Dinos Playlist! (7 TEDtalks)

Photo credit: Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment

Jurassic World is stomping all over Box Office records.

So, you guys really like Dinos, huh? Here are 7 Dinorific TEDTalks. What were dinosaurs like, why did they disappear, and what can we learn from them?

https://www.ted.com/playlists/68/dinos

• Building a dinosaur from a chicken by Jack Horner
  Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues, but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking living descendants of the dinosaur (chickens) and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits — including teeth, tails, and even hands — to make a "Chickenosaurus".
  
  
• Digging up dinosaurs by Paul Sereno
  Strange landscapes, scorching heat and (sometimes) mad crocodiles await scientists seeking clues to evolution's genius. Paleontologist Paul Sereno talks about his surprising encounters with prehistory — and a new way to help students join the adventure.
  
  
• A theory of Earth's mass extinctions by Peter Ward
  Asteroid strikes get all the coverage, but "Medea Hypothesis" author Peter Ward argues that most of Earth's mass extinctions were caused by lowly bacteria. The culprit, a poison called hydrogen sulfide, may have an interesting application in medicine.
  
  
• Where are the baby dinosaurs? by Jack Horner
  In a spellbinding talk, paleontologist Jack Horner tells the story of how iconoclastic thinking revealed a shocking secret about some of our most beloved dinosaurs.
  
  
• The history of our world in 18 minutes by David Christian
  Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is "Big History": an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.
  
  
• How to defend Earth from asteroids by Phil Plait
  What's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid — and there are lots of them out there. With humor and great visuals, Phil Plait enthralls the TEDxBoulder audience with all the ways asteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them. (Filmed at TEDxBoulder.)
  
  
• Playtime with Pleo, your robotic dinosaur friend by Caleb Chung
  Pleo the robot dinosaur acts like a living pet — exploring, cuddling, playing, reacting and learning. Inventor Caleb Chung talks about Pleo and his wild toy career at EG07, on the week that Pleo shipped to stores for the first time.