The transformation of the dinosaur’s public image has been going on for a decade, but finally, adults are coming to terms with the fact these were not slow, plodding creatures of dubious intellect, waiting only for the final blows toward extinction.
Instead, dinosaurs are now understood as a hugely diverse family, eminently adaptable, sometimes even lissome and quick. Many, we’re told, were also good and caring parents.
Reasons for the new dinosaur image are many. It was given much currency, for example, in the 1993 movie blockbuster “Jurassic Park.” And while new views of paleontology have much to do with the advance of science, they may also have something to do with what we want to believe.
This is something to think about in the newest permanent exhibit at the Field Museum, entitled “DNA to Dinosaurs.”
Of course, the most prominent thing about dinosaurs in the 1990s is that interest in them is dominated by children. “Dinosaurs are something that kids can master and their parents typically can’t,” said Peter Laraba, a staff member in the museum’s department of education, by way of explanation.
The implication is that paleontological science is kid-driven, a conclusion that’s not far from the truth. While the people who study dinosaurs are scientists of high order, there’s a certain simplicity to their conclusions that look like answers to questions children might ask. For example, what did they eat?
To this, the answer is fully explored. Some ate meat, others plants. None ate both. We know this because of dinosaur teeth. Albertosaurus, for example, had some 40 teeth, and they were sharp and curved in a manner suited to quick devouring.
While children are excellent on facts about dinosaurs, adults sometimes indulge in the riskier ground of interpreting what they mean. There is, for example, the supposed nobility of Apatosaurus, formerly known as Brontosaurus.
Apatosaurus lived the life of a vegetarian, as proved by examination, once again, of the teeth: less like knives and more like tines of a rake, pulling vegetation off the high branches of Jurassic Age trees.
Positioning vegetarians as a higher life form remains a temptation, even though the supposedly vicious Albertosaurus came millions of years after the gentle Apatosaurus.
Even the image T Rex and Albertosaurus is undergoing cautious change. As Laraba explains it, there’s a view among scientists that these carnivores were not true killers but really scavengers.
Reconstructing lifestyles is a murky occupation, and all dinosaur theories are subject to change. The question is why do they change? The answer seems to have much to do with popular preference.
Throughout the field of paleontology, for instance, the “impact theory” of a great asteroid collision, a possible explanation of dinosaur extinction, is now being rethought. Some say it was popular when our own fears of a “nuclear winter” were rampant. Now, new ideas that many dinosaurs were good parents, fast runners and less predatory may sound more like what we want to hear rather than absolute unassailable fact.
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“DNA to Dinosaurs” is a new permanent exhibit at the Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive. The exhibit provides a view of the history of life from Earth’s beginning 3.5 billion years ago through the age of dinosaurs. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Museum admission is $5, $3 for children (3-17) and senior citizens. Maximum charge for families (parents and children) is $16. For information call 312-922-9410.
