Date Born/ Age: 43.  Sept. 1958

Length:  5'11"

Weight:   185 lbs

Favorite Food:   Salmon, either broiled or as sushi

Family: One younger brother, and my girlfriend. 

Genus: Homo

Species: sapiens sapiens newjoiseyensis.

Place of Origin:  I don't remember; I was just a baby then.  Supposedly, I've 
been told, Newark, New Jersey. 

Habitat: Coastal plains and foothills of temperate Cenozoic Eastern North America; specifically, Bridgewater, New Jersey

Favorite Movie:   A tie among Forbidden Planet, Duck Soup and sex, lies and videotape.

Favorite TV Show:    Hogan's Heroes

Favorite Dinosaur:   Parasaurolophus

Favorite Sport:   Football

Exercise:   Only under duress

Hobbies:  Collecting Dinosaur Footprints.  Other than that, I have no real hobbies.  Since I enjoy what I do, I've always thought of my work as my hobby

Distinguishing Features:   A pronounced genetic predisposition to excessive anal retentiveness.  It comes in handy if, as an artist, you specialize in photo-realism. 

Motto or words of wisdom: Two quotes; one by Woody Allen - "80% of life is just showing up", and the other by Thomas Edison - "Genius is 2% inspiration, and 98% perspiration." 

Other comments: Opinionated artists tend to comment too much - Dorothy Parker once said that "Authors and actors and artists and such/Never know nothing, and never know much."  All I can say to any young and budding 
artists and scientists reading this is:  Follow your Dreams.  Be an active and confident participant in your own life.  Create.  Be the finest person you can aspire to.  Add a measure of kindness and Consideration, and in the process you will realize a destiny rare in most circles. 

Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette Dino Dish

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.

Larry Felder
Biographical Notes

Talk to just about any dinosaur paleontologist or artist, and pretty soon you will realize that a common thread seems to run through their experiences: They were all bitten by the dinosaur bug at an early age.  It's one of the many great things about this field.  People get hooked early, and from then on, they're in it for life.  So it was with me. 

    I became interested in dinosaurs pretty much from the time I first learned that there had once been such things, at most by age three or four.   It was also about the same time that I began to realize that a pencil or crayon in my hand meant a lot more to me than it did to other kids my age.   That was when I first began to draw things, and pictures of dinosaurs were among the first things I attempted. 

    During my school years, I juggled drawing dinosaurs with other subjects such as portraits, but the bug never completely left me.  When I got to high school, I found myself in a sophomore biology class taught by a guy named John Colagrande.  When I learned that this guy actually collected dinosaur footprints as a hobby, you couldn't keep me away from the nearest rock quarry, especially after I got my driver's license. 

    As it turns out, what began as a one year stay in a 10th grade class has developed into a wonderful friendship.  The seeds for our book took root among the red Triassic and Jurassic sandstones and shales of northern New Jersey, where John and, later, I spent many an afternoon collecting the fossil footprints of early dinosaurs and some of the other animals they shared their world with.  Footprints give you a different perspective on dinosaurs.  As the remains of living animals, they let you see a snapshot of a moment in the lives of these wonderful creatures, a snapshot taken when the animal was still living.  During that time, John discovered the largest group of baby dinosaur footprints ever found.  I myself found what turned out to be the oldest mammal or mammal-like reptile footprints ever discovered.  You see, anyone can make a new and exciting discovery. 

    As my art career took hold after college, I began to "come back" to dinosaurs more and more, fueled by the current wave of interest.  It was the most natural thing for me, combining interests that arose simultaneously in my youth.  Since that time, I have had work published in many books, such as The Complete Dinosaur, Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs,and When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey, magazines such as Earth, and calendars and on TV on programs such as National Geographic.  In the Presence of Dinosaurs is my first book. 

   This is the best time to be in this field.  New and amazing discoveries are being made every day.  Those of you reading this who are still in school can look ahead to learning about things that would have seemed impossible only 10 years ago like feathered dinosaurs.  And, if you're thinking that maybe you couldn't really become a scientist or dinosaur illustrator, or could never find anything of importance, just think about two young kids who had nothing to go on except a love for the most majestic animals the world has ever seen.  Remember how we started, and then think about what we did. 
If we could do it, so can you. 

Links

Books by  (sometimes with others )

Look for these books at your Public Library!

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NON-FICTION
Includes books and magazines

Books: 

When Dinosaurs Roamed New Jersey
                     by William B. Gallagher
                                 List Price: $17.95
                                           Paperback (May 1997) 
                     Rutgers Univ Press; ISBN: 0813523494 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.46 x 8.99 x 6.01 

The Complete Dinosaur
                     by James O. Farlow (Editor), M. K. Brett-Surman (Editor), Robert F. Walters
                           List Price: $37.95
                Paperback - 768 pages (April 1999) 
           Indiana Univ Pr; ISBN: 0253213134 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.58 x 9.94 x 7.00 

Magazines: 

 -  Earth, April, 1996, October, 1997, August, 1998. 
 -  Current Science, March 5, 1999. 
 -  Dinosaurus, July, 1997. 
 - New Jersey Monthly, December, 2000.