Friday, January 20, 2006

dinosaurs

I did three interviews for my freelance story today, so I'm feeling a little more on top of it. (Only a little, though - it's due dangerously soon.) I learned such interesting facts as:
1. About four dozen Tyrannosaurus rex specimens have been found, all in western North America. Those aren't necessarily complete skeletons.
2. It's pretty well settled that birds are descended from dinosaurs. Actually, I gather it's more accurate to say they *are* dinosaurs - tiny, cute, incredibly diverse feathered dinosaurs.
3. One T. rex coprolite (fossilized poop) studied by one of the researchers I talked to today had a volume of six liters. Six liters. That is a lot of poop. And that's after it's fossilized - who knows what kind of squishing went on in the past 60-odd million years.
So I don't hate my story quite as much as I did about 12 hours ago. Give me a few hours, though. I'll start hating it again.

5 comments:

MonkeyMom said...

Hey, I've had a kid and survived the "diaper years." No amount of poop, corprolite or otherwise, is going to shock me, Missy...

Talentedhands said...

Cool.

Annie said...

wow, a 6 liter turd. That would definitely clog up my new Berkeley water-saving low-volume toilet.

towwas said...

Good thing there are no T.rexes pooping in your apartment, then. I hope. If there are, I know some people who would really like to meet you.

Cheryl said...

Hmmm, interesting. I love dinosaurs, I hate birds. Birds are actually dinosaurs. So, maybe I actually like birds, but only when they are dead!