WHERE THE DINOSAURS ARE

My Ants Allosaurus skeleton recently experienced some "issues" and it led me to do some websurfing to see if anyone else had anything to say about that model. I found some really interesting websites and decided it was time to update my links. I am also getting round to making some new images of some of the models on this website and even adding some new items.

There are a lot of great sites about Dinosaurs on the Web. The Internet has opened a lot of doors into the past for me, and now I hope to open a few for you. I have been interested in Dinosaurs since early childhood. I enjoy talking about them and sharing my interest with anyone who is willing to listen, but face it: first and foremost, you are here for pictures. If those interest you, I hope you will want to stick around and read what I have to say. I plan to show pictures of my Dinosauria collection, then give some commentary about topics of interest (to me). My name is Frank Galef and further down this page I will tell you a little more about me and my why I maintain such an ongoing interest in Dinosaurs. At the end I will tell you about some links to other excellent Dinosaur and Paleontology websites. Thanks for coming, enjoy your visit!

This is the skull and neck of the Glencoe Tyrannosaurus skeleton. It was modified extensively and colored to resemble a real fossil. All of the foraminae in the skull were opened and a palate was added. To see the rest of the skeleton, check out my Tyrannosaur page.

The Deinonychus skull in the title above is a plaque that I carved from an oak bookshelf. I did this several years ago, before there were abundant and readily affordable skulls that are now available from a variety of sources. (see the links page)

As you page through my website, you will find a series of essays. I certainly won't even try to present anything like a comprehensive review of Dinosaurs. I will discuss a variety of subjects related to Dinosaurs that happen to interest me.

Popular media often presents the question, "Why the modern fascination with Dinosaurs?" Obviously they appeal to a lot of people for a variety of different reasons. The most common reason I see is that they are the closest thing to real dragons that have ever lived. It seems incredible that any creatures so large and powerful could have walked the same Earth that we occupy today. For most of recorded history humans have viewed our world as having been placed here for our benefit and use. We are finally beginning to understand that this planet has been home to millions of other species over hundreds of millions of years. Each of them evolved to take the maximum possible advantage of the ecological niche available to it. Dinosaurs dominated this terrestrial frame more successfully and longer than any other group of animals since the first vertebrates crawled onto the land. How did they do it? The basic theme that runs through all of my writing is that they were not dragons or other fantastical monsters. They had to accomplish their domination under the same rules of physiology and evolution common to all organisms. A lot of what passes for Dinosaur Science in the popular press today ignores this basic truth, which seems to occur out of enthusiasm for such an exciting subject rather than any deliberate attempt to mislead. In my education in both Zoology and Medicine I have learned a lot about anatomy and physiology as they apply to a functional organism. Personally, I find it exciting to figure out how Dinosaurs became such amazing animals and how they solved the problems of survival with what is basically the same protoplasm that Life on Earth has used for more than a billion years and is still using today. This is really a lot more interesting than just thinking of them as figments of our imagination. If you want fantasy, go dream about dragons.

For more on Tyrannosaurs, see T-rex: A Call For Arms .
I have something to say about raptors, my favorite wild bunch, at Raptor Revisionism
For an Apatasaurus skeleton, some ruminations on sauropod physiology, and shots of some kits in my collection,
see Mesozoic Meandering .
To view my collection of Dinosaur teeth and some opinions about current trends in scientifically accurate
dinosaur portrayal, see Art and Artifice .
I discuss my ultimate May-December love affair and list some links at My Dinosaur Tale .

I may also have something to say about the way we torture paleo-political correctness to call birds dinosaurs. There was a recent series of lectures on dinosaur-bird evolution at the San Diego Natural History Museum and I am actually working on incorporating what I learned into this long-planned but never written rant.