1 00:00:03,938 --> 00:00:09,387 [Jack] Is there anybody who cannot identify this? 2 00:00:09,387 --> 00:00:11,580 [Laughter] ...[from audience]"I thought it 3 00:00:11,580 --> 00:00:14,269 was a nice purse, but I know it's not now..." 4 00:00:20,806 --> 00:00:22,098 [Jack Horner] You know, usually I to 5 00:00:22,098 --> 00:00:26,789 children, and of course, they know a lot 6 00:00:26,789 --> 00:00:30,587 more than everybody else in here, right? 7 00:00:30,587 --> 00:00:32,516 You know that, right? About what I talk 8 00:00:32,516 --> 00:00:37,507 about...okay...Brocke asked me to talk 9 00:00:37,507 --> 00:00:40,816 about something that I don't talk about. 10 00:00:40,816 --> 00:00:45,377 He asked me to talk about me. I'm not... 11 00:00:45,377 --> 00:00:50,918 so just bear with me, okay? The whole 12 00:00:50,918 --> 00:00:54,689 point, I guess, is how I got here. Why I am 13 00:00:54,689 --> 00:00:59,883 standing up here. I come from Montana, 14 00:00:59,883 --> 00:01:07,489 and ... (ahem)...I come from a town called 15 00:01:07,489 --> 00:01:10,538 Shelby, Montana. Here is a picture of it . 16 00:01:10,538 --> 00:01:13,161 You can see this large thing that is in the 17 00:01:13,161 --> 00:01:18,313 picture here. Shelby, in 1923, obviously 18 00:01:18,313 --> 00:01:23,429 before I was born....I think the whole town 19 00:01:23,429 --> 00:01:27,705 was Dyslexic...[laughter]. This is a boxing 20 00:01:27,705 --> 00:01:32,383 stadium. This was were they held the World 21 00:01:32,383 --> 00:01:35,418 Heavyweight Boxing Championship in 1923, 22 00:01:35,418 --> 00:01:41,743 in a town of 500 in the middle of Montana. 23 00:01:41,743 --> 00:01:48,699 No kidding, that's it! Well, as you can 24 00:01:48,699 --> 00:01:51,805 imagine, it didn't work very well, but ... 25 00:01:51,805 --> 00:01:56,275 I have circled there the high school 26 00:01:56,275 --> 00:01:59,245 building in the town, where 5 years after 27 00:01:59,245 --> 00:02:02,299 this picture was taken, my father graduated 28 00:02:02,299 --> 00:02:06,887 as a valedictorian. You can imagine just 29 00:02:07,494 --> 00:02:10,247 saying that, that he and I didn't get 30 00:02:10,247 --> 00:02:18,990 along well. I was born, and there is my 31 00:02:18,990 --> 00:02:22,542 first house on the left there, a tent. 32 00:02:22,554 --> 00:02:26,555 I've pretty much lived in tents ever since. 33 00:02:26,555 --> 00:02:30,659 There are sort of 2 stories here. One is 34 00:02:30,659 --> 00:02:34,477 the way my father saw it, as far as he was 35 00:02:34,477 --> 00:02:37,754 concerned, life was great for me until I 36 00:02:37,754 --> 00:02:42,991 was 5 years old. Like everyone else, at 37 00:02:42,991 --> 00:02:47,921 the age of 5, I went to kindergarten and 38 00:02:47,921 --> 00:02:51,310 flunked out, because I couldn't figure out 39 00:02:51,310 --> 00:02:55,499 the blocks, with letters on them. Then, 40 00:02:55,499 --> 00:02:59,693 according to my father, at the age of 8 he 41 00:02:59,693 --> 00:03:03,684 tried to teach me Algebra. I still, 42 00:03:03,684 --> 00:03:06,280 obviously, couldn't read, so I didn't do 43 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:09,334 well there. Then I went through....like 44 00:03:09,334 --> 00:03:11,878 everyone else in this room...I'm a little 45 00:03:11,878 --> 00:03:15,658 suspicious of the non-dyslexics in here... 46 00:03:15,658 --> 00:03:18,237 [big laughter]....but I'll get to that 47 00:03:18,237 --> 00:03:22,052 later. I'm just really curious as to why 48 00:03:22,052 --> 00:03:24,703 you are here....seriously...unless you are 49 00:03:24,703 --> 00:03:30,007 trying to get our secrets from us. [laughter] 50 00:03:30,007 --> 00:03:35,403 Anyway, I went on and did poorly, and had 51 00:03:35,403 --> 00:03:38,259 lots of report cards that said lots of 52 00:03:38,259 --> 00:03:40,666 things about me, like the other report card 53 00:03:40,666 --> 00:03:44,685 we were looking at. I finally graduated 54 00:03:44,685 --> 00:03:50,684 from high school with a D-minus-minus-minus. 