World-renowned paleontologist Jack Horner joins Ask The Experts to talk about what it was really like when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
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00:00Welcome to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm your host, Jeff Cornish. We go beyond
00:16the forecast to give you the how and why on all of the cool and interesting things you've
00:21wondered about and wanted to ask about in weather, space, and science. And today we're
00:26going to take you way back long before any of us were around when dinosaurs ruled the
00:30Earth as we explore these prehistoric creatures from the Tyrannosaurus rex to the Triceratops
00:37and what their existence looked like way back then. Joining us as our expert to break it
00:42all down is world-renowned paleontologist Jack Horner. Jack, it's an honor to speak
00:48with you. You have more than 50 years in the field and you are acclaimed for much of your
00:52field work and research on dinosaur growth and behaviors, discovered the first dinosaur
00:57nesting ground in the world, and served as the technical advisor on several of the Jurassic
01:03Park films. You even have four dinosaurs named after you. That's very exciting, Jack. So
01:08thanks so much for making time for us. You're very welcome. Well, there aren't many people
01:13that have dinosaurs named after them. So we do want to get right to this. What exactly
01:17is paleontology and how did you turn this into a career?
01:22Well, paleontology is the study of extinct life, basically. Animals, plants, basically
01:34all life forms that were here and primarily all gone now. Sort of historical geology.
01:45And if we go back millions of years now, what impact did weather have? We're always looking
01:50for the weather connection here at AccuWeather. What impact did weather have on everyday life
01:54of dinosaurs when they were roaming the Earth?
01:56Well, it would have been basically the same sort of thing that we have to endure here,
02:04except the weather was a little better there. The world was ice-free most of the time the
02:12dinosaurs were roaming, so they had basically a warmer climate. But we have very good evidence
02:21that there were hurricanes and probably tornadoes. Same sort of bad weather that we have around
02:31the world now. So they would have experienced a lot of bad scenarios. One of the things
02:45that most people don't realize is that during a lot of the time dinosaurs were on Earth,
02:50there was actually a seaway that extended from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to
02:55the Arctic Ocean, and it divided North America in two pieces. And that seaway was relatively
03:03warm and tornadoes, hurricanes could have easily come up that seaway and caused a lot
03:13of damage and death to dinosaurs all the way from Texas, basically all the way into northern
03:24Alberta.
03:25Very interesting. When we look at recent human history, it seems that when we have periods
03:30of extreme cold, there's a little bit more human suffering and dark ages and famine,
03:36shorter growing seasons, things like that. You mentioned the climate may have been warmer
03:40back then, so did dinosaurs thrive in warmer climates?
03:46Well we're pretty sure that most of the dinosaurs, if not all of them, were warm-blooded. And
03:53you do find dinosaurs on the North Slope of Alaska and high latitudes, both in the South
04:01and in the North. There were dinosaurs in Antarctica. Antarctica was relatively tropical
04:08at the time. But they still would have experienced long nights. Winter, the Earth has been tilted
04:21at pretty close to the same angle all this time, and so they would have experienced darkness
04:30for some period of time as well. So it had to have been chillier then, but it definitely
04:36wasn't as extreme cold as we have now.
04:41So we talk about fossils now. How are fossils formed, and how do you know where to look
04:46for them? Before we started this show, we talked a little bit about, it seems that there
04:50is a lot of dinosaur bone digging in the western U.S. more so than in Vermont, but
04:55I'm an outsider for this kind of thing. So what goes on with the formation of fossils
04:59and the finding of fossils?
05:02Well first off, fossils are basically the preserved remains of extinct organisms, and
05:14to preserve them, basically the specimens have to be covered up with sediment. And then
05:20that whatever they're covered in has to be covered over time, from the time the animal
05:28dies until the time that we find them. And so in the case of dinosaurs, which dinosaurs
05:37live from about 230 million years ago until about 66 million years ago, and so they basically
05:46have to stay encased in rock in all that time, and then at least be close enough to the surface
05:54of the ground now to be found. So it's all about geology. It's sediments, weathered rock
06:03that covers them, rivers carrying sediment, cover a dinosaur, for example, or even a tree,
06:15any life form. And it stays preserved underground in these rock units for millions of years,
06:24and that's when fossilization occurs. So we need deposition to cover them up, and then
06:33we need basically weathering wind and rain and things like that to uncover them. So we
06:46then, basically what we paleontologists do is we go to places where the right age rock
06:54that represents these ancient river systems covered up the dinosaurs, but are now exposed
07:03at the surface of the ground. And it just so happens that dinosaurs lived everywhere.
