0:00:03.938,0:00:09.387
[Jack] Is there anybody who cannot identify this?

0:00:09.387,0:00:11.580
[Laughter] ...[from audience]"I thought it

0:00:11.580,0:00:14.269
was a nice purse, but I know it's not now..."

0:00:20.806,0:00:22.098
[Jack Horner] You know, usually I to

0:00:22.098,0:00:26.789
children, and of course, they know a lot

0:00:26.789,0:00:30.587
more than everybody else in here, right?

0:00:30.587,0:00:32.516
You know that, right? About what I talk

0:00:32.516,0:00:37.507
about...okay...Brocke asked me to talk

0:00:37.507,0:00:40.816
about something that I don't talk about.

0:00:40.816,0:00:45.377
He asked me to talk about me. I'm not...

0:00:45.377,0:00:50.918
so just bear with me, okay? The whole

0:00:50.918,0:00:54.689
point, I guess, is how I got here. Why I am

0:00:54.689,0:00:59.883
standing up here. I come from Montana,

0:00:59.883,0:01:07.489
and ... (ahem)...I come from a town called

0:01:07.489,0:01:10.538
Shelby, Montana. Here is a picture of it .

0:01:10.538,0:01:13.161
You can see this large thing that is in the

0:01:13.161,0:01:18.313
picture here. Shelby, in 1923, obviously

0:01:18.313,0:01:23.429
before I was born....I think the whole town

0:01:23.429,0:01:27.705
was Dyslexic...[laughter]. This is a boxing

0:01:27.705,0:01:32.383
stadium. This was were they held the World

0:01:32.383,0:01:35.418
Heavyweight Boxing Championship in 1923,

0:01:35.418,0:01:41.743
in a town of 500 in the middle of Montana.

0:01:41.743,0:01:48.699
No kidding, that's it! Well, as you can

0:01:48.699,0:01:51.805
imagine, it didn't work very well, but ...

0:01:51.805,0:01:56.275
I have circled there the high school

0:01:56.275,0:01:59.245
building in the town, where 5 years after

0:01:59.245,0:02:02.299
this picture was taken, my father graduated

0:02:02.299,0:02:06.887
as a valedictorian. You can imagine just

0:02:07.494,0:02:10.247
saying that, that he and I didn't get

0:02:10.247,0:02:18.990
along well. I was born, and there is my

0:02:18.990,0:02:22.542
first house on the left there, a tent.

0:02:22.554,0:02:26.555
I've pretty much lived in tents ever since.

0:02:26.555,0:02:30.659
There are sort of 2 stories here. One is

0:02:30.659,0:02:34.477
the way my father saw it, as far as he was

0:02:34.477,0:02:37.754
concerned, life was great for me until I

0:02:37.754,0:02:42.991
was 5 years old. Like everyone else, at

0:02:42.991,0:02:47.921
the age of 5, I went to kindergarten and

0:02:47.921,0:02:51.310
flunked out, because I couldn't figure out

0:02:51.310,0:02:55.499
the blocks, with letters on them. Then,

0:02:55.499,0:02:59.693
according to my father, at the age of 8 he

0:02:59.693,0:03:03.684
tried to teach me Algebra. I still,

0:03:03.684,0:03:06.280
obviously, couldn't read, so I didn't do

0:03:06.280,0:03:09.334
well there. Then I went through....like

0:03:09.334,0:03:11.878
everyone else in this room...I'm a little

0:03:11.878,0:03:15.658
suspicious of the non-dyslexics in here...

0:03:15.658,0:03:18.237
[big laughter]....but I'll get to that

0:03:18.237,0:03:22.052
later. I'm just really curious as to why

0:03:22.052,0:03:24.703
you are here....seriously...unless you are

0:03:24.703,0:03:30.007
trying to get our secrets from us. [laughter]

0:03:30.007,0:03:35.403
Anyway, I went on and did poorly, and had

0:03:35.403,0:03:38.259
lots of report cards that said lots of

0:03:38.259,0:03:40.666
things about me, like the other report card

0:03:40.666,0:03:44.685
we were looking at. I finally graduated

0:03:44.685,0:03:50.684
from high school with a D-minus-minus-minus.

0:03:50.684,0:03:54.096
The teacher said to me, this means that you

0:03:54.096,0:03:56.095
have failed, but I never want to see you

0:03:56.095,0:04:00.217
again! [Laughter] I was happy, that was

0:04:00.217,0:04:04.782
good! Then I went to college. I went to

0:04:04.782,0:04:09.006
the University of Montana. At that time,

0:04:09.006,0:04:10.919
you could get in if you had a high school

0:04:10.919,0:04:14.255
diploma. I entered in 1964 and flunked

0:04:14.255,0:04:20.219
out in 1965. Upon flunking out, I was

0:04:20.219,0:04:22.745
drafted and I went to the United States

0:04:22.745,0:04:25.426
Marine Corp, which only drafted for one

0:04:25.426,0:04:35.736
month, in all of it's time. So, I was not

0:04:35.736,0:04:49.021
only dyslexic, but unlucky. [laughter].

