https://www.npr.org/2021/02/09/965953078/8-year-old-calls-out-npr-for-lack-of-dinosaur-stories

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8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR For Lack Of Dinosaur Stories How can All
Things Considered consider all things without considering dinosaurs?
That's the question posed by 8-year-old Leo Shidla of Minneapolis.
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8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR For Lack Of Dinosaur Stories

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8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR For Lack Of Dinosaur Stories 3:57

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Science

8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR For Lack Of Dinosaur Stories

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February 9, 20215:02 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Mary Louise Kelly 2018 square

Mary Louise Kelly

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8-Year-Old Calls Out NPR For Lack Of Dinosaur Stories

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[gettyimage]
Enlarge this image

A model of a feathered Tyrannosaurus rex at the American Museum of
Natural History in 2019 in New York City. All Things Considered is
making amends for its lack of dinosaur coverage. Drew Angerer/Getty
Images hide caption

toggle caption
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A model of a feathered Tyrannosaurus rex at the American Museum of
Natural History in 2019 in New York City. All Things Considered is
making amends for its lack of dinosaur coverage.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

An 8-year-old from Minneapolis recently pointed out a big problem
with NPR's oldest news show, All Things Considered. Leo Shidla wrote
to his local NPR station:

    My name is Leo and I am 8 years old. I listen to All Things
    Considered in the car with mom. I listen a lot.

    I never hear much about nature or dinosaurs or things like that.
    Maybe you should call your show Newsy things Considered, since I
    don't get to hear about all the things. Or please talk more about
    dinosaurs and cool things.

    Sincerely,

    Leo

Leo has a point. All Things Considered is about to turn 50 years old.
NPR's archivists found the word "dinosaur" appearing in stories 294
times in the show's history. By comparison, "senator" has appeared
20,447 times.

To remedy the situation, All Things Considered invited Leo to ask
some questions about dinosaurs to Ashley Poust, a research associate
at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Leo wants to be a
paleontologist when he grows up.

What's your favorite part of the job?

"The thing that's the coolest for me is discovery," Poust says.
"There's nothing better than being out in the field, figuring out
where to go and then looking down and finally finding a bit of a
dinosaur sticking out of a hill."

Being a paleontologist also means he gets to work "with a lot of
really different, really interesting people," Poust adds. "But also
that exchange of thoughts and ideas like we're doing right now leads
you to come up with really neat ideas about the history of the world
and about these amazing animals."

[leo_tricer]
Enlarge this image

Leo wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up. Carrie Shidla hide
caption

toggle caption
Carrie Shidla

Leo wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up.

Carrie Shidla

Have you discovered a dinosaur?

"I have," Poust says. "I would say that I hope to find many more in
the future, but I've been able to name a few really cool fossil
animals. Some of those were discovered by other people in the process
of doing fieldwork or even construction. I recently named a dinosaur
Wulong, from China. And that was discovered by farmers. I myself have
gotten to do some really cool fieldwork in places like Montana and
back in China, and I found things ranging from Tyrannosaurus teeth to
dinosaur eggs."

Leo's favorite dinosaur is Concavenator. How big was it?

Poust describes Concavenator as a "really interesting animal with
huge bones sticking out right up in front of its hips that give it
this really sharp sail."

"It's a little smaller than, say, your T. rex or your Spinosaurus,"
Poust says. "A really tall person might have been able to look it in
the eye, but if it reared up, it could easily shadow you. And it
would be really scary."

How did dinosaurs grow to be so big and why aren't humans and mammals
the size of dinosaurs today?

"These are the types of questions that keep paleontologists up at
night," Poust says. "One thing is that dinosaurs are built different.
They have weird bones compared to mammals. Giant long-neck dinosaurs,
sauropods, actually have huge holes that are filled with potentially
air-like sacs. And so that lightens their bodies and maybe gives them
structural strength. They also grow different.

"And so mammals, of course, don't come from eggs," he says. "We have
to raise them and we're famously dependent on our parents. Maybe
dinosaurs could lay lots of eggs and leave them and go lay lots of
eggs somewhere else.

"They also grew really quickly. And so maybe they're able to grow to
these enormous sizes by being pretty active. And that's one of my
favorite areas of research.

"So they were built different. They grow different, but maybe they're
not that different. Mammals get pretty big. Whales that are alive
today are as big as anything the dinosaurs ever produced. And so
don't sleep on whales."

NPR One made a playlist of stories specifically for Leo and any other
NPR listeners needing more consideration of "dinosaurs and cool
things." Listen here.

Art Silverman and Justine Kenin produced the audio version of this
story. James Doubek produced for the Web.

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