Jack Horner (paleontologist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jack Horner
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Horner in 2015
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| Born | June 15, 1946 Shelby, Montana, U.S.
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| Awards | Romer–Simpson Medal (2013) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Paleontology |
| Institutions | Chapman University, Horner Science Group |
John Robert Horner (born June 15, 1946) is an American paleontologist. He is famous for finding the Maiasaura dinosaur. This discovery showed for the first time that some dinosaurs took care of their babies.
Besides his dinosaur finds, Horner helped with the first five Jurassic Park movies. He was a technical advisor, meaning he made sure the science in the films was correct. He also had a small role in Jurassic World. One of the main characters in the movies, Dr. Alan Grant, was partly inspired by Jack Horner.
Horner went to the University of Montana. He did not finish his degree because he had dyslexia, which was not diagnosed at the time. Dyslexia makes reading and writing difficult. Later, he was given an honorary Doctor of Science degree. He retired from Montana State University in 2016. Now, he teaches at Chapman University.
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Jack Horner's Early Life and Discoveries
Horner grew up near Shelby, Montana. He was only 8 years old when he found his first dinosaur bone! He studied geology and zoology at the University of Montana. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. Even though he had dyslexia, he wrote an important paper about ancient fossils found in Montana. In 1986, the University of Montana gave him an honorary science degree. He also received the special MacArthur Fellowship award that year.
Discovering the "Good Mother Lizard"
In the mid-1970s, Jack Horner and his friend Bob Makela found a dinosaur nesting site in Montana. They named the new dinosaur Maiasaura, which means "Good Mother Lizard." This was a huge discovery! It was the first time dinosaur eggs and embryos were found in the Western Hemisphere. It also showed that some dinosaurs lived in groups, built nests, and cared for their young. This find made Horner a well-known paleontologist.
Horner has named several other dinosaur species. One of them, Orodromeus makelai, is named after his late friend Bob Makela. Three dinosaurs have also been named after Jack Horner himself: Achelousaurus horneri, Anasazisaurus horneri, and Daspletosaurus horneri.
How Dinosaurs Grew
Horner is very well known for his research on how dinosaurs grew. He has written many articles with other scientists about this topic. They study dinosaur bones of different sizes, from babies to adults. This helps them understand how dinosaurs changed as they got older.
Horner also talked about the idea that Tyrannosaurus rex might have been a scavenger (eating animals that are already dead) instead of a hunter. He said he used this idea mostly to teach people, especially kids, not to make assumptions in science without proof.
In 2000, Horner's teams found five T. rex fossils. The next summer, they found three more, including one that was bigger than the famous "Sue" specimen. This new fossil was about 10% larger than other T. rex finds. The Museum of the Rockies now has the largest collection of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils in the world!
Soft Tissue and Juvenile Dinosaurs
In 2005, Horner was part of a team that found soft tissue inside a T. rex fossil. This was a very rare and exciting discovery. In 2007, scientist Mary Higby Schweitzer was able to find proteins from this fossil.
In 2009, a documentary called "Dinosaurs Decoded" looked at Horner's research on young dinosaurs. He believes that young dinosaurs looked so different from adults that they were sometimes mistaken for new species. His research suggests that many known dinosaur "sub-species" might actually be younger versions of other dinosaurs. For example, he thinks some types of Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus are just young versions of other known species. Horner believes that if his research continues, about one-third of all known dinosaurs could be reclassified this way.
Awards and Retirement
On November 2, 2013, Horner received the Romer–Simpson Prize. This is the highest award a paleontologist can get from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
When he retired from Montana State University in 2016, a foundation gave $3 million to create the John R. Horner Curator of Paleontology Chair. This money helps fund the work of future paleontologists at the Museum of the Rockies and Montana State University.
Jack Horner is also the subject of a children's book called Jack Horner, Dinosaur Hunter!. The book tells his life story, from finding his first bone as a child to working on the Jurassic Park movies. It also talks about his scientific work and how he managed life with dyslexia.
The "Build a Dinosaur" Project
In his 2009 book, How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever, Jack Horner talks about a fascinating idea. He wants to create a dinosaur by changing the DNA of a chicken. He calls this project building a "chickenosaurus." The idea for this project came from an early script for the movie Jurassic World.
Horner started working on this project with a team of geneticists in 2011. By 2014, his team had done some early research on how tails develop in embryos. This kind of research could even lead to new treatments for people with spine problems. Research into chicken embryo tissues that control tooth growth might also help treat certain human cancers.
In 2015, other scientists found ways to change chicken embryos. They were able to make chicken beaks look more like dinosaur snouts. Also, geneticists in Chile made embryos with legs and feet that looked like dinosaurs. Horner hopes to have a living "chickenosaurus" within 10 years.
See also
In Spanish: Jack Horner para niños
