When Worlds Collide

Abstract

We were at opposite ends of the room and on opposite sides of the debate. We talked at each other, and the words simply passed by, heard but dismissed. In the front of the room, at the podium, Peter Sheehan and I were facing a hostile crowd. We were at that moment the target of the scathing sarcasm and booming voice of that most overpowering public paleontological presence, Dr. Robert Bakker. There is no scorn to match Bakker’s, especially when he is performing before his adoring faithful. Yes, Peter Sheehan and I were being excoriated by Bakker for the very reason Stephen Jay Gould wrote about us in his recent book, Dinosaur in a Haystack.