SciShow Talk Show: Jack Horner Meets a Dinosaur

TL;DR

Jack Horner, a legendary paleontologist, discusses his career and discoveries in paleontology, including finding dinosaur bones and eggs, and his work on creating a dinosaur.

Transcript

hello and welcome to scishow talk show it's that day on scishow where we talk to interesting people about interesting things and today we have an amazingly interesting person this is Jack Horner who is discoverer of several species of dinosaurs professor at Montana State University and general a bit of a legendary paleontologist groaned a little bi... Read More

Key Insights

• 🥺 Jack Horner's early interest in paleontology led him to become a successful paleontologist, despite struggling with dyslexia and poor grades.
• 🦕 The discovery of a dinosaur egg and baby dinosaurs helped solidify the relationship between birds and dinosaurs in the public's understanding.
• 🦕 Horner's quest to make a dinosaur focuses on identifying and activating ancestral genes in birds to recreate dinosaur-like features.
• 💨 Birds have evolved from dinosaurs and share many characteristics, including their hunting behaviors and one-way breathing system.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Jack Horner's interest in dinosaurs begin?

Horner was puzzled by the quality of dinosaur fossils in Montana compared to those in Canada, which led him to do a science project on dinosaurs during his senior year of high school.

Q: How did Jack Horner manage to become a paleontologist despite his poor grades?

Horner's advisor recognized his passion for studying fossils and wrote letters to get him back into school. He flunked out multiple times but eventually took and passed all the required paleontology classes.

Q: What important discoveries did Jack Horner make in paleontology?

Horner found the first dinosaur egg in the Western Hemisphere and later excavated baby dinosaurs, which supported the hypothesis that birds and dinosaurs are related.

Q: How did Jack Horner try to create a dinosaur?

Horner and his team tried to extract DNA from a T-Rex but realized that obtaining enough DNA to clone a dinosaur was unlikely. Instead, they focused on identifying ancestral genes in birds and finding ways to turn them back on.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Jack Horner discovered several species of dinosaurs and is a professor at Montana State University.

• He talks about his early interest in dinosaurs and how he became a paleontologist despite his struggles with dyslexia and poor grades.

• Horner found the first dinosaur egg in the Western Hemisphere, which helped bolster the idea of birds and dinosaurs being related.

• He discusses his quest to make a dinosaur by identifying and turning on ancestral genes in birds.