John Ostrom

John Harold Ostrom (February 18, 1928 – July 16, 2005) was an American paleontologist who revolutionized modern understanding of dinosaurs in the 1960s.

John Ostrom
John Ostrom and Deinonychus skeleton cast. Photo courtesy Yale University.
Born(1928-02-18)February 18, 1928
New York City, New York
DiedJuly 16, 2005(2005-07-16) (aged 77)
Litchfield, Connecticut
NationalityAmerican
Alma materYale
Columbia
Union College
Known forThe "Dinosaur renaissance"
AwardsHayden Memorial Geological Award (1986)
Romer-Simpson Medal (1994)
Scientific career
FieldsPaleontology
Doctoral studentsRobert T. Bakker
Thomas Holtz

As first proposed by Thomas Henry Huxley in the 1860s,[1][2] Ostrom showed that dinosaurs were more like big non-flying birds than they were like lizards (or "saurians").

The first of Ostrom's broad-based reviews of the osteology and phylogeny of the primitive bird Archaeopteryx appeared in 1976. His reaction to the eventual discovery of feathered dinosaurs in China, after years of acrimonious debate, was bittersweet.[3]

Early life and career

John was born in New York and he studied at Union College. He planned to be a physician like his father, but he changed his mind after reading George Gaylord Simpson's book The Meaning of Evolution. He enrolled at Columbia University and studied with Edwin H. Colbert. The type species Utahraptor ostrommaysorum was named in his honour. In 1952 he married Nancy Grace Hartman (d. 2003) and they had two daughters: Karen and Alicia.[4]

Ostrom taught for one year at Brooklyn College and then spent five years at Beloit College before going to Yale. Ostrom was a professor at Yale University where he was the Curator Emeritus of vertebrate paleontology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, which has an impressive fossil collection originally started by Othniel Charles Marsh. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 77 in Litchfield, Connecticut.[5]

Key Discoveries

In the field of paleontology, Ostrom is responsible for the following key discoveries:

Warm-blooded Deinonychus

His 1964 discovery of additional Deinonychus fossils is considered one of the most important fossil finds in history.[6] Deinonychus was an active predator that clearly killed its prey by leaping and slashing or stabbing with its "terrible claw". Evidence of a truly active lifestyle included long strings of muscle running along the tail, making it a stiff counterbalance for jumping and running. The conclusion that at least some dinosaurs had a high metabolism, and were thus in some cases warm-blooded, was popularized by his student Robert T. Bakker. This helped to change the impression of dinosaurs as the sluggish, slow, cold-blooded lizards which had prevailed since the turn of the century.

This changed how dinosaurs are depicted by both professional dinosaur illustrators, and in the public eye. The find is also credited with triggering the "dinosaur renaissance", a term coined in a 1975 issue of Scientific American by Bakker to describe the renewed debates causing an influx of interest in paleontology, which has lasted from the 1970s to the present and has doubled recorded dinosaur diversity.

Archaeopteryx and the origin of flight, and hadrosaur herds

Ostrom's interest in the dinosaur-bird connection started with his study of what is now known as the Haarlem Archaeopteryx. Discovered in 1855, it was actually the first specimen recovered but, incorrectly labeled as Pterodactylus crassipes, it languished in the Teylers Museum in the Netherlands until Ostrom's 1970 paper (and 1972 description) correctly identified it as one of only eight "first birds" (counting the solitary feather).

Ostrom's reading of fossilized Hadrosaurus trackways also led him to the conclusion that these duckbilled dinosaurs traveled in herds.

Cultural Influence

John Ostrom's work on the functional morphology of dinosaurs found that the claws and tendon scars in the tail would indicate a running position. And so the whole posture of bipedal dinosaurs changed to one of agile, fast-running, fearsome predators. This inspired a new generation of dinosaur movies and also museums worldwide changed their dinosaur bone displays.

In 1966 John H. Ostrom was instrumental in the establishment of Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut ("because the governor was besieged by letters from schoolchildren swayed into dino-mania by Ostrom"[7]).

Dinosaur Dig Sites

John Ostrom set up a full-time dig site at the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming in the 1960s, as well he spent a lot of time digging at Rocky Hill.

Scientific classification
  • In 1970 John Ostrom gave Microvenator celer its formal name (meaning "fast small hunter").
  • Also in 1970 he named Tenontosaurus tilletti (meaning "tendon lizard").
  • In 1993 James Kirkland, Robert Gaston, and Donald Burge named a fossil Utahraptor ostrommaysorum for John Ostrom and Chris Mays. The largest discovered example of this species is 23 feet long and had an estimated live weight over 1000 pounds.
  • In 1998 Catherine Forster named a fossil Rahonavis ostromi (meaning "Ostrom's menace from the clouds") in honour of John Ostrom. The fossil is that of a primitive winged creature with a two-foot wingspan, feathers and a sickle-shaped claw on its second toe designed for slashing prey, similar to Deinonychus and Archaeopteryx.
  • In 2017, Ostromia (a new genus named for the Haarlem specimen, formerly of Archaeopteryx) was named in his honor.
gollark: Of course, you won't be able to actually *buy* one during the initial-wave purchases unless you get in early.
gollark: There will be increases, but spread out.
gollark: *slowed
gollark: Then the rest of the initial wave will be sloewd.
gollark: First purchasers put it up 100 shards.

References

Notes
  1. Fedduccia, Alan 1999. The origin and evolution of birds. Yale University Press, p55. ISBN 0-300-07861-7
  2. Heilmann G. 1926. The origin of birds. London: Witherby.
  3. At last, his theory flies. May 5, 2001. Olivia F. Gentile. Hartford Courant.
  4. Courant, Hartford. "OSTROM, DR. JOHN H." courant.com. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  5. Schudel, Matt (July 22, 2005). "Dinosaur Expert John Ostrom Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  6. Dromaeosauridae
  7. Carlson, Barbara (July 23, 2005). "BRINGING SHALE TO LIFE". courant.com. Retrieved 2019-08-02.

Sources
  • "Archaeopteryx" at the Wayback Machine (archived May 27, 2006). May 1975. John H. Ostrom. Discovery, volume 11, number 1, pages 15 to 23.
  • Obituary Los Angeles Times July 21, 2005
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