their enthusiasm when they're in a hall of dinosaurs and mammoths and mammoth hunters and trilobites and giant fish that could chomp up a shark. These natural objects in motion and context make kids want to read; you can't stop them from reading and thinking.

The impact of the magazine was very strong. As I said, it portrayed dinosaurs as part of the geological history, part of the story of life on earth. It struck that paleontology was the career for me.

The public image of dinosaurs is tainted by extinction. It's hard to accept dinosaurs as a success when they are all dead. But the fact of ultimate extinction should not make us overlook the absolutely unsurpassed role dinosaurs played in the history of life.

In 1941 Richard Owen said that the dinosaurs were almost hot blooded.

Traditional dinosaur theory is full of short circuits. Like the antiquated wiring in an old house, the details sputter and burn out when specific parts are tested.

To me it seems that the warm blooded dinosaurs replaced advanced mammal ancestors that were warm blooded, also.

If we measured success by longevity, then dinosaurs must rank as the number one success story in the history of land life.

Dinosaurs are the best way to teach kids, and adults, the immensity of geologic time.