On the eve of European colonization, the Potomac River valley was a remarkably fertile place, teeming with game and fish, and with rich soil well suited to cultivation; yet when the first colonists arrived they found much of it apparently uninhabited. Why?
When it comes to dinosaurs, there are few who can match the enthusiasm for the subject than that possessed by children with a particular interest in them. To be sure, paleontologists know their field of study, but for sheer exuberance-driven knowledge, your dino-obsesed ten-year-old is a perpetually bubbling font of information like few others.
To say that the Mesozoic fossils that have been discovered in the Jehol region of China are remarkable is to greatly understate the matter; they are breath-taking. And among all the fossils found, few can rival those of the early birds discovered there.
Many of my fondest childhood memories involve the sea and its myriad fishes. My father was commercial fisherman. His father was a commercial fisherman. My mother worked in the offices of Bumble Bee Seafoods. Many of my aunts, uncles and cousins either caught fish or worked in fish canneries for their livings. We all lived […]