A Conversation with Dr. Bob Bakker

February 2020 - My first interview with Dr.Robert Bakker appeared in the February/March 2001 issue of Prehistoric Times.

- Tony Campagna

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple of other times and meeting him in person several times. (*He and Matthew Mossbrucker are not above peer pressuring a grown man into trying salad when he is clearly a carnivorous pastaivore.) I should know by now that one can ask Dr. Bob a direct question, but they should not expect a direct or short answer. What you’re about to read is my latest attempt to interview this most interesting fellow as he, Bob, finds himself talking to a friend, me, vs some anonymous reporter. You’ll see what I mean. So find a comfy seat and come and “listen in” to my latest visit with one of paleontology’s most interesting characters, Dr. Robert Bakker.

Tony Campagna: Well… should we begin with dinosaur-related questions?

Bob Bakker: Absolutely! Well, this is dinosaur-related. What would be the difference? I was just thinking about this actually! Because I have this very nice Brontosaurus skull, you can see the braincase and its whole brain wouldn’t be much bigger than your thumb in an animal that weighs as much as 10 15 elephants? And good ol’ Professor Marsh in 1879, he was the first to cut open a sauropod braincase and went, “Gahh!” and that’s why he named it Morosaurus grandis which means – The Grand Stupid Lizard.

So what emotional complexity, what social complexity, could you possibly pack into a Brontosaurus brain? And you get to T. rex and for its time it’s got a pretty good brain, some swelling in the forebrain region and we have some field data that some big carnivorous dinosaurs,