What exactly inspired you to become a paleontologist? Do you find the horrible errors in the dinosaur movies today an affront to your dedicated work? Do you have trouble trying to correct the myths?
from Honkie Tong, age 16, ?, ?, ?; July 1, 2001

TOM: In my case, I was inspired to become a paleontologist after I learned I couldn't grow up to be a dinosaur (a T. rex, to be precise)! My original interest in dinosaurs was kindled by a couple of dinosaur toys and the "How and Why Wonder Book of Dinosaurs".

While I find the errors in dinosaur movies quite annoying, they can sometimes be useful as a case study to teach how REAL paleontology is done (in terms of what is known, what can be inferred, what is pure speculation, and what is just plain wrong).

Although teaching and giving lectures and writing books does help in correcting myths, I do still find some people who stubbornly believe that anything they see in a Jurassic Park movie must be 100% true. I guess if they saw the Tomb Raider movie they probably think that Lara Croft is a real live person...

MIKE: I grew up outside of New York City so I frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History where they have the best dinosaur displays in the USA. I also grew up watching dinosaur movies on TV. By becoming a paleontologist I could become a scientist AND work with fossils AND be a detective AND have adventures in wonderful places AND time travel AND have more fun than any office worker.

I do not mind the Hollywood movies so much because I grew up knowing they were getting it all wrong. It also gives me a chance to teach people about dinosaurs and how to spot bad movies. This also gave me the opportunity to work with publishers and TV producers to make their films more accurate.