Robert T. Bakker

Robert T. "Bob" Bakker ( born March 24, 1945 in Ridgewood, Bergen County, New Jersey) is an American paleontologist and painter in the field of dinosaurs.

Life

As fourth graders read Bakker 1955 an article about " mysterious beasts " called dinosaurs. This article and its dramatic illustrations handcuffed the 10 -year-old and they fascinated him so that he was already determined to become a dinosaur expert. He studied from 1968 under the famous paleontologist John Ostrom Harold ( 1928-2005 ) at Yale University and received his Ph.D. in 1971 phil. degree of Paleontology at Harvard University. Since then taught Bakker to 1984 as a professor of anatomy at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he headed the research department. He is also a guest lecturer at several universities in Wyoming and Colorado. He was an assistant curator at the Tate Geological Museum of Casper College in Wyoming. He is curator of paleontology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Research

Bakker revolutionized the late 1960s, the representation of dinosaurs in his drawings as upright animals with abstehendem tail ( for balance). Various assumptions about the characteristics and ways of life of these creatures brought him recognition. Ostrom and Bakker put together on the theory that dinosaurs should not have been a cold-blooded dinosaurs, but rather warm-blooded relatives of birds, each well adapted to their environment, very intelligent and very social. First one was the skeptical, but Ostrom confirmed this thesis with meaningful evidence, and soon graduated to her to. Bakker did not miss an opportunity to revise previous findings about the interesting world of prehistoric life on the basis of research findings. In his work The dinosaur heresies ( 1986-93 ) he presented the public his " hot blood " theory, and immediately changed the presentation in the field of dinosaur accordingly: museums throughout the country, for example, dismantled decades-old dinosaur skeletons and built new exhibits that could appear in a new light the old bones. Until then, it was still of the opinion that the locomotion of the dinosaurs should be quite cumbersome and the big cock was afterwards towed; Now however, they have the tail horizontally and suddenly came so much faster and quite nimbly forward, takes just as Bakker's thesis. Bakker has also presented evidence that Allosaurier parental care have adopted it for their offspring.

He was skilled in the field of behavioral research of the dinosaurs - the meat, but also of the herbivorous. He likes discussed and commented on the relationships of prehistoric life. Bakker always wanted to immerse themselves in the world of dinosaurs, studying not only lifeless museum pieces. He wanted to present dinosaurs real, intellectually visit the era of the law, and so he tried to make the visitors to its exhibition, the kingdom of the dinosaurs alive.

Bakker became the first of that dinosaur feathers should have had a point of view that could be repeatedly demonstrated spectacularly in the last decade very well-preserved fossil finds from China.

Despite his success Bakker is still struggling against traditional ways of thinking about the lives of dinosaurs.

Others

Bakker hardly sees a contradiction between religion and science, and is a member of the Pentecostal movement.

He comes with a great deal of enthusiasm from creating new works and to present themselves in TV shows. He has written scholarly works, such as Raptor Red ( 1995-99 ), Raptor Pack ( 2003) and maximum triceratops (2004 ) and others He also likes to work together with school children and students, trying to inspire others through discussion and impromptu illustrations for prehistoric life. With the filming of the movie Jurassic Park, he was a scientific consultant.

Even today derives Bakker excavations of fossils in his home state of Wyoming.

He introduced the genera Chassternbergia, Denversaurus, Nanotyrannus (1988 ), Drinker (1990) and Edmarka (1992).

Works

• The dinosaur heresies. Morrow, Zebra, Penguin, Longman, " Scientific & Technical " & Kensington, New York, London, Harlow 1986-93. (including autobiography) ISBN 0-688-04287-2, ISBN 0-8217-5608-7, ISBN 0-14-010055-5, ISBN 0-14-015792-1, ISBN 0-582-00420-9, ISBN 0-8217-2859-8.
• Raptor red. Bantam & Goldmann, New York, London, Milan, Munich 1995-99. ISBN 0-553-10124-2, ISBN 0-553-57561-9, ISBN 0-553-50369-3, ISBN 0-593-03919- X, ISBN 3-442-41595-0.
• The great dinosaur debate. Citadel, New York 2001, ISBN 0-8065-2260-7.
• Raptor pack. Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 0-375-82303-4, ISBN 0-375-92303-9.
• Maximum triceratops. Random House, New York 2004, ISBN 0-375-82304-2, ISBN 0-375-92304-7.
• Dactyls! Random House, New York 2005, ISBN 0-375-83013-8, ISBN 0-375-93013-2.
• Dinosaurs! Random House, New York 2005, ISBN 0 - 375-83141 -X, ISBN 0-375-93141-4.