So whats the deal with the "dinosaur " phase many kids go through?

[Ludy]

Girl here

I never went through a horse phase but, man did the dinosaur phase hit me hard.

I would spend hours sitting in my backyard breaking open rocks to see what they looked like on the inside. You can imagine my excitement when I cracked one open and actually found something! Well a seaweed fossil. Nothing crazy but to a girl in grade one that loves rocks, this was a gold mine.

I distinctly remember asking my mother for a stegosaurus. My rational was that I was told there were the size of a living room, and well, if that was the case then we had the space.

I didn’t quite grasp the extinct part…

[Hampshire]

My nephew (who was 5 years-old back in 1993) was really into dinosaurs.
I took it upon myself to be the “favorite” uncle and took him to a matinee showing of Jurassic Park. They had the Dolby cranked up and we sat up front so it was really great.
I was at his high school graduation a month ago and he said he’ll never forget when I took him to see it because even though he didn’t show it at the time he was terrified and couldn’t sleep for a month.

Way to traumatise an innocent dinosaur loving 5 year-old.

[Captain_Lance_Murdoch]

@Ranchoth

It’s a Jungian thing; a sense of awe evolved from the instinctual fear of our far distant ancestors, the egg-stealing, ratlike creatures who scurried in the shadows of the true Leviathans. They may be long dead, but they have rarely been “extinct”—the legends of dragons, feathered serpents, the Chinese Lóng…creatures of myth, but spawned from the base racial memory of the beasts burned into our genetic code; a strength not even held by any god still worshipped by modern man.

Well, people surely have been finding dinosaur fossils for millennia and they would have made up stories to explain them. That seems to be a simpler explanation.

My kid is in the dinosaur phase now. The thing is that I don’t think he’ll ever get over it. He’s eight and he’s decided to become a paleontologist. He really might do it. I’ve never met a kid close to him in dinosaur knowledge - and I spent over a year answering questions at the science museum. It’s not just the dinosaurs either. He’s into all the periods from the pre-cambrian to today. So maybe he will stick with this thing.

[Voyager]

@Guinastasia

Would this be related to the “horse phase” that many a young girl goes through?

Phase? My daughter is going into sophmore year in college, and she’s not over it yet. (She’s on the equestrian team, and we just finally got rid of her horse here.) Dinosaurs have this big advantage - you don’t have to feed them.

I like dinosaurs because they were cool looking. Some had cool horns, some had long necks, some had teeth. I think lots of kids like rhinos and elephants for the same reason, but dinosaurs are less limited by reality.

[FisherQueen]

The horse phase is a pre-pubescent sexual thing. Big, strong, pulsing between your legs… little girls find that appealing but don’t understand why.

What?

[monstro]

I never went through a horse or dinosaur phase. What’s wrong with you peoples?

[Ranchoth]

@Captain Lance Murdoch

Well, people surely have been finding dinosaur fossils for millennia and they would have made up stories to explain them. That seems to be a simpler explanation.

You must be a lot of fun at parties, and at telling ghost stories around campfires, huh?