Dr. Dale Russell Passed Away

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I just read this a few minutes ago on facebook.  I remember Dr Russell from several interviews he did on the various dinosaur documentaries of the 80's and 90's, while he never was as popular as Jack Horner or Bob Bakker, he was very even toned in speaking, but no less creative and passionate about our prehistoric past.  Last I had read he was working at the North Carolina Museum , not a terribly long way from me and I had thought one day I might get to meet him. Sadly that will never be now.

Fb article : https://www.facebook.com/groups/293131130735001/permalink/2681200645261359/


Videos featuring Dr Dale Russell :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdA5bja8GS0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0obDDUSJywY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQxFGpoGTYE

[Doug Watson]

That's a shame, mind you 82 is a pretty long life. I was surprised to hear he was that old mind you its been well over 20 years since I last saw him. He was curator of palaeontology at CMN when I was working there on the Mammoth group. Unlike the other scientists there he never seemed to want to talk dinosaurs with me when I tried to engage him in conversation but other than that he was pretty entertaining at coffee break time. He left CMN and took the job in North Carolina while I was still with the museum.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I was surprised as well, he always seemed to me " one of the younger guys" on those documentaries.  Bakker seems like Keith Richards now heh

I've often wondered if he faced a lot of ridicule regarding his Dinosauroid idea. Perhaps that made him jaded or cautious when anyone wanted to talk dinosaurs?

I didn't know he described include Daspletosaurus, and he was one of the first paleontologists to propose a meteor for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

[SidB]

That's a shame, mind you 82 is a pretty long life. I was surprised to hear he was that old mind you its been well over 20 years since I last saw him. He was curator of palaeontology at CMN when I was working there on the Mammoth group. Unlike the other scientists there he never seemed to want to talk dinosaurs with me when I tried to engage him in conversation but other than that he was pretty entertaining at coffee break time. He left CMN and took the job in North Carolina while I was still with the museum.

Yes, although not untimely, still melancholy news (I had one of his books in my personal library during the formative years of my collecting of dinosaur models). I'd have to say though that we're blessed to have you engage us in dinosaur talk, even if we don't necessarily get a chance to do that over coffee with you.

[Gwangi]

I remember watching him a lot in the 80's and 90's, he was in the Christopher Reeve hosted documentary Dinosaur! which I was watching constantly back then. I have one of his books too, "An Odyssey in Time". 

[EmperorDinobot]

May Dr. Dale Russell rest in peace. I met him at an expo accidentally in Canada when I was a teenager, in Vancouver. We talked about therizinosaurs being cool and stuff for a brief moment.




This hurts.

[Dinoreplicas]

One of the greats who made a substantial contribution to palaeontology. Personally I loved the dinosauroid idea as a science fiction concept to promote interest in dinosaurs.

[HD-man]

In addition to the videos below, I really like his Sampson 2009 review: https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/50/3/474/615944

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYe3r-wH_1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTiyjxwNLUo

[Faelrin]

I'll admit I was only probably familiar with his dinosauroid stuff (and as far back as I was a child in the 90's), but I liked it (much like I enjoyed the Future is Wild speculative doc thing, and other similar things of that nature) even if the current evidence conflicts with it. Nonetheless this is still a sad time to lose one who has contributed to paleontology in important ways.