55 00:03:50,684 --> 00:03:54,096 The teacher said to me, this means that you 56 00:03:54,096 --> 00:03:56,095 have failed, but I never want to see you 57 00:03:56,095 --> 00:04:00,217 again! [Laughter] I was happy, that was 58 00:04:00,217 --> 00:04:04,782 good! Then I went to college. I went to 59 00:04:04,782 --> 00:04:09,006 the University of Montana. At that time, 60 00:04:09,006 --> 00:04:10,919 you could get in if you had a high school 61 00:04:10,919 --> 00:04:14,255 diploma. I entered in 1964 and flunked 62 00:04:14,255 --> 00:04:20,219 out in 1965. Upon flunking out, I was 63 00:04:20,219 --> 00:04:22,745 drafted and I went to the United States 64 00:04:22,745 --> 00:04:25,426 Marine Corp, which only drafted for one 65 00:04:25,426 --> 00:04:35,736 month, in all of it's time. So, I was not 66 00:04:35,736 --> 00:04:49,021 only dyslexic, but unlucky. [laughter]. 67 00:04:49,021 --> 00:04:53,400 That was 1966, I came back and went back 68 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:59,593 to college, and according to my father, in 69 00:04:59,593 --> 00:05:04,467 1973 I had flunked out of college 7 times 70 00:05:04,467 --> 00:05:08,481 in 5 years. I was 27 years old, I was 71 00:05:08,481 --> 00:05:12,553 married, I was a truck driver. And as far 72 00:05:12,553 --> 00:05:14,436 as my father was concerned, that was the 73 00:05:14,436 --> 00:05:17,182 end of my life. He wasn't even going to 74 00:05:17,182 --> 00:05:20,487 hire me to work in his gravel plant. Which 75 00:05:20,487 --> 00:05:25,100 was okay...but...that's not really how I 76 00:05:25,100 --> 00:05:28,253 looked at it. I sort of had a different 77 00:05:28,253 --> 00:05:31,406 view of my life. When I was 8 years old, 78 00:05:31,406 --> 00:05:33,866 when he was trying to teach me Algebra, 79 00:05:33,866 --> 00:05:36,878 I actually found my first dinosaur bone 80 00:05:36,878 --> 00:05:39,734 that year. It was a pretty big occasion 81 00:05:39,734 --> 00:05:42,926 for me. I went out...my mother would take 82 00:05:42,926 --> 00:05:46,382 me on drives, take me out to the sites. 83 00:05:46,382 --> 00:05:49,447 I would go out and collect dinosaur bones 84 00:05:49,447 --> 00:05:51,321 even though I was failing all of my 85 00:05:51,321 --> 00:05:56,999 classes in school. When I was 12 years 86 00:05:56,999 --> 00:06:01,367 old, I built an exhibit in our library. 87 00:06:01,367 --> 00:06:06,643 It's still there. I would go to the 88 00:06:06,643 --> 00:06:08,923 library and read all the books, not read 89 00:06:08,923 --> 00:06:11,082 them, but look at all the pictures to 90 00:06:11,082 --> 00:06:13,315 determine what I thought I had, and label 91 00:06:13,315 --> 00:06:18,145 all the fossils. Then I continued to do 92 00:06:18,146 --> 00:06:25,720 that through high school, and when I 93 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:28,675 graduated from high school, I won the 94 00:06:28,675 --> 00:06:30,669 science fair, and that was actually how I 95 00:06:30,669 --> 00:06:35,864 got to college...I was invited, so I went 96 00:06:35,864 --> 00:06:39,722 in 1964, and I studied Geology, Zoology, 97 00:06:39,722 --> 00:06:42,876 Anthropology, and Botany. I actually took 98 00:06:42,876 --> 00:06:45,605 all the courses that were offered in all 4 99 00:06:45,605 --> 00:06:49,654 departments. But when you flunk out every 100 00:06:49,654 --> 00:06:55,913 quarter....So here's the key, and this is 101 00:06:55,913 --> 00:07:00,010 worth telling your students. The key is, 102 00:07:00,010 --> 00:07:02,848 that if you change your major after you've 103 00:07:02,848 --> 00:07:05,760 been kicked out, then those people in that 104 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:10,277 department don't really know. [laughter] 105 00:07:10,362 --> 00:07:15,005 So I would change majors pretty constantly. 