The really BIG dinosaur misconception

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

Greetings,

I'm just back from my bienneial excursion to Los Islas Encantadas (aka the 
Galapagos), where I had the pleasure to see one of three
known naturally occurring hybrids of _Conolophus subcristatus_ and 
_Amblyrhynchus cristatus_ (aka the land and marine iguanas) and
saw _Conolophus pallidus_ (the Santa Fe land iguana), among a lot of other 
stuff.

I've been catching up on the DML info, and there is a MAJOR dinosaur 
misconception that hasn't been touched. This is one that is
held not only by the general public, but also non-paleontologists scientists, 
TV producers, etc.:

* Many Mesozoic dinosaur species are known from statistcially-signficant 
numbers, with complete skeletons of both identifiable
sexes, growth series, and eggs (including embryos).
(And most especially the famous species!!)

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796