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Dinosaurs play big part in Scott Persons's life

By Rose Hooper
Persons With the tiniest of brushes, Scott Persons IV of Tuckasegee removes little gains of sand from the dorsel vertebrae of an allosaurus, a large therapod carnivorous dinosaur, during a summer adventure in South Central, Wyo. From the skeleton, scientists can tell about the kind of environment the dinosaur lived in, whether it lived a violent life or suffered from disease. Scott Persons III and his wife, Sue, often wonder if things would have turned out the same if he had never brought that book home from Las Vegas.

"I had to bring my 2-year-old son, Scott IV, a present home from my business trip... That was back in 1987 when Vegas was not a family-oriented town. I couldn't find a toy store, but I did find a museum, so I got this book, 'The Big, Little Dinosaur,'" said Scott III.

From the first words and pictures about the giant prehistoric reptiles that ruled for 165 million years, then suddenly disappeared 65 million years ago, young Scott was hooked.

"I had to read that book to him again and again," his dad said about the serendipitous book that influenced his young son's life.

That was 15 years ago, but not such a long time compared to the millions of years that now influence this Smoky Mountain High School junior's daily life.

"I don't incorporate dinosaurs into my daily life; I work my life around dinosaurs," an enthusiastic Scott IV explained.

"Most kids want to go to Six Flags or an amusement park. Not Scott IV. He wanted to go to museums... So we centered most of our vacations around museums specializing in dinosaurs," said Scott III.

Bumgarner Scott Persons investigates theropod tracks in South Central, Wyo. Theropods were flesh-eating dinosaurs that had claws with grappling hooks. The distance between prints tells the stride. Most of the large, four-legged plant-eating dinosaurs had broad feet like an elephant and lumbered rather slowly. Meanwhile, many two-legged dinosaurs had long, birdlike feet and three toes with sharp claws and could run as fast as a horse. Persons assisted with pouring latex into the footprints to harden and make a mold.

One such vacation included the Melbourne Museum in Australia, where a 10-year-old Scott, through a stoke of bad luck-turned-good, met his first real-life paleontologist, Dr. John Rich.

When the Persons arrived at the museum, the dinosaur exhibit was under renovation and not available to the public.

"We had come a long way, and my mom knew I was determined to see dinosaurs, so she insisted on seeing the museum's dinosaur specialist," said Scott III. "That was Dr. Rich, who took us up to the top floor of the museum, which was closed off to the public, and showed us collections that we would never have seen on a regular visit.

"I even got to hold the skull of the Leaellynsaura, which he found there in Australia and named after his daughter - one of the few dinosaurs named after a person."

The weeklong vacations of dinosaur explorations turned into summerlong adventures for Scott, who has spent the last three summers in South Central, Wyo., with the renowned Dr. Robert Bakker, often seen on the Discovery Channel.

"Our idea was to take Scott out there, let him work tediously all day in 95 degree heat from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and he would tire of that real quickly," said his dad. "At home, if we asked him to mow the grass or weed the lawn in such conditions, he would have said, 'No way!'"

But young Scott "proved himself," his dad said, describing how he "actually thrived on the work."

"We used tiny, tiny paint brushes for sweeping away dirt, thin straws for blowing off the smallest specks and toothpick-size picks," said the teenager who found fossils of several dinosaur teeth from 145 million years ago.

Persons&Dr. As a "dino-dective" Scott Persons IV, right, accompanies Dr. Robert Bakker, left, on a dinosaur dig. "The biodiversity of dinosaurs really fascinates me," Persons said of his fascination that began at age 2.

At a site named Nail, Scott helped remove the skull of an allosaurus, a large therapod carnivorous dinosaur. He was also thrilled to help Dr. Bakker clean the skull.

"Dr. Bakker is such a wild fellow - but a fantastic paleontologist. He's also an artist, so when he lectures he does these wonderful illustrations," said Scott, who was inspired by Bakker's creativity. "He's also a former anatomy teacher, so he really teaches us about bones."

For instance, Scott learned there is no such dinosaur as a brontosaurus, often referred to as the "thunder lizard."

"Turns out it was an apatosaurus body with a camarasaurus head," Scott said. "The camarasaurus head was found near the site of an apatasuarus body, so the paleontologist just figured they went together. When they displayed the skeleton in a museum, everyone just thought that's the way the dinosaur looked... big body, small head."

Scott's local reputation as a dinosaur expert started as early as Marsha Cameron's third-grade class at Cullowhee.

"We were doing a unit on dinosaurs, and Mrs. Cameron told each of us to bring in a replica of our favorite one. I brought in a whole bag full. After I talked to the class about each of them - like the carnitaurus, who had jaws that could flex sideways so it could eat large pieces of meat - Mrs. Cameron asked me to give the presentation to the other third grades," Scott said, explaining the beginnings of a tradition.

Every year when third-graders begin their unit on dinosaurs, Scott returns to share his expertise. He's made presentations to older students and adults, as well. The one question everybody asks is, "Why did dinosaurs become extinct?"

One of the theories, Scott explains, is that a meteorite crashed into the earth 65 million years ago, sending up a huge cloud of dust and activating volcanic eruptions and wildfires that blocked out the sun. Another theory is that a tremendous cooling of the climate, while others believe that invading dinosaurs carried diseases that wiped out populations. Still another theory is that mammals ate the dinosaur eggs.

"No one knows for sure," said Scott, who can debate the pros and cons of each theory.

For science projects in school, young Scott was able to focus on different aspects of dinosaurs. Currently in school he is incorporating the ancient creatures into a play he has just written called "Rosenburg's Beast" about a Jewish museum curator trying to save his dinosaur relics from destruction during the Holocaust.

And it all began with "The Big, Little Dinosaur."

Back to Archive: 09/12/02.