106 00:07:15,005 --> 00:07:17,757 But while I was there, I also learned how 107 00:07:17,757 --> 00:07:24,619 to...don't look at my trousers..it was the 108 00:07:24,619 --> 00:07:27,995 60's. So anyway, I learned how to put 109 00:07:27,995 --> 00:07:32,182 skeletons together, and it was pretty cool. 110 00:07:32,182 --> 00:07:34,730 I actually learned quite a bit. I also 111 00:07:34,730 --> 00:07:39,600 excavated my first dinosaur skeleton, and 112 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:42,963 so from my perspective, in 1973, I had 113 00:07:42,963 --> 00:07:45,053 learned an awful lot about Geology and 114 00:07:45,053 --> 00:07:47,071 Zoology, I'd completed a scientific 115 00:07:47,071 --> 00:07:49,333 research project, I was married, and my 116 00:07:49,333 --> 00:07:52,683 outlook was pretty optimistic. I was 117 00:07:52,683 --> 00:07:57,469 applying for work in museums. Two years 118 00:07:57,469 --> 00:08:00,759 later, I was hired to work as a technician 119 00:08:00,759 --> 00:08:05,319 at Princeton University. Now, a technician- 120 00:08:05,319 --> 00:08:08,014 I didn't have a degree as you probably 121 00:08:08,014 --> 00:08:13,306 could tell, I had a high school diploma. 122 00:08:13,436 --> 00:08:19,382 I was hired by Princeton to clean fossils. 123 00:08:19,382 --> 00:08:21,434 While I was there, there were signs around 124 00:08:21,434 --> 00:08:23,567 on the campus, and one of them said, 125 00:08:23,567 --> 00:08:25,946 would you rather go to a movie than read a 126 00:08:25,946 --> 00:08:28,796 book? ...Some other weird questions --I 127 00:08:28,796 --> 00:08:30,885 went and asked about it, and they told me 128 00:08:30,885 --> 00:08:40,307 I was dys--lex--ic. I assume everybody 129 00:08:40,307 --> 00:08:42,186 knows here, that it doesn't matter if 130 00:08:42,186 --> 00:08:46,994 somebody tells you that. Right? I mean... 131 00:08:46,994 --> 00:08:52,506 You can't read any better. [laughter] 132 00:08:52,506 --> 00:08:57,999 Anyway...so...I thanked them and I went 133 00:08:57,999 --> 00:09:10,502 back to work. [big laughter] I started 134 00:09:10,502 --> 00:09:14,368 Princeton in 1975, and then in 1978, a 135 00:09:14,368 --> 00:09:16,142 friend of mine, Bob Macula, who's there in 136 00:09:16,142 --> 00:09:18,918 the picture, he and I found a nest of baby 137 00:09:18,918 --> 00:09:21,549 dinosaurs back in Montana, when I was back 138 00:09:21,549 --> 00:09:26,559 there on vacation, looking for 'stuff'. 139 00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:29,090 The baby dinosaurs...it was the first time 140 00:09:29,100 --> 00:09:32,144 people had actually seen evidence that 141 00:09:32,144 --> 00:09:35,900 dinosaurs cared for their young. A year 142 00:09:35,900 --> 00:09:38,312 later I published my first scientific 143 00:09:38,312 --> 00:09:45,321 paper in the journal, Nature. 144 00:09:45,321 --> 00:09:48,570 We found a lot of stuff. We found the 145 00:09:48,570 --> 00:09:50,768 largest concentration of dinosaur bones in 146 00:09:50,768 --> 00:09:55,448 the world, estimated at 115,000 skeletons. 