07:09They lived in Vermont, and they lived in Montana. But fortunately, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado,
07:16Utah, most of these western states are places where the right age rock is now exposed at the
07:24surface of the ground, so we can go out and find them. Well, in popular conversation, it seems
07:32generally accepted, widely accepted, that an asteroid strike may have led to the extinction
07:37of dinosaurs. But in reality, was that the change that led to their demise, or could it have been
07:44a climate change that ultimately killed the dinosaurs? Well, there's very good evidence that
07:50there was a meteor. Obviously, a two-mile-wide meteor striking the earth is going to cause some
08:03climate changes. But the impact alone, I mean, you just think about the size of the tsunami
08:14and the earthquakes associated with it. I mean, there was a tremendous amount of
08:23disaster surrounding just the impact. But then it also blasted a lot of debris into space that
08:31would have blocked the sun and definitely changed the environment for some period of time.
08:40So there's hypotheses that the impact created like a nuclear winter scenario
08:52that cooled the planet pretty drastically, and that could have certainly caused a lot of
08:59extinction. But we don't really know. There's some indication that it may have initiated some
09:10some large volcanism. There's just so many things that could have come into play
09:17in this particular scenario that, you know, we're not really positive
09:22exactly how it all happened, but very good evidence that it was initially caused by an impact
09:34and that the impact itself caused a lot of death of certainly dinosaurs in North America.
09:40Jack, we have a viewer question, and this one comes from Al in Kentucky. So Al writes,
09:45Could dinosaurs survive in today's atmosphere?
09:48Ah, yes. Yeah, the atmosphere hasn't changed very much in the last 66 million years. So,
09:57yeah, I think they'd have been fine. There might have been a little more oxygen then,
10:02not appreciably more. Yeah, I think they'd be just fine. Humans would be in trouble if they
10:13were still around. A lot of interesting information so far. We appreciate your
10:16insight. We're going to continue this conversation in just a few minutes when
10:20Ask the Experts returns. Coming up later in our WeatherWise segment, we have three
10:25interesting things you may not know about dinosaurs. Find out which one was the most
10:29dangerous. And our dinosaur discussion with paleontologist Jack Horner continues next
10:34as we dig into the connection between dinosaurs and birds when Ask the Experts returns.
11:05Welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm your host, Jeff Cornish,
11:08and we're continuing our discussion about dinosaurs and paleontology with world-renowned
11:13paleontologist Jack Horner. Jack, thanks again for making time for us today.
11:18And Jack, you were recently in Montana for a dig. Temps over 100 degrees. Montana can
11:23get hot in the summer. So how much does weather impact you when you're out in the field?
11:29Well, you know, as I get older, it gets worse and worse, you know. But when I was young,
11:38you know, when I was in my 20s and 30s and 40s, I had no problem. I'd spend June, July,
11:45and August in the field, temperatures well over 100 degrees, and I was just fine. But
11:52nowadays, you know, the heat gets to me. So when it breaks 100, I usually pack up and come back to
12:00Southern California where it's usually cooler. I don't blame you. The Pacific is a great air
12:05conditioner. Well, a lot of your research over the past 10 years has shown the origin of dinosaurs
12:11may be more closely linked to birds. So what led you to that conclusion?
12:16Well, first off, it's not my conclusion. John Ostrom at Yale University back in the 1960s was
12:25really the person who got us really thinking about it. And basically, he was able to show
12:33that dinosaur skeletons have a lot of features that birds have. And basically, dinosaurs had
12:45them first. And now we know that it includes hollow bones and hard-shelled eggs and feathers and
12:55just, you know, a whole suite of characteristics. And so there really isn't, there are very few
13:02people left that are arguing about this. We pretty well know it. And so when my teams and I found,
13:12you know, excavated nests of dinosaurs, giving evidence that dinosaurs cared for their young
13:19like birds, it really, you know, it was surprising at the time because people still thought of
13:25dinosaurs as being, you know, big stupid reptiles that were just wandering around looking for a
13:31place to go extinct. But as we get more and more, as we learn more about them, we find that, you
13:40know, that birds really are dinosaurs. They are the living species. So dinosaurs didn't really
13:49all go extinct. We still have them with us. Fascinating. Well, the legendary movie Jurassic
13:57Park comes up in conversation with paleontologists and you were a technical advisor on several of the
14:03Jurassic Park films and even had a cameo in Jurassic World. So what was that experience like?
14:10Well, it was a lot of fun. You know, it was fun working with Steven Spielberg.
