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So much keeps getting discovered about dinosaurs! If you want to catch up on the last 20 years of research, particularly on the feathered front, I recommend thi

So much keeps getting discovered about dinosaurs! If you want to catch up on the last 20 years of research, particularly on the feathered front, I recommend this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23394100-flying-dinosaurs https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23394100-flying-dinosaur... (As the mum of a 5 yr old and 3 yr old, I feel obligated to become an expert on all things dinosaur.)

temp0826 1y ago
> (As the mum of a 5 yr old and 3 yr old, I feel obligated to become an expert on all things dinosaur.) As an uncle to an obsessed 3 year old I concur! My jaw dropped when he rattled off "pachycephalosaurus" and I had to look it up to confirm (he might have added a syllable or two but that's ok)
- pamelafox 1y ago
  There's a pachycephalosaurus in this book! https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1646380428/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1646380428/ (I think I'm actually the obsessed one, to be honest, but I like to blame my children for my own obsessions)
  - temp0826 1y ago
    Ooo I'll have to check with his mother if he has it already thanks!
- marai2 1y ago
  Also as an uncle to a 3 year old, I could not believe a 3 year old could know the names and pronunciations! of 2x far more dinosaurs than me!
  - saalweachter 1y ago
    I feel like a 3 year old doesn't know yet which words they're supposed to know or which words are hard to pronounce yet, being equally baffled by words like "spaghetti".
    - IAmBroom 1y ago
      Pasghetti is too a word!
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  I'm a historical reenactor, and I've done educational bits for elementary schoolkids. Every Damn Time: A teacher in the gathering will ask a question... and before we can answer, one of their students does. Correctly. Or: "Why isn't (some tiny detail) correct?"
jxjnskkzxxhx 1y ago
Can this book be trusted? I don't think the author is an expert...
- wil421 1y ago
  A lot of people’s assumptions about Dinosaurs is from Jurassic Park. A BBC Science Correspondent is probably a lot better.
- graemep 1y ago
  A good writer who can put together stuff, interview different experts, etc. can put together something very good. I can think of plenty of books like that. They cite research and quote experts. It has some advantages over a book written by a single expert: most importantly, it can cover multiple points of view and cover controversies more impartially. One of the problems with expert views is that they often fail to distinguish between what is well proven, what is a current consensus because its a best guess, and what is a personal opinion/pet theory.
  - jxjnskkzxxhx 1y ago
    > One of the problems with expert views is that they often fail to distinguish between what is well proven, what is a current consensus because its a best guess, and what is a personal opinion/pet theory. I was in the academia for some years and didn't find in my field any expert that was incapable of distinguishing well proven Vs opinion. That might be the defining characteristic of an "expert". Maybe we just have different definitions of expert? To you and expert is someone who just defends his pet theory, and to me an expert is the same as the rest of the scientific world understands it. Confusing someone whose job is to push their pet theory with an expert makes you sound like you've had very little exposure to science.
    - ralusek 1y ago
      To play devil's advocate, I think there is some merit to their point. A common criticism against modern academia is that so much of the low hanging fruit has been addressed, that to be an expert working on the actual frontier means your "leaf node" of focus/progress is so so specific, that it's not at all uncommon to be somewhat blinded to the broader consensus/lower resolution version of the greater tree of knowledge. The experts of the kind to which you're presumably referring, who are much more tapped in to the whole state of a broad branch of knowledge, often end up being more "science communicators" than people on the frontier of research. The thing is, though, that these "science communicators" often end up being (or start off being) more akin to a papers/Wikipedia jockey than a credentialed academic actively working in the field. So in that sense, someone who "knows a lot about dinosaurs and can effectively write about them as the broader field currently perceives them" need not necessarily be a credentialed expert.
bobxmax 1y ago
The fascination between young boys and dinosaurs must be studied. There's something imprinted in the DNA for it to be so common lol.
- danielbln 1y ago
  Not just boys, my 5yo girl is fascinated by them.
- world2vec 1y ago
  Quite easy explanation: dinosaurs are super awesome.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y ago
  Boys yearn for power - Giant monsters, fast cars, off-highway trucks, guns, dirt bikes and skateboards and anything that jumps, fighter jets with missiles, martial arts, whistling into a telephone to get free calls... (Girls surely do too, but I cannot attest to that)
- jewayne 1y ago
  I'm pretty sure there's already a popular hypothesis that relates to evolutionary biology, but I don't know the name of it. Essentially, as hunter-gatherers every group of humans needed one or more experts on the local megafauna, so virtually all of us have some degree of fascination with big animals baked in, but some have more than others. I've also heard the same hypothesis used to express young boys' obsessions with trucks and trains.
  - euroderf 1y ago
    My young lad went thru a brief phase where we went thru picture books of common vehicles and for page after page, he pointed at every wheel of every vehicle and had me name it. "Wheel." "Wheel." "Wheel." ... Probably a developmental phase somehow connected to quadrupeds. Large object of interest. Four supporting thingies.
- Viliam1234 1y ago
  In the ancient times, those who didn't pay enough attentions to dinosaurs in their childhood did not grow old enough to reproduce.

