When Dinosaurs Stole My Heart

I tilted my head back as far as I could. There, towering above me, was the terrifying skull of Tyrannosaurus Rex. A five foot tall styrofoam skeleton of the most feared dinosaur ever to walk the Earth, standing there in front of me. It was Christmas and I was the luckiest kid alive.

I quickly disassembled the towering predator and took him to the basement where my laboratory was housed. Finding just the right spot, I began to reassemble the giant beast, bone by bone. The styrofoam squeaked as I pushed each piece into its proper place. A love affair was born.

Dinosaurs find their way into every child's imagination at some point in their young lives. For us, they were alive and dominating the earth at every Sinclair gas station.

Sinclair Oil Company was founded in 1916 by Harry F. Sinclair. They began using "Dino" in their marketing and trademarked the now famous green Brontosaurus in 1932. I attribute my career as a scientist to this brilliant campaign. Did they ever imagine shaping the lives of children in this way?

Sinclair replica, Jackson County, Michigan.

A few years ago I was driving in the countryside of Jackson County and came upon a rebuilt Sinclair gas station, complete with Dino in the yard. Not only that, they even had a Petticoat Junction wooden water tower in their back yard! These were my kind of folks. Seeing the familiar symbols of my childhood brought back fond memories of my fascination with dinosaurs.

I read as many books about these giant reptiles as I could. My favorite was the one I got for free at the Sinclair gas station, called "The Exciting World of Dinosaurs". Pages and pages of beautiful color illustrations showing the large reptiles in their natural settings. I would go to sleep at night and dream of the Triceratops battling it out with my T. Rex skeleton.

It blows my mind now when I think about the 45 page report I meticulously researched and wrote on my favorite animals. I would sit at my little desk, with the giant T. Rex skeleton looking down at me, and carefully move my No. 2 pencil within the wide lines of the notebook paper. It is true, I copied and plagiarized from the many dinosaur books I had stacked up on my desk. But hey, I was only a kindergartener. I didn't know about such things back then.

Soon I discovered models, those plastic forms that were tentatively attached to a thin plastic frame. You would twist each part to break it free, then line up all the pieces in a row.  Each piece had little plastic pegs or small holes that the pegs would fit into. Put a dab of that wonderful smelling glue on a peg and press the pieces together for 30 seconds. Soon, the model would become a Diplodocus or a Stegosaurus and take its place beside the giant T. Rex. My basement laboratory was better than the Smithsonian.

Over time, my love affair with dinosaurs waned and I turned my attention to other things. But they still hold a special place in my heart. Isn't it something that these wonderful creatures who went extinct nearly 66 million years ago defined the course of my professional life? Here I am, almost 50 years later, an endangered species biologist working to save other wonderful creatures from extinction.

Fascinating.