14:14It was fun working with Joe Johnston, another one of the directors. But, you know,
14:23for me, it was kind of boring. I mean, you know, they shoot the same thing over and over again. I
14:27mean, I wouldn't trade my job as a paleontologist for anyone in the movie business. But, you know,
14:33that's just me. I had fun. It was fun to see how movies are made. It was fun to work with the ILM
14:43people that were making the computer graphic dinosaurs and with Stan Winston, who, you know,
14:48was making the animatronic dinosaurs and, you know, got me to think a lot about, you know,
14:55trying to bring back a dinosaur. Well, on that topic, is there any reality to these films? Could
15:01science possibly bring back dinosaurs beyond the birds that we see one day?
15:07Well, we're certainly not going to bring back, you know, extinct dinosaurs. We're not going to
15:12bring back a stegosaurus or a tyrannosaurus rex or anything like that. But it's certainly possible
15:17that we can, you know, rescue some of the characteristics that dinosaurs had because
15:24we have birds. And so, basically, you know, retro-engineer a bird, some of the ancient
15:35characteristics, some of the ancient genetics of dinosaurs. So, you know, we actually have a
15:41project called How to Build the Dinosaurs, the Chickenosaurus Project, where we're attempting
15:46to do just that. We are trying to figure out if there are any genetic pathways that still exist
15:54in birds that could be turned on, and maybe we could go ahead and at least see some of the
16:02features. You know, bring them back. Bring something back. They may dig up the garden.
16:07There may be mixed opinions about this. This is pretty fascinating, though. Well, it is time for
16:12another viewer question, and this comes to us from William in California. William writes,
16:16what has been your favorite discovery or field experience in your career?
16:20Well, you know, I found so many dinosaurs and so many things. I would say, you know,
16:28finding the first dinosaur embryos, the first eggs that had little baby skeletons in them. That was
16:34pretty exciting. And, you know, other than that, I'd say, you know, my best finds have been my
16:44my students, just finding great students and seeing them now off in the world being,
16:51you know, famous paleontologists on their own. That's a great answer. That's a great answer.
16:57Well, you live and continue to live a fascinating life, and we wish you the best with the next
17:02chapter, wherever that takes you and whatever you happen to discover. World-renowned paleontologist
17:06Jack Horner, thanks again so much for being with us today and for taking us back millions of years
17:10to learn all about these fascinating creatures. Thanks again, Jack.
17:15You're very welcome.
17:16Well, it's great talking to you. And don't forget, when any of you viewers have a question about
17:20weather, space or science, you can write us or send us a video question at AskTheExperts
17:26at AccuWeather.com. You can also call us at 888-566-6606. In just a little bit, we're going
17:34to have WeatherWise, when we reveal which was the fastest, biggest and most dangerous dinosaurs.
17:41We'll be right back with more of our dinosaur discussion when Ask the Experts returns.
18:04Welcome back to AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. It is now time for WeatherWise,
18:08and today we look at three interesting things about dinosaurs.
18:11First, the largest dinosaur more than 90 million years ago, the Argentinosaurus.
18:17I've roamed what is now Argentina, weighing more than 100 tons. So the Argentinosaurus was an
18:23herbivore, using its long neck to strip vegetation from high branches. Paleontologists estimate they
18:28were about 121 to 131 feet long, making them one of the world's largest land animals ever found.
18:36In fact, they believe the Argentinosaurus kept growing throughout its lifetime.
18:40Second, the fastest dinosaur. Now, the Velociraptor is one of the fastest dinosaurs
18:46that roamed the Earth, and experts say they could reach 40 to 50 miles per hour.
18:50The Velociraptors in the Jurassic Park movies were about double their actual size.
18:54Real raptors stood about 2 feet in height, up to 6 feet long.
18:57Their small size helped them reach these top speeds.
19:00And paleontologist Jack says that they may be the most dangerous dinosaur in his opinion.
19:06But there's a debate. Some say the most dangerous dinosaur,
19:10and at least a favorite for many youngsters, is the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
19:14The T-Rex was the ultimate apex predator. At 12 feet in height and 40 feet in length,
19:20the T-Rex was similar in size to today's elephant.
19:23A brain about double the size of other dinosaurs,
19:25their senses enabled the T-Rex to see, hear, and smell prey from miles away.
19:29The T-Rex was a vicious carnivore with serrated teeth like steak knives that could cut through
19:34bone. Most T-Rex fossils have been found in the western states, including Montana and the Dakotas.
19:39Thanks so much for joining us here on AccuWeather's Ask the Experts. I'm Jeff Cornish.
19:43Don't forget, when you have a question about weather, space, or science,
19:45you can write us or send us a video question at AskTheExperts at AccuWeather.com
19:49or call us at 888-566-6606.