When Dinosaurs Ruled the 90’s – Short and Sweet History
Think dinosaurs ruled the earth only once? Think again! Dinosaurs ruled the earth many times, even though they didn’t do it like for the first time, when they were physically here. Thank goodness otherwise we’d all be shredded into tiny little pieces. I like to believe that dinosaurs ruled the earth two more times. In the 19th Century when their fossils were discovered and studied for the first time, and in the 90’s when we couldn’t go anywhere without seeing a poster of the Jurassic Park movie, a dinosaur animation for kids and dinosaur toys. You could add a fourth one if you count the Jurassic World movies and of course all of the documentaries you can watch.
We were invaded to such an extent by dinosaurs, that even little girls (including me) would only by a Barbie doll to add a character to a story we made up where the main protagonist would be a dinosaur. Think my room was full of teddy bears, rabbits and cat plushies? Nope. I had a T-Rex, a Raptor and a Triceratops. And I was so proud…I probably had a lot because I thought they would protect me against ghosts in the night. Even better! When my parents would turn on the tv and there weren’t any dinosaurs in it, bye guys see you later!
But what does all of that mean? Well, first, that Jurassic Park and all its derived products had excellent marketing, and second of all, well…that paleontology and science is just fascinating. We may have been bashed in the head too much with all of these products, but if it led to a generation of kids being interested in a scientific field, I can only say good job.
I’m not able to write a scientific exposé on the matter. Such as, did all dinosaurs have feathers? How can we differentiate dinosaur species? What kind of organization those different species had in their own group? Etc. The only thing I know is that no, you cannot recreate a whole, full and complete T-Rex using chicken DNA. Maybe a sort of prehistoric bird (?) but a T-Rex? Yeah…I don’t think we’re there yet.
But why so much passion towards a species extinct millions of years ago? Making us fantasize about how we would live if we were in a Flintstone world? Or a sort of epic fantasy world from the 80’s where we’d be covered by only some well-placed tissues and riding on the backs of Raptors? (by the way, that would be f*****g awesome). Well, that’s just my personal opinion but, the thought kept running through my mind and I can only say this for now. Because we need to look up to something that is bigger and more powerful than us. If you can be amazed while watching cat videos and what they’re capable of doing (behind your back of course), or in awe when watching a documentary about wild animals, well you’ll be blown away by studying dinosaurs. We’ve been on top of the food chain for thousands of years, to the point where it takes a natural disaster or just witnessing it to understand that compared to those manifestations, we’re not as powerful as we seem to be. Some people can be extremely angered by that fact and others like me just think it’s good to be put in our place once in a while. We find dinosaurs amazing because we’ve been spoilt by always being first. I would also add that it may makes us want to reconnect with something we’ve put aside for too long…our natural instinct. We have to find a balance and be able to mix logic and reasoning with instinct. We admire dinosaurs (and any species of animals for that matter) because of their acute senses, which we do not have the time to exploit, even though ours are limited.
The other explanation is simply that dinosaurs are awesome! No need to look any further.
I love paleontology and it will always be a subject that I will return to.
Dinosaurs, you can’t live with them, but you can’t live without them.
So, what’s your favorite dinosaur?
