Original. In English. La entrevista, en Español, se halla publicada en LA VOZ LIBRE (http://www.lavozlibre.com/noticias/blog_opiniones/2/900612/david-b-weishampel-todavia-existen-muchisimos-dinosaurios-por-descubrir/1).
1) Were all dinosaurs warm-blooded?
Like much in dinosaur paleontology, we don’t know for sure which
taxa among dinosaurs were warm-blooded. I’m fairly certain that
all or nearly all theropods were warm-blooded throughout life and
that remaining dinosaurs were warm-blooded at least at small,
hatchling size if not larger.
2) An animal like Seismosaurus,
Diplodocus or Brachiosaurus… how many hours could be eating in
order to rest in live!!?!?!?!? How many preys would a T-Rex need, for
example, in a week?
I imagine that the largest sauropods had to eat
as much as possible over a full day and night. I have no idea how
long they slept, but it couldn’t have been for very long at a
stretch – their hunger would have woken them up!! As far as T. rex
is concerned, some scientists have calculated that something like
10-20 adult hadrosaurs per year could satisfy an individual T. rex!!
3) Do you think some dinosaurs were so
big because oxygen in Earth´s Atmosphere was more abundant?
I’m
not sure about this one, but it is true that body size increases
happened numerous times independently. I would worry about sources
of carbon in animals that grew very large and at such rapid rates.
4) Nowadays we know that in Mesozoic
there were mammals that ate dinosaurs, birds similar to ostriches… So it seems size was not the main issue in order to explain why some
animals survive to massive extinction and others not, isn´t? Oxygen,
Nemesis theory, … there are many dinosaur’s extinction theories
but which is your favorite one?
According to some scientists, the
census of survivors indicates that organisms should be freshwater in
habit, ectothermic, small, and non-amniotic to beat whatever the
cause of this extinction were. I don't know about cyclicity holds up
any longer, but I do think that, when the 10 km diameter bolide hit
the earth it was a very bad day for whoever was around.
5) Someday I read that it could be
possible some dinosaurs survived massive extinction (not a bird) as
far as Eocene or Oligocene era. What do you think about it?
I think
it’s very unlikely. Better claims have been made that a few
individual non-avian dinosaurs made it briefly into the early
Paleocene, but the days of these animals was over at the
Cretaceous-Paleocene extinction.
6) We know that some dinosaurs (like
Troodon) were really intelligent. Do you think that we can say some
dinosaurs were second´s world most intelligent animals in history? Were they more intelligent than monkeys, parrots, crows…?
Hardly
likely, although they were certainly smarter than originally
portrayed.
7) Some of your most famous
investigations were about Parasaurolophus head and voice. Tell us
something about your experience!
I did this research for my master’s
degree at the University of Toronto, a wonderful place with a great
collection of lambeosaurine skull, one of which is the best preserved
of Parasaurolophus. I was very happy (and a bit scared…) to be
working on this fine skull and I also got to use some of the physics
I learned as an undergraduate to model the potential that the crest
of Parasaurolophus and other lambeosaurines were used as vocal
resonators.
8) From my point of view there are
plenty of politics in paleontology. For example, everyone knows T-Rex
but not Giganotosaurus, Diplodocus but not Argentinosaurus. What is
your opinion about it?
Well, there are lots of politics in
paleontology, but you should also consider that both Tyrannosaurus
and Diplodocus have been known for over a hundred years, while
Giganotosaurus and Argentinosaurus have been known for at most 20
years. Give ‘em time!
9) In last years,
it has been discovered many fossils of theropods bigger than T-Rex (Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus…).
T-Rex was more a myth or a unique dinosaur?
No, I would say that T.
rex was a really dinosaur, but many people have made myths about its
functional morphology and paleoecology.
10) What was your opinion about the
film when you left cinema after watching Jurassic Park? What is the
film’s contribution to people knowledge about dinosaurs?
It's
actually difficult remembering just what we – as the public or as
scientists – knew about dinosaurs pre-Jurassic Park. I enjoyed the
movie, marveled at the computer animation, and thought that the
people were almost unnecessary in most of the plot.
11) In “Terranova” (TV-SERIE),
appears some imagined dinosaurs. Jack Horner said that there are
plenty of dinosaurs to discover until. What percentage, more or less,
do you think that it has been discovered?
Some scientists have tried
to calculate what % of all dinosaurs have been found to-date, but
each time they do, their statistics get looser and looser, which I
take to mean that we are discovering so many new dinosaurs at such an
exceeding rate that the number of total dinosaurs we’ll ever find
cannot be calculated. So like Jack Horner, I’m only willing to say
that there are plenty more dinosaurs to be found.
12) Some professors have written that
species discovered were least. For example, T-Rex, Tarbosaurus…
sub-species in a unique spice (like Siberian and Indian tiger?)?
With dinosaur taxonomy, there are plenty of differences of opinion
about what is and what isn’t a different species (or genus, etc.).
If someone wants to synonymize Tyrannosaurus and Tarbosaurus, or T.
rex and T. Bataar, I’m willing to listen to their arguments, but
they would have to be very good arguments, as in all science.
13) Do you think, sincerely, that
humans will be able to revive dinosaurs someday?
No, for reasons of
evolutionary and developmental biology. The uniqueness of a species
also gives uniqueness to its extinction. Once extinct, then it
cannot be brought back to life as the same form. It might look like
a dinosaur, but it wouldn’t be part of the dinosaur historical
entity. That is, if birds are not considered dinosaurs!!!!!
14) In Europe is too difficult to work
as paleontologist, especially in Spain. Do you think that it´s
easier to work as paleontologist in USA? Was this job your first
option in mind?
It is true that in the US, there appear to be more
jobs, although it’s a big place. It all depends on the richness of
the dinosaurian fossil record of a particular place and how much the
governments and universities are willing to support people who can
study this material. In Spain and elsewhere in Europe, there are a
number of universities and institutes that do support dinosaur
research, which is great.. But for everyone across the globe it’s
getting harder and harder to maintain this kind of research.
15) What´s your opinion about
Spanish´s paleontology?
Do you think that Spain is an important
country in dinosaurs study? I’m very excited about Spanish
dinosaur paleontology!!! There is quite a lot of new fieldwork being
done throughout Spain, which is leading to the recognition of new
taxa and providing new interpretations of paleoecology, diversity,
and paleobiogeography.
16) Last one, what´s your favorite
dinosaur??
Zalmoxes, an ornithopod recently recognized from the Late
Cretaceous of Romania that my colleagues and I got to name and
describe.
Thanks Professor for your attention!
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