0:04:49.021,0:04:53.400
That was 1966, I came back and went back

0:04:53.400,0:04:59.593
to college, and according to my father, in

0:04:59.593,0:05:04.467
1973 I had flunked out of college 7 times

0:05:04.467,0:05:08.481
in 5 years. I was 27 years old, I was

0:05:08.481,0:05:12.553
married, I was a truck driver. And as far

0:05:12.553,0:05:14.436
as my father was concerned, that was the

0:05:14.436,0:05:17.182
end of my life. He wasn't even going to

0:05:17.182,0:05:20.487
hire me to work in his gravel plant. Which

0:05:20.487,0:05:25.100
was okay...but...that's not really how I

0:05:25.100,0:05:28.253
looked at it. I sort of had a different

0:05:28.253,0:05:31.406
view of my life. When I was 8 years old,

0:05:31.406,0:05:33.866
when he was trying to teach me Algebra,

0:05:33.866,0:05:36.878
I actually found my first dinosaur bone

0:05:36.878,0:05:39.734
that year. It was a pretty big occasion

0:05:39.734,0:05:42.926
for me. I went out...my mother would take

0:05:42.926,0:05:46.382
me on drives, take me out to the sites.

0:05:46.382,0:05:49.447
I would go out and collect dinosaur bones

0:05:49.447,0:05:51.321
even though I was failing all of my

0:05:51.321,0:05:56.999
classes in school. When I was 12 years

0:05:56.999,0:06:01.367
old, I built an exhibit in our library.

0:06:01.367,0:06:06.643
It's still there. I would go to the

0:06:06.643,0:06:08.923
library and read all the books, not read

0:06:08.923,0:06:11.082
them, but look at all the pictures to

0:06:11.082,0:06:13.315
determine what I thought I had, and label

0:06:13.315,0:06:18.145
all the fossils. Then I continued to do

0:06:18.146,0:06:25.720
that through high school, and when I

0:06:25.720,0:06:28.675
graduated from high school, I won the

0:06:28.675,0:06:30.669
science fair, and that was actually how I

0:06:30.669,0:06:35.864
got to college...I was invited, so I went

0:06:35.864,0:06:39.722
in 1964, and I studied Geology, Zoology,

0:06:39.722,0:06:42.876
Anthropology, and Botany. I actually took

0:06:42.876,0:06:45.605
all the courses that were offered in all 4

0:06:45.605,0:06:49.654
departments. But when you flunk out every

0:06:49.654,0:06:55.913
quarter....So here's the key, and this is

0:06:55.913,0:07:00.010
worth telling your students. The key is,

0:07:00.010,0:07:02.848
that if you change your major after you've

0:07:02.848,0:07:05.760
been kicked out, then those people in that

0:07:05.760,0:07:10.277
department don't really know. [laughter]

0:07:10.362,0:07:15.005
So I would change majors pretty constantly.

0:07:15.005,0:07:17.757
But while I was there, I also learned how

0:07:17.757,0:07:24.619
to...don't look at my trousers..it was the

0:07:24.619,0:07:27.995
60's. So anyway, I learned how to put

0:07:27.995,0:07:32.182
skeletons together, and it was pretty cool.

0:07:32.182,0:07:34.730
I actually learned quite a bit. I also

0:07:34.730,0:07:39.600
excavated my first dinosaur skeleton, and

0:07:39.600,0:07:42.963
so from my perspective, in 1973, I had

0:07:42.963,0:07:45.053
learned an awful lot about Geology and

0:07:45.053,0:07:47.071
Zoology, I'd completed a scientific

0:07:47.071,0:07:49.333
research project, I was married, and my

0:07:49.333,0:07:52.683
outlook was pretty optimistic. I was

0:07:52.683,0:07:57.469
applying for work in museums. Two years

0:07:57.469,0:08:00.759
later, I was hired to work as a technician

0:08:00.759,0:08:05.319
at Princeton University. Now, a technician-

0:08:05.319,0:08:08.014
I didn't have a degree as you probably

0:08:08.014,0:08:13.306
could tell, I had a high school diploma.

0:08:13.436,0:08:19.382
I was hired by Princeton to clean fossils.

