Famed dino hunter reflects on the history of paleontology: ‘Our story is incomplete’
Global News
Canada’s famed dinosaur hunter Philip Currie — who inspired the author of Jurassic Park — says he’ll keep digging until he’s one with the fossils he has spent his life unearthing.
Canada’s famed hunter and one of the inspirations for the Jurassic Park phenomenon turned 75 earlier this year and has no plans to drop his chisel and rock hammer.
Albertan Philip Currie says he’ll keep digging until he’s one with the fossils he has spent his life unearthing.
“I decided when I was about 40 or 50 that I was going to continue until, suddenly one day in the (Alberta) Badlands, I would go poof and I’d be gone,” Currie said in an interview ahead of the museum that’s named after him celebrating its 10th anniversary.
And he says before he does go, he hopes to find an intact specimen in Alberta of his favourite dinosaur — Troodon formosus.
It’s a brainy, big-eyed dinosaur that resembles the nasty, two-legged, big-tailed and sharp-toothed velociraptor made famous in the Jurassic Park movie series.
“(It) was probably the most intelligent dinosaur we know,” said Currie.
In other parts of the world, teeth of a similar dinosaur have been found with serrations as big as those of a T. Rex’s tooth.
“We still haven’t got a complete specimen (of the Troodon formosus) anywhere in the Western North America. It’s crazy,” he said.