{"id":2755,"date":"2021-09-19T10:13:21","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T18:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/?p=2755"},"modified":"2023-08-12T05:46:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T13:46:40","slug":"the-way-to-a-dinosaurs-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/19\/the-way-to-a-dinosaurs-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way to a Dinosaur’s Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Jurassic<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Is through his stomach, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that may apply to T rex, but what about all those plant eaters? In my Dinosaur Wars<\/a> books I always explore new possibilities for dinosaurian looks, behaviors, and\u2026 attitudes. For example, in the first two books, I introduced this odd looking creature, Parasaurolophus. It\u2019s usually portrayed as a \u2018harmless\u2019 plant eater, but really? Was it so harmless?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year, hippos kill more people in Africa than lions. But they\u2019re plant eaters, right? Yeah, they just happen to be big, foul tempered, and very bite-y plant eaters, that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the Jurassic Park movies have chosen to present Paras as docile prey species, amenable to being roped and tied by pesky humans. Not so, Dinosaur Wars.\"Roping<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to dish up a big helping of bad-boy (and girl) for the Paras I portrayed in Dinosaur Wars 1 and 2. These beasties were described as kick-boxing ultimate warriors when it came to defending their babies\u2013or any humans they had befriended\u2013against all comers, including hungry T rexes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if you should develop a problem with a T rex, how do you get a Para to lend a helping hand, or hoof? Easy! Do what Kit Daniels did when a pair of Paras decided to build a nest on her father\u2019s ranch and raise a brood of babies\u2013she fed them! By throwing down some bales of hay from the barn, she not only earned the big animal\u2019s trust, but their loyalty too. So when Kit and her boyfriend Chase Armstrong were cornered by a Rex, their Parasaurolophian buddies came to the rescue, pummeling the meateater with their hooved forefeet and bashing it with their hind legs, like gigantic kick-boxing kangaroos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Kit had made the best choice. Rather than trying to chase away her huge new neighbors, she made friends. And very big friends indeed. Friends like that come in handy when you\u2019re living in the heart of Dinosaur Country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Human<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is through his stomach, right? Well, that may apply to T rex, but what about all those plant eaters? In my Dinosaur Wars books I always explore new possibilities for dinosaurian looks, behaviors, and\u2026 attitudes. For example, in the first two books, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35,98,350,464],"class_list":["post-2755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dinosaur-wars","tag-jurassic-park","tag-jurassic-world","tag-parasaurolophus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2755"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2894,"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2755\/revisions\/2894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thomas-hopp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}