2005 Essay Contest Winner

Entry by Robert Kendle

The Big Dream

It was the last day of the dig. While the team packed up their tents to leave. I decided to take one last walk in the bright red Mongolian Mountains. As I was walking, I stumbled on a rock sticking out of the ground. I looked back and saw a bunch of worn down vertebrae sticking out of the crumbling rock. I call the team up for a last dig and uncover a new skeleton that no one has ever seen before. The feeling of that dream has always made me want to be a paleontologist.

One of the reasons that I would like to become a paleontologist is that I would get to travel to different parts of the world. One place I would like to travel to is the Badlands of Montana. When you go there, you can see fossils sticking out of the layers of racks in the many hills there. I could also go to the Gobi Desert where you can find fossils of my favorite ancient rivalry, the Oviraptor and the Proteoceratops. Lastly, I could visit China where you can find slabs of rock with the skeletons of small dinosaurs with the feathers still on them.

One of the best parts of being a paleontologist is that the theories on dinosaurs are always changing. One of the most humorous theory changes was when two of the first paleontologists had a big fight over who could find the most species of dinosaurs. This fight is often referred to as the “Dinosaur Wars” that happened around 1870. In their contest they each found skeletons of the same species but thought they were different. It turns out that the Apatosaurus and the Brontosaurus were the exact same species.

Another great thing to study when you’re a paleontologist is the evolution of the different species. One interesting story is how the 2 foot tall Eotyrannus evolved into one of the largest dinosaurs; the Tyrannosaurus Rex. I also think it’s fascinating how the 3 foot tall Velociraptor evolved into one of the most intelligent creatures of the Early Triassic and late Cretaceous. I think it’s important to understand evolution so that you can predict what will happen in the future.

Since I was four, I have dreamed of being a paleontologist. I have visited great museums to study dinosaurs, traveled to actual sites where dinosaurs have been found, and I have been collecting fossils for years. There are so many questions that I want to find the answers to. What really happened to the dinosaurs? Did the dinosaurs really evolve into birds? What will the next big discovery be? For now, I will continue to search for that next exciting fossil and dream of being a paleontologist.