Troodon

Do you have any idea what a troodon is? Until this morning, I hadn't. But thanks to Madison's preschool, I'm an expert on troodons. You're looking at one above. It's like a compy, but different. The thing about these dinosaurs is they keep coming up with new ones, or new names for the same ones maybe? For example, there's the brontosaurus. That's what we knew growing up. Sure, there was the brachiosaurus, which had the variation with the nose on the top of the skull thingy. And then there was the diplodocus, and then an apatosaurus (which, apparently was the brontosaurus all along). And there's also a camarasaurus, which sort of looks like an apatosaurus, or a diplodocus (with a bit of brontosaurus thrown in for good measure). Add to the list the rapetosaurus, which looks pretty much like all of the above (or possibly a cetiosaurus). And don't forget the seismosaurus. That's like all of those above, only larger. Kind of like a titanosaurus. Okay, I seem to be going on and on here. The point is, they all look pretty much exactly the same.

That's my theory, a theory which is mine. In my day, we just had a brontosaurus. That's the thing that is thin at one end; much, much thicker in the middle and then thin again at the far end. But only recently, we learned that there is no such thing as a brontosaurus, despite being taught that in schools, books and museums. Nobody bothered to tell me we're not supposed to call it a brontosaurus anymore. In fact, now we've got at least twenty new different names for variations of this sort of creature. If only we called them sauropods from the beginning, then perhaps my generation would be a little bit brighter on the dinosaur front.

Which brings me back to Madison learning about a troodon at school. She is already learning something that I didn't know - and she's in preschool! This gives me hope for the future, as our way of thinking has apparently gone the way of... well, dinosaurs really.

Science-wise, one thing I do know, and she apparently does now too - is Roy G. Biv. No, she doesn't know him personally. But she does know the colors of the rainbow in the right order. This morning, she drew them out for me, making a proper rainbow and putting all the colors in their correct position. This blew me away. Here she is, five years old, already getting the spectrum colors correct, and learning about troodons. Amazing!

"She blinded me with science."

- Thomas Dolby