Date Born/ Age: 0

Length: 5

Weight: 1 lbs

Favorite Food: Pa

Family: V

Genus: C

Species: D

Place of Origin: E

Habitat: C

Favorite Movie:  T

Favorite TV Show: T)

Favorite Dinosaur: P

Favorite Sport: B

Exercise: D

Hobbies: F

Distinguishing Features: E

Motto or words of wisdom: 

Other comments:

Students? Pay Attention! Be sure to check out that is to say, investigate, (humph), certain other useful pieces of terminology at the 7V-WOW Archives.

My love of dinosaurs started, as it did with many others, with childhood visits to a local museum.  In my case, the “local” museum turned out to be the great American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  The fact that these wonderful and amazing animals actually existed as living beings totally staggered my young mind.  As I got to high school my thoughts, interests and energies wandered to other things, but were brought back to dinosaurs by two events; the publication of two books (Dinosaur Heresies and The Hot Blooded Dinosaurs), and the discovery of dinosaur footprints at a local quarry.  Bones and teeth are just what they seem - bones and teeth, parts of dead animals. But, the footprints I collected were the fossils of living animals.  Now, dinosaurs were not dumb, lumbering brutes, pre-destined for extinction, but warm blooded, active, agile animals - and they had lived not far from my home!  My childhood fascination was rekindled and has only continued to grow since.

After college I started teaching high school science and soon thereafter encountered a student named Larry Felder.  Here was someone whose interests were as diversified and eclectic as mine - and included dinosaurs.  Since then I have spent many happy hours in the field, with Larry and other friends, collecting fossils or holding impromptu discussions over dinner on a variety of topics usually centered around dinosaurs - recent discoveries, exhibitions, extinction theories and behavior.  It soon became apparent that most of the most of the evidence being put forth to support a particular view during these discussions was derived from observing some living animal with a similar skeleton, skull, or tooth, or other characteristic.  It was as a result of this that the words of the great geologist Charles Lyell came to mind; “The present is the key to the past.” 

Although he wa s speaking of geologic processes in general, Larry and I realized Lyell’s comment was an important factor when trying to deduce, determine or derive the behavior of extinct animals like dinosaurs.  Mother Nature constantly re-invents the wheel. Features such as wings, fangs and stereoscopic vision have occurred overand over againin many different groups of animals throughout time.  We decided that sometimes watching the nearest camel, or elephant, or rhinoceros could tell volumes about the movement and behavior of dinosaurs such as ornithopds, sauropods and ceratopsids, while ostriches and albatrosses had much to tell about coelurosaurs and pterosaurs.  It got to the point where neither of us could hardly watch a nature video, or read an article in a nature magazine, or see a wildlife photo, or even watch a bird at a feeder without relating it in some way to a dinosaur or other prehistoric animal.  That is when the idea of writing a book occurred to us.

We both were (and are) avid collectors of dinosaur books, and we realized two things they all had in common; first, most were all pretty much the same (Mantell, Marsh, Cope, Ornithischian, Saurischian, iridium layer, K/T boundary, and plenty of recycled paintings), and second, not one solely or wholly treated dinosaurs as the vibrant, living, breathing wildlife they once were.

So, we wrote it. 

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NON-FICTION 

In the Presence of Dinosaurs
                     by John Colagrande, Larry Felder (Illustrator), Jack Horner
                                    List Price: $34.95
                                 Hardcover - 189 pages (October 2000) 
           Time Life; ISBN: 0737000899 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.90 x 12.28 x 9.86