temp0826 1y ago

> (As the mum of a 5 yr old and 3 yr old, I feel obligated to become an expert on all things dinosaur.) As an uncle to an obsessed 3 year old I concur! My jaw dropped when he rattled off "pachycephalosaurus" and I had to look it up to confirm (he might have added a syllable or two but that's ok)

pamelafox 1y ago
There's a pachycephalosaurus in this book! https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1646380428/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1646380428/ (I think I'm actually the obsessed one, to be honest, but I like to blame my children for my own obsessions)
- temp0826 1y ago
  Ooo I'll have to check with his mother if he has it already thanks!
marai2 1y ago
Also as an uncle to a 3 year old, I could not believe a 3 year old could know the names and pronunciations! of 2x far more dinosaurs than me!
- saalweachter 1y ago
  I feel like a 3 year old doesn't know yet which words they're supposed to know or which words are hard to pronounce yet, being equally baffled by words like "spaghetti".
  - IAmBroom 1y ago
    Pasghetti is too a word!
IAmBroom 1y ago
I'm a historical reenactor, and I've done educational bits for elementary schoolkids. Every Damn Time: A teacher in the gathering will ask a question... and before we can answer, one of their students does. Correctly. Or: "Why isn't (some tiny detail) correct?"

jxjnskkzxxhx 1y ago

Can this book be trusted? I don't think the author is an expert...

wil421 1y ago
A lot of people’s assumptions about Dinosaurs is from Jurassic Park. A BBC Science Correspondent is probably a lot better.
graemep 1y ago
A good writer who can put together stuff, interview different experts, etc. can put together something very good. I can think of plenty of books like that. They cite research and quote experts. It has some advantages over a book written by a single expert: most importantly, it can cover multiple points of view and cover controversies more impartially. One of the problems with expert views is that they often fail to distinguish between what is well proven, what is a current consensus because its a best guess, and what is a personal opinion/pet theory.
- jxjnskkzxxhx 1y ago
  > One of the problems with expert views is that they often fail to distinguish between what is well proven, what is a current consensus because its a best guess, and what is a personal opinion/pet theory. I was in the academia for some years and didn't find in my field any expert that was incapable of distinguishing well proven Vs opinion. That might be the defining characteristic of an "expert". Maybe we just have different definitions of expert? To you and expert is someone who just defends his pet theory, and to me an expert is the same as the rest of the scientific world understands it. Confusing someone whose job is to push their pet theory with an expert makes you sound like you've had very little exposure to science.
  - ralusek 1y ago
    To play devil's advocate, I think there is some merit to their point. A common criticism against modern academia is that so much of the low hanging fruit has been addressed, that to be an expert working on the actual frontier means your "leaf node" of focus/progress is so so specific, that it's not at all uncommon to be somewhat blinded to the broader consensus/lower resolution version of the greater tree of knowledge. The experts of the kind to which you're presumably referring, who are much more tapped in to the whole state of a broad branch of knowledge, often end up being more "science communicators" than people on the frontier of research. The thing is, though, that these "science communicators" often end up being (or start off being) more akin to a papers/Wikipedia jockey than a credentialed academic actively working in the field. So in that sense, someone who "knows a lot about dinosaurs and can effectively write about them as the broader field currently perceives them" need not necessarily be a credentialed expert.

bobxmax 1y ago

The fascination between young boys and dinosaurs must be studied. There's something imprinted in the DNA for it to be so common lol.

danielbln 1y ago
Not just boys, my 5yo girl is fascinated by them.
world2vec 1y ago
Quite easy explanation: dinosaurs are super awesome.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 1y ago
Boys yearn for power - Giant monsters, fast cars, off-highway trucks, guns, dirt bikes and skateboards and anything that jumps, fighter jets with missiles, martial arts, whistling into a telephone to get free calls... (Girls surely do too, but I cannot attest to that)
jewayne 1y ago
I'm pretty sure there's already a popular hypothesis that relates to evolutionary biology, but I don't know the name of it. Essentially, as hunter-gatherers every group of humans needed one or more experts on the local megafauna, so virtually all of us have some degree of fascination with big animals baked in, but some have more than others. I've also heard the same hypothesis used to express young boys' obsessions with trucks and trains.
- euroderf 1y ago
  My young lad went thru a brief phase where we went thru picture books of common vehicles and for page after page, he pointed at every wheel of every vehicle and had me name it. "Wheel." "Wheel." "Wheel." ... Probably a developmental phase somehow connected to quadrupeds. Large object of interest. Four supporting thingies.
Viliam1234 1y ago
In the ancient times, those who didn't pay enough attentions to dinosaurs in their childhood did not grow old enough to reproduce.