Dino Family Values

Bob Bakker bends over a dissecting microscope in a makeshift laboratory at the Wyoming Dinosaur International Society, meticulously cleaning dinosaur and crocodile teeth that have not seen daylight in 147 million years. His scope sits on a counter beside dirty coffee mugs, cooking utensils, and a microwave oven crowned with a toy mastodon. All around are plastic refrigerator dishes and Quaker Oats containers filled with drill bits, dental picks, razor blades, and fossils. Listening to National Public Radio, he ignores the clutter and contentedly focuses on the task at hand. Right now he is going to work on a peanut-size piece of gray mudstone, scanning for evidence of a Jurassic-era struggle. "Who's the chewer and who's the chewee?" Bakker asks as he examines a tiny black, fossilized triangle. Compared with the giant skeletons that spin museum turnstiles, this embedded crocodile tooth is an unprepossessing fleck. Seen through Bakker's eyes, however, ...