The golden age of dinosaur science

Like most people, I grew up with a fascination with dinosaurs. To some extent, it still lingers with me: I named my car Steggie, my dad and I bake gingerbread dinosaurs together, and I make dinosaur mini-cakes (thanks Colleenie!). But sadly, the state of the science regarding dinosaurs is not what it was when I was young. I miss those days. (Yes, scientific advancement is bad when it gets in the way of nostalgia. Maybe this is how creationists feel.)

Kids today have never heard of the much-loved Brontosaurus from our youth. The Brontosaurus has been wiped from existence! Sure, I know, the Brontosaurus should never have been. It was just an Apatosaurus with some other species' head. The myth of the Brontosaurus was perpetuated by academic egos and couldn't be rectified until the previous generation of paleontologists (or at least one of them) was replaced. But I miss the Brontosaurus. Brontosauruses make the biggest cookies. (I refuse to update my nomenclature. There are no gingerbread Apatosauruses.) Bring back the Brontosaurus! I'm more than ok with the Apatosaurus being eradicated to make way for it.

But what I really miss is the theory that since Stegosauruses (and their ilk) were so large, there was no way a brain in the head could effectively control the far-away back half of the animal. The obvious solution for evolution (and researchers) to adopt was that they had a second brain in their butt. What else could that cavity in the pelvis be for anyway? I really wish I had a butt-brain. Just imagine it. If I had a brain in my head and a brain in my butt, I'd be twice as smart! Might help with ballet too, who knows. If only! Evolution really missed the boat on that one...