Dinofest Data Points

[MKIRKALDY <MKIRKALDY@aol.com>]

Some observations from 4 days at Dinofest and the symposium:

The party at Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger's home/studio was a
fine way to kick off the activities.  They had quite a crowd there, with
catered food and a band.  The evening was very mild, so the attendees
could drift inside or outside.  It was great to meet Steve (Armadillo
with a Mask) and Mike Keesey of this list.  Thanks to Steve for being
a gracious dance partner for me during the medley of very danceable
tunes, which progressed into a line dance which also included Rich
Hengst.

Tom Holtz was showing off his new book (The World of James Gurney), 
which everyone should buy right away.  He only had a few copies 
and it was not being sold at Dinofest, although that would have been 
an opportunity for big sales.

As Ralph Miller pointed out, Alan Brush made some good observations
during his speech (Ralph was sitting next to me and taking notes).  

The speeches were plagued by equipment problems, and the slide
projectors went dead or dying duirng Greg Paul, John Ruben and Jim
Farlow's speeches, of those that I saw.  Sometimes the slides had
to be shown from the spare projector on the other side of the room,
giving the images a distorted look, and the speakers couldn't see what
they were trying to talk about.  This hurt the momentum of the speeches
considerably.

During the dinosaur respiration and feathered sessions, speakers
tried to control their reactions to the others' contentions, sometimes
not too successfully.   The _Sinosauropteryx_ photo was shown a
number of times, variously interpreted as having a diaphragm or 
a break in the slab at that point which had been cemented in.  This
and the counter slab were undoubtedly the most shown images at
Dinofest.  

Nicholas Geist's contention that _Sinosauropteryx_ had collagen
fibers rather than the proto-feathers which Phil Currie had so 
convincingly talked about previously met with several interesting 
comments.  It had been presented as a null hypothesis, and Kevin 
Padian succinctly stated that it should have been presented as an 
alternative hypothesis.  Brian Cooley asked how a dissected savannah
monitor lizard could be compared to a fossilized specimen of a
supposed feathered dinosaur.  Larry Martin was answering most of
the questions by this point.

Paul Sereno gave a very lively talk on whether or not a dinosaur
could dribble a basketball, given the mobility of the manus.  The answer
was no, unless the arms could be somehow switched.  He also didn't
think that dinosaurs came down from the trees.

Bob Bakker's speech on carcass dismemberment was a good one,
with a funny comment that Skrepnick should illustrate a stegosaur
with a prehensile tail. 

Dinofest itself was crowded and noisy, rather carnival-like.  It was
hard to get near the exhibits without being jostled by the folks who
were just there to see the dinos move.  Long lines at the food stands.
The symposium furnished snacks and soft drinks/coffee at break times,
which was a good alternative to going out into the masses for a
possible trampling event.  There was a lot going on simultaneously
on the exhibit floor, so one had to be ready for an assault on the
senses.  Sunday was particularly crowded.  

A few of us, through tenaciousness on my part, did manage to
see the exhibit after hours to measure and photograph.  There is
a story behind this, with diplomacy and negotiation being used to
great effect.

Despite a cold, Tom Holtz' speech was very good, nicely dismissing
arguments against T. rex being a predator.  T. rex  was well within 
accepted ranges in all categories for a predator.   

As Ralph wrote, it was hard to attend all of the interesting talks,
since some overlapped and some ran a little over their time slots.
The artists' roundtable was a source of good information on 
methodology.  There was usually adequate seating in even the
most popular talks, so that wasn't a problem.  A couple of the
rooms were meat-locker cold, though, and even the speakers
complained.

The Stephen J. Gould speech, inexplicably, was about invertebrates!
I believe he said the word dinosaur at the first and last, but between
those were a full house of Biology 101 slides.  

Dinofeast was a standup event, with waiters strolling around with
trays of canapes and stations set up with the foods of the paleo
past.  Foods weren't labeled, so it was hard to tell what one was
eating.  This event was open to the public, and for $60 they could
stand along side real paleontologists and watch them eat and migrate
to the bar.

On Sunday afternoon, Judy Horan, Michael Skrepnick and I visited
the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the collections.  Fascinating
to tour art exhibits with an artist and to hear his comments.  

Dinofest may be in St. Louis in 2000--negotiations are underway.  It
certainly looked like it was drawing record crowds in Philadelphia,
so it should be an event which is highly sought after.  Congratulations
and thanks to Don Wolberg for his hard work in bringing Dinofest
and the Scientific Symposium to a successful reality.  I took pictures
of as much of the activities as I could manage, with particular emphasis
on list members, so perhaps there will be a web site for the Dino List
Invades Dinofest.
 
Mary
mkirkaldy@aol.com