0:08:19.382,0:08:21.434
While I was there, there were signs around

0:08:21.434,0:08:23.567
on the campus, and one of them said,

0:08:23.567,0:08:25.946
would you rather go to a movie than read a

0:08:25.946,0:08:28.796
book? ...Some other weird questions --I

0:08:28.796,0:08:30.885
went and asked about it, and they told me

0:08:30.885,0:08:40.307
I was dys--lex--ic. I assume everybody

0:08:40.307,0:08:42.186
knows here, that it doesn't matter if

0:08:42.186,0:08:46.994
somebody tells you that. Right? I mean...

0:08:46.994,0:08:52.506
You can't read any better. [laughter]

0:08:52.506,0:08:57.999
Anyway...so...I thanked them and I went

0:08:57.999,0:09:10.502
back to work. [big laughter] I started

0:09:10.502,0:09:14.368
Princeton in 1975, and then in 1978, a

0:09:14.368,0:09:16.142
friend of mine, Bob Macula, who's there in

0:09:16.142,0:09:18.918
the picture, he and I found a nest of baby

0:09:18.918,0:09:21.549
dinosaurs back in Montana, when I was back

0:09:21.549,0:09:26.559
there on vacation, looking for 'stuff'.

0:09:26.559,0:09:29.090
The baby dinosaurs...it was the first time

0:09:29.100,0:09:32.144
people had actually seen evidence that

0:09:32.144,0:09:35.900
dinosaurs cared for their young. A year

0:09:35.900,0:09:38.312
later I published my first scientific

0:09:38.312,0:09:45.321
paper in the journal, Nature.

0:09:45.321,0:09:48.570
We found a lot of stuff. We found the

0:09:48.570,0:09:50.768
largest concentration of dinosaur bones in

0:09:50.768,0:09:55.448
the world, estimated at 115,000 skeletons.

0:09:55.448,0:09:58.675
Obviously, we haven't dug them all up yet.

0:09:58.675,0:10:03.865
But I was at Princeton at that time, and

0:10:03.865,0:10:05.819
the museum in Montana, the Museum of the

0:10:05.819,0:10:08.653
Rockies, where I work now, stopped by and

0:10:08.653,0:10:11.391
said, you know, you are finding so many

0:10:11.391,0:10:15.855
dinosaurs...leave some here for us. I said,

0:10:15.855,0:10:17.508
"'llI tell you what, I'll leave them all

0:10:17.508,0:10:20.942
here if you just hire me. Princeton is very

0:10:20.942,0:10:23.605
nice, but when you are born and raised

0:10:23.605,0:10:27.606
in Montana, New Jersey just doesn't cut

0:10:27.606,0:10:31.476
it. So, they did. They hired me and in

0:10:31.476,0:10:34.764
1982 I went back to Montana as the Curator

0:10:34.764,0:10:39.210
of Paleontology. Now, I didn't have a

0:10:39.210,0:10:43.347
degree, so I couldn't do anything, and I

0:10:43.347,0:10:45.531
was the curator, I could actually curate

0:10:45.531,0:10:49.442
fossils, --basically put things away. I

0:10:49.442,0:10:51.505
was at a University where I really couldn't

0:10:51.505,0:10:56.609
do much of anything else. But a funny thing

0:10:56.609,0:11:00.927
happened. While we were working, we found

0:11:00.927,0:11:03.223
the first dinosaur eggs in the Western

0:11:03.223,0:11:08.552
Hemisphere. We went on to find quite a

0:11:08.552,0:11:13.485
few eggs. I don't know...there is something

0:11:13.485,0:11:16.727
about dinosaur eggs, maybe you can explain,

0:11:16.727,0:11:18.878
we'll have a non-dyslexic/dyslexic

0:11:18.878,0:11:22.337
conversation after this, alright? Dinosaur

0:11:22.337,0:11:32.737
eggs actually had been found in the 1800's.

0:11:32.737,0:11:34.641
They had been found in France, and then in

0:11:34.641,0:11:38.187
the 1920's, they were found in Mongolia,

0:11:38.187,0:11:45.090
and some were found in China. I started

0:11:45.090,0:11:48.158
finding these eggs in the 1980's and I

0:11:48.158,0:11:51.634
was the first person to find a dinosaur

0:11:51.634,0:11:56.677
embryo, a little skeleton of a dinosaur

0:11:56.695,0:12:02.558
inside the egg. Now, here's our dyslexic

0:12:02.558,0:12:07.607
question. "Dinosaur eggs were found in the

0:12:07.607,0:12:10.994
1800's. The first dinosaur embryo was

0:12:10.994,0:12:15.484
found in 1983. What advantage did I have

0:12:15.484,0:12:19.212
over everyone else in the world for all

0:12:19.212,0:12:29.397
those years?" ...I had a hammer! [laughter]

0:12:29.397,0:12:38.758
That's all there was! I had a hammer. For

0:12:38.758,0:12:42.982
all of those years, people had ...See,

0:12:42.982,0:12:46.433
this is the problem with reading. Reading

0:12:46.433,0:12:50.823
is really over-rated if you think about it.