147 00:09:55,448 --> 00:09:58,675 Obviously, we haven't dug them all up yet. 148 00:09:58,675 --> 00:10:03,865 But I was at Princeton at that time, and 149 00:10:03,865 --> 00:10:05,819 the museum in Montana, the Museum of the 150 00:10:05,819 --> 00:10:08,653 Rockies, where I work now, stopped by and 151 00:10:08,653 --> 00:10:11,391 said, you know, you are finding so many 152 00:10:11,391 --> 00:10:15,855 dinosaurs...leave some here for us. I said, 153 00:10:15,855 --> 00:10:17,508 "'llI tell you what, I'll leave them all 154 00:10:17,508 --> 00:10:20,942 here if you just hire me. Princeton is very 155 00:10:20,942 --> 00:10:23,605 nice, but when you are born and raised 156 00:10:23,605 --> 00:10:27,606 in Montana, New Jersey just doesn't cut 157 00:10:27,606 --> 00:10:31,476 it. So, they did. They hired me and in 158 00:10:31,476 --> 00:10:34,764 1982 I went back to Montana as the Curator 159 00:10:34,764 --> 00:10:39,210 of Paleontology. Now, I didn't have a 160 00:10:39,210 --> 00:10:43,347 degree, so I couldn't do anything, and I 161 00:10:43,347 --> 00:10:45,531 was the curator, I could actually curate 162 00:10:45,531 --> 00:10:49,442 fossils, --basically put things away. I 163 00:10:49,442 --> 00:10:51,505 was at a University where I really couldn't 164 00:10:51,505 --> 00:10:56,609 do much of anything else. But a funny thing 165 00:10:56,609 --> 00:11:00,927 happened. While we were working, we found 166 00:11:00,927 --> 00:11:03,223 the first dinosaur eggs in the Western 167 00:11:03,223 --> 00:11:08,552 Hemisphere. We went on to find quite a 168 00:11:08,552 --> 00:11:13,485 few eggs. I don't know...there is something 169 00:11:13,485 --> 00:11:16,727 about dinosaur eggs, maybe you can explain, 170 00:11:16,727 --> 00:11:18,878 we'll have a non-dyslexic/dyslexic 171 00:11:18,878 --> 00:11:22,337 conversation after this, alright? Dinosaur 172 00:11:22,337 --> 00:11:32,737 eggs actually had been found in the 1800's. 173 00:11:32,737 --> 00:11:34,641 They had been found in France, and then in 174 00:11:34,641 --> 00:11:38,187 the 1920's, they were found in Mongolia, 175 00:11:38,187 --> 00:11:45,090 and some were found in China. I started 176 00:11:45,090 --> 00:11:48,158 finding these eggs in the 1980's and I 177 00:11:48,158 --> 00:11:51,634 was the first person to find a dinosaur 178 00:11:51,634 --> 00:11:56,677 embryo, a little skeleton of a dinosaur 179 00:11:56,695 --> 00:12:02,558 inside the egg. Now, here's our dyslexic 180 00:12:02,558 --> 00:12:07,607 question. "Dinosaur eggs were found in the 181 00:12:07,607 --> 00:12:10,994 1800's. The first dinosaur embryo was 182 00:12:10,994 --> 00:12:15,484 found in 1983. What advantage did I have 183 00:12:15,484 --> 00:12:19,212 over everyone else in the world for all 184 00:12:19,212 --> 00:12:29,397 those years?" ...I had a hammer! [laughter] 185 00:12:29,397 --> 00:12:38,758 That's all there was! I had a hammer. For 186 00:12:38,758 --> 00:12:42,982 all of those years, people had ...See, 187 00:12:42,982 --> 00:12:46,433 this is the problem with reading. Reading 188 00:12:46,433 --> 00:12:50,823 is really over-rated if you think about it. 189 00:12:50,823 --> 00:12:53,448 People had convinced one another that 190 00:12:53,448 --> 00:12:55,866 they shouldn't break eggs open because 191 00:12:55,866 --> 00:13:00,131 eggs are precious. And so no one ever 192 00:13:00,131 --> 00:13:04,772 broke an egg open. I even went to museums 193 00:13:04,772 --> 00:13:07,532 and said, "Can I just break one of your 194 00:13:07,532 --> 00:13:10,851 eggs open?" and they said, "NO, you can't 195 00:13:10,851 --> 00:13:13,030 break our eggs because they are precious. " 196 00:13:13,030 --> 00:13:15,016 And I said, "It's just like having a 197 00:13:15,016 --> 00:13:18,679 present that you