Dinosaur Dreaming

The questions: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Ten questions (1):
How did you get interested in dinosaurs, ancient mammals, and fossils in general?

Tom Rich: I received a copy of All about Dinosaurs for Christmas when I was 12 years old. Reading it that day, I learned that a person who studies fossils is a palaeontologist. I decided then and there to become one. The last chapter of that book was entitled "Death of the Dinosaurs". Above the chapter title was an illustration showing two small mammals eating dinosaur eggs. "Those," I thought to myself, "are the interesting animals, our ancestors when the dinosaurs were alive." That insight was the birth of an interest in those early mammals that never waned.

Pat Vickers-Rich: I was interested as a kid, but really got stuck into it when I went to the University of California at Berkeley where there was a Department and Museum of Paleontology.

Lesley Kool: I have been interested in history ever since I can remember. One of my most treasured possessions as a child growing up in England, was a "prehistoric tool" that I found while out exploring one day. At 11 years old I wanted to be an archaeologist, but when it came to applying to university (in England) I did not have Latin, so I couldn't study archaeology. That was when my family and I emigrated to Australia. I eventually discovered geology and fossils, and that was it: I knew I had found my vocation.

Nicola Barton: When I was about 7 years old I did a project on dinosaurs for school. I had a great fossil book called the Wonderful World of Fossils (which Walter has since told me is wrong) but which has some great pictures. From there I did projects on things like Pompeii and the Black Death, which led to my studying Archeaology.

Nick van Klaveren: As a child, the usual obsession by small boys for dinosaurs.

Nicole Evered: I like finding things - shells to begin with - and when dinosaur bones were found at Inverloch it was a natural progression.