Oh, don’t get me started!
I feel very poignant and wistful about the dodo bird and the California Mega Fauna I just missed (10-15 k too late). Oh my, saber tooths, dire wolves, aqua hippos, camels, elephants, and so, so much more!,
Gosh… But, I became fascinated with dinosaurs even way back in the 50s. I well remember the illustrations in my favorite dinosaur book and am still struck by how inaccurate those paintings were! Imagine how tickled I am when I go into a toy store or model store now and see all the dinosaur models with colors… and FEATHERS! (For kids, I love the book, “Boy, Were We Wrong” and they love it, too.)
After I retired, I taught natural science enrichment and/or summer camps to kids at a local nature center. My favorite course was dinosaurs and fossils. So many amazing aspects of science to introduce!
As for a favorite species (so hard to choose), I guess I would have to say the Parasaurolophus, with that big arching “horn” over it’s head. (Shout out to Jack Horner for his work with duck-billed dinosaurs and teaching us about the Maiasaura :).
For the parasaurolophus, I liked to experiment the with sounds they might have made. I had a differently sized “Glove-o-phones” that I held over my head and trumpeted (“Does it sound like this? Or like this? Or, what sound do YOU think it made?”). In summer camp, we had enough time for each kid to make their own “parasauralophus call”.
SO ~ MUCH ~ FUN!