Hey there, this is part two of a two-part episode.

If you haven't listened to part one, I recommend you do.

Thanks.

I think most of us can remember flipping through dinosaur books as children and finding

page after page of dim drab olive-colored beasts, overgrown lizards essentially.

So it's a bit shocking nowadays to open a book and see just how different dinosaurs appear.

Some have frilly orange tufts or vibrant yellow skin. Others have shimmering

stripes or scarlet mohawks. They look less like giant iguanas than more like

reptilian punk rockers.

So how did we move so quickly from one view to the other in just one generation?

This shift involved the work of many scientists, but the prime mover here was a single person.

A paleontologist who, ironically enough, couldn't stand dinosaurs.

He was a reluctant revolutionary, but the revolution he started was no less important for that.

Hi, I'm Sam Keene, and you're listening to the disappearing spoon, a topsy-turvy

sciencey history podcast, where footnotes become the real story. Growing up in Denmark, Yachab Vinther raised dozens of pets, turtles, frogs, rabbits,

fish, parakeets.

He loved observing their behavior and was convinced he should become a biologist someday.

Convinced that is, until a comic book changed his mind.

It involved Mickey Mouse, who decided to fly off to South America one day to hunt down a black orchid,

supposedly the rarest flower in the world.

The tale fascinated him, and like little kids do, he completely changed his mind about his future.

He was determined to take a botany.

...