never open because it is 198 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:22,679 so pretty." Seriously, no one had ever 199 00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:25,368 found a dinosaur embryo. So I have 200 00:13:25,368 --> 00:13:27,459 gone back now that people saw that I 201 00:13:27,459 --> 00:13:30,007 could break them open and glue is cheap, 202 00:13:30,007 --> 00:13:32,847 you can glue them back together. [laughter] 203 00:13:32,847 --> 00:13:34,775 There is nothing that you can see...you can 204 00:13:34,775 --> 00:13:37,255 see in my picture there the thing is 205 00:13:37,255 --> 00:13:39,249 actually held together with a rubber band. 206 00:13:39,249 --> 00:13:40,926 After you break it, you just rubber-band it 207 00:13:40,926 --> 00:13:49,490 back together again. Anyway...then I 208 00:13:49,490 --> 00:13:52,310 published my first book that year and 209 00:13:52,310 --> 00:13:57,597 of course sent it to my English teacher. 210 00:13:57,597 --> 00:14:01,007 [laughter] We've gone on and discovered 211 00:14:01,007 --> 00:14:05,588 an awful lot of dinosaurs in Montana, 212 00:14:05,588 --> 00:14:10,927 a lot of new species of dinosaurs. But 213 00:14:10,927 --> 00:14:13,856 it was the dinosaur embryo's that caught 214 00:14:13,856 --> 00:14:16,569 people's imagination and caught, I don't 215 00:14:16,569 --> 00:14:19,143 know, caught something, because the 216 00:14:19,143 --> 00:14:21,240 University of Montana, the very people 217 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,091 that had thrown me out of college, 7 times, 218 00:14:24,091 --> 00:14:36,842 gave me an honorary doctorate! [clapping] 219 00:14:36,842 --> 00:14:40,180 ...On my 40th birthday. And then two 220 00:14:40,180 --> 00:14:42,745 weeks later, I got a MacArthur 221 00:14:42,745 --> 00:14:49,698 Fellowship.[clapping] So then they made me 222 00:14:49,698 --> 00:14:53,821 a professor! [laughter] I'm serious, they 223 00:14:53,821 --> 00:14:56,313 made me a professor! Just because I had a 224 00:14:56,313 --> 00:15:02,769 hammer! [laughter] I'm serious, I became a 225 00:15:02,769 --> 00:15:05,104 professor! Then I could have graduate 226 00:15:05,104 --> 00:15:08,383 students, and I could write NSF grants, 227 00:15:08,383 --> 00:15:12,022 and I sent out expeditions all over 228 00:15:12,022 --> 00:15:15,310 Montana. And then I sent out expeditions 229 00:15:15,310 --> 00:15:18,829 all over the world, and it was 1993 and 230 00:15:18,829 --> 00:15:21,361 that's when Steven Spielberg called me up 231 00:15:21,361 --> 00:15:23,643 and asked me if I wanted to work on a 232 00:15:23,643 --> 00:15:30,023 movie. All because I had a hammer. So, 233 00:15:30,023 --> 00:15:34,790 that's what I do. We have the largest 234 00:15:34,790 --> 00:15:38,709 dinosaur research program in the world. 235 00:15:38,709 --> 00:15:40,369 As you can see, up in the upper right 236 00:15:40,369 --> 00:15:44,022 hand corner, we still break eggs. What we 237 00:15:44,022 --> 00:15:47,254 are breaking now, is into developmental 238 00:15:47,254 --> 00:15:49,820 evolutionary biology, and we are 239 00:15:49,820 --> 00:15:52,817 attempting in our lab to retro-engineer a 240 00:15:52,817 --> 00:15:57,432 live dinosaur, from a bird. Yes, we are 241 00:15:57,432 --> 00:16:00,557 trying to make the Dino-Chicken. It's the 242 00:16:00,557 --> 00:16:02,872 Dino-Chicken project, which basically 243 00:16:02,872 --> 00:16:06,508 takes a hammer as well. I encouage you, 244 00:16:06,508 --> 00:16:09,258 if you can get to Montana, come visit 245 00:16:09,274 --> 00:16:10,954 our museum, where we break open a lot 246 00:16:10,954 --> 00:16:12,514 of things. Thank you.