So I decided to breathe some new life into my long neglected blogger. How appropriate it is then to start with this illustration of one of the earliest dinosaurs, Plateosaurus quenstedti, and also the only complete dinosaur at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ). I remember the first time I visited the MCZ back in 2006 when I snuck up at the end of the year to attend Dr. Farish A. Jenkins Jr. lecture on Tiktaalik roseae.Dinosaurs have long held a special place in my heart despite how cliche that sounds. I think it has to do with the fact these magnificent creatures once ruled our planet for a staggering ~160 million years. It always amuses me when some religious fanatic denounces evolution and places "man" on a pedestal such that the only reason for our existence is because of some omnipresent divine being. I'll end with this quote,
"Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." Charles Darwin
Top: (c) Vincent J Cheng
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