Jack Horner: From Finding Fossil Bones to Visualizing Dinosaurs

Written by Devin Reese

Figuring out what dinosaurs looked like is a challenge for paleontologists. The tissues that typically fossilize are the hard ones like bones and teeth. But much of what an animal looks like relates to softer tissues like skin, fat, and feathers. So, reconstructing dinosaurs requires a close look at the fossil evidence, knowledge about similar modern animals, and creativity. In the making of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, Steven Spielberg looked to paleontologist Jack Horner.

Jack found his first dinosaur bone as an eight-yearold kid growing up in Montana. Later, while a fossil technician at Princeton University, Jack discovered the first ever nest of dinosaur eggs with babies inside – from Troodon – which led him to a vast nesting colony at a site later dubbed Egg Mountain. The nests suggested that some dinosaurs cared for their young like mammals or birds.

Over time, as a professor at Montana State University, Jack built up the largest collection of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils in the world.

In your talks, why do you describe dinosaurs as being beautiful, both inside and out?

Many dinosaurs were adorned with accoutrements, or display features like horns and shields and plates and spikes and so forth, and for most birds that have cranial accoutrements these features are vividly colored. It makes sense that dinosaur accoutrements would also be vividly colored. As for the “insides” their bone histology is also beautiful as we view it in polarized light.

Your version of Triceratops painted by Italian artist Fabio Pastori shows an amazing combination of science and art. Please explain how you envisioned this piece based on your study of dinosaur bone histology and dinosaur accoutrements.

Triceratops skulls possess blood grooves that course over their shields and horns and other areas of their skulls. Blood grooves are found under tightly fitting tissues like keratin, so it makes sense that their skulls were covered by tight fitting, hard tissues like the keratin of our fingernails. Bird beaks and their accoutrements possess blood groves and the tissues that cover these areas are often vividly colored, hence, a vividly colored Triceratops.

Below: Triceratops horn histology section. All rights reserved.

What was it like working on the 2022 film Jurassic World Dominion, particularly in comparison with previous Jurassic Park films?

I worked on all of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies except Dominion, which was made during the pandemic. I was credited but didn’t do anything.

I’m pretty sure my credit was complimentary since I had insisted on feathered dinosaurs since the first movie, and it didn’t happen until Dominion. Having dyslexia, do you have any words of advice for those with dyslexia, or the neurodiverse, aspiring to develop their scientific or creative career?

As with anything, if a person has a passion, and the ambition to pursue, for a particular career they should go for it regardless of real or perceived impediments.

Dyslexia, and in particular spatial thinking, is actually an advantage in paleontology, and many other branches of science like zoology and anatomy etc.

Jack Horner is a self-made paleontologist in the sense that he never earned a college degree, but was awarded an honorary doctorate, a National Geographic Explorer title, and other recognitions of the huge impact of his work. Although his dyslexia got him into lots of trouble at school, it also propelled him outdoors to make significant dinosaur discoveries.

Jack continues to teach, do research and help reconstruct the dinosaurs that once roamed the Earth. He is currently working with biologists to bring back dinosaur characteristics in a genetically modified bird he calls the Chickenosaurus. And maybe the next step after that could be recreating one of the several dinosaurs named after Jack Horner like Achelousaurus horneri or Daspletosaurus horneri.

Jack Horner is a dyslexic paleontologist, an educator, an author, and a mentor. He attended 14 semesters of college but lacks a college degree.

Jack was Curator of and Regents Professor of Paleontology at Montana State University for 34 years, and now teaches at Chapman University in Orange, California. Website: www.jackhornersdinosaurs.com

Twitter: @dustydino

Instagram: @jackhornersdinovision