We call them birds

No, it's not Friday Giant Owl Blogging but I thought taking Godzilla back to the Jurassic was a good way to remember the life of John H. Ostrom. You see John H. Ostrom was the Yale paleontologist who first suggested that dinosaurs were alive and well but that we now called them birds.

He was known for his discovery of Deinonychus, a two-legged dinosaur, in Montana and for his theory that it may have been a warm-blooded dinosaur. The theory, which was published in 1969, contradicts an earlier theory that dinosaur species were cold-blooded.

Ostrom also was known for reintroducing an idea first advanced a century ago that birds are the most logical descendants of dinosaurs.

In 1999, a symposium was held in Ostrom's honor called "New Perspectives on the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds."

"When I first suggested there was a connection between birds and dinosaurs, they said, 'There goes John again.' Now it's up to them to show why dinosaurs are not related to birds," Ostrom said at the time.

He died on July 16, 2005 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

Hat tip to Majikthise.