0:12:50.823,0:12:53.448
People had convinced one another that

0:12:53.448,0:12:55.866
they shouldn't break eggs open because

0:12:55.866,0:13:00.131
eggs are precious. And so no one ever

0:13:00.131,0:13:04.772
broke an egg open. I even went to museums

0:13:04.772,0:13:07.532
and said, "Can I just break one of your

0:13:07.532,0:13:10.851
eggs open?" and they said, "NO, you can't

0:13:10.851,0:13:13.030
break our eggs because they are precious. "

0:13:13.030,0:13:15.016
And I said, "It's just like having a

0:13:15.016,0:13:18.679
present that you never open because it is

0:13:18.679,0:13:22.679
so pretty." Seriously, no one had ever

0:13:22.679,0:13:25.368
found a dinosaur embryo. So I have

0:13:25.368,0:13:27.459
gone back now that people saw that I

0:13:27.459,0:13:30.007
could break them open and glue is cheap,

0:13:30.007,0:13:32.847
you can glue them back together. [laughter]

0:13:32.847,0:13:34.775
There is nothing that you can see...you can

0:13:34.775,0:13:37.255
see in my picture there the thing is

0:13:37.255,0:13:39.249
actually held together with a rubber band.

0:13:39.249,0:13:40.926
After you break it, you just rubber-band it

0:13:40.926,0:13:49.490
back together again. Anyway...then I

0:13:49.490,0:13:52.310
published my first book that year and

0:13:52.310,0:13:57.597
of course sent it to my English teacher.

0:13:57.597,0:14:01.007
[laughter] We've gone on and discovered

0:14:01.007,0:14:05.588
an awful lot of dinosaurs in Montana,

0:14:05.588,0:14:10.927
a lot of new species of dinosaurs. But

0:14:10.927,0:14:13.856
it was the dinosaur embryo's that caught

0:14:13.856,0:14:16.569
people's imagination and caught, I don't

0:14:16.569,0:14:19.143
know, caught something, because the

0:14:19.143,0:14:21.240
University of Montana, the very people

0:14:21.240,0:14:24.091
that had thrown me out of college, 7 times,

0:14:24.091,0:14:36.842
gave me an honorary doctorate! [clapping]

0:14:36.842,0:14:40.180
...On my 40th birthday. And then two

0:14:40.180,0:14:42.745
weeks later, I got a MacArthur

0:14:42.745,0:14:49.698
Fellowship.[clapping] So then they made me

0:14:49.698,0:14:53.821
a professor! [laughter] I'm serious, they

0:14:53.821,0:14:56.313
made me a professor! Just because I had a

0:14:56.313,0:15:02.769
hammer! [laughter] I'm serious, I became a

0:15:02.769,0:15:05.104
professor! Then I could have graduate

0:15:05.104,0:15:08.383
students, and I could write NSF grants,

0:15:08.383,0:15:12.022
and I sent out expeditions all over

0:15:12.022,0:15:15.310
Montana. And then I sent out expeditions

0:15:15.310,0:15:18.829
all over the world, and it was 1993 and

0:15:18.829,0:15:21.361
that's when Steven Spielberg called me up

0:15:21.361,0:15:23.643
and asked me if I wanted to work on a

0:15:23.643,0:15:30.023
movie. All because I had a hammer. So,

0:15:30.023,0:15:34.790
that's what I do. We have the largest

0:15:34.790,0:15:38.709
dinosaur research program in the world.

0:15:38.709,0:15:40.369
As you can see, up in the upper right

0:15:40.369,0:15:44.022
hand corner, we still break eggs. What we

0:15:44.022,0:15:47.254
are breaking now, is into developmental

0:15:47.254,0:15:49.820
evolutionary biology, and we are

0:15:49.820,0:15:52.817
attempting in our lab to retro-engineer a

0:15:52.817,0:15:57.432
live dinosaur, from a bird. Yes, we are

0:15:57.432,0:16:00.557
trying to make the Dino-Chicken. It's the

0:16:00.557,0:16:02.872
Dino-Chicken project, which basically

0:16:02.872,0:16:06.508
takes a hammer as well. I encouage you,

0:16:06.508,0:16:09.258
if you can get to Montana, come visit

0:16:09.274,0:16:10.954
our museum, where we break open a lot

0:16:10.954,0:16:12.514
of things. Thank you.