What makes dinosaurs so popular?

"Big, fierce, and extinct," suggests Stephen J. Gould. But is that all there is? Is it really just the mass of Brachiosaurus, the ferocity of Tyrannosaurus, the fact that we don't have to feel guilty about killing them off like Raphus?

Or is it the spines of Amargasaurus, the nose of Pachyrhinosaurus, the elbow of Mononykus? Is it perhaps the Darwinian assemblage of familiar and exotic traits that tumble out of every fossil bed? Or perhaps the all-too-human difficulty in reconciling the evidence of the past with the sensibilities of the Holocenic present?

The HMNH proudly presents forty-five arguments for dinosaurian popularity based on sheer goof.

Copyright © 1997-2000 Matthew Celeskey. Don't forget to point at the heads!