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Join us on our quest for the extraordinary!
Sam McKee (@polymath_sam) has 9 university qualifications across 4 subjects including doctorates in history and philosophy of science and molecular biology. He researches both at two British universities and contributes to both space science and cancer research. Meet fellow polymaths and discipline leaders working on the frontiers of research from all over the world. Be inspired to pursue knowledge and drive the world forwards.
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Sam McKee (Polymath World Channel) (00:00.984)
Hello, welcome back to the Polymath World channel. It's a horrible, wet and miserable day and I haven't done a reaction video for a while so I thought I'll do one now. a friend of mine sent this to me and I thought good grief, this is completely mad so I thought I'll do a response to it. It's a little old now but it's the political commentator Candice Owens talking about how she thinks dinosaurs are fake so let's see what she has to say and give a quick response.
no concept of dinosaur until 1850. That's very recent, right? That's the first time they were like, we actually think that there were these reptiles that are roaming the planet. then within that same decade, they were like dinosaur bones. And they started finding them everywhere. I'm like, okay, so nobody found this. And then like suddenly there's entire museums and in China, they have actually been caught manufacturing dinosaur bones many times over. And it is the case.
that dinosaur bones, for whatever reason, are always just found by the paleontologist. I was just walking with Savannah, my manager, who do these little evening walks, and looked up to her and I was like, dinosaurs? That seems pretty fake and gay. She's Savannah's from Tennessee. She's like, I have never believed in dinosaurs. Literally, is, everyone thinks there's some conspiracy behind it. I like, that was how it started. And I was like, what on?
Sam McKee (Polymath World Channel) (01:30.526)
Okay, I don't know whether to laugh or cry I'm gonna laugh because I don't want to cry on camera, but This is really weird. I guess this is what happens when you start going down a conspiracy rabbit hole You don't believe one thing and then all of a sudden you don't believe anything
But dinosaurs, mean, firstly, why? What's the conspiracy theory? Why would people hide dinosaur bones in the ground? Why would people make fake dinosaur skeletons of hundreds and hundreds of different species and then hide them all over the world and under the sea and deep in quarries? And what's point? What's the conspiracy? Who's lying and why?
What about what what's it all for? I don't even know where to start with this one. So she's completely wrong that dinosaur bones were only discovered in 1850 and then found all the time. mean, we have documentation of dinosaur bones being found in the 18th century and the 17th century. People had started to find these and are going, what is this? What kind of creatures are these? These are incredible different animals like nothing we've seen before.
It got specialized in the 19th century, obviously. Once they are found and identified, then people notice patterns and paleontology as a discipline begins and people start looking and that's why you start finding them. And she's wrong as well that it's only paleontologists who find them. Average people would find them while digging in quarries or digging into the mountains or building railways or draining swamps or...
all sorts of things. They're found by everyone, but it's the paleontologists who catalog them. Yeah, the 19th century is the boom period of museums. You've got Richard Owen and the Natural History Museum. There's interest in systematizing the study of ancient life and the Earth's history. Geology meets biology and ancient history. It's a very interesting discipline, and it got born and obviously it exploded with interest.
Sam McKee (Polymath World Channel) (03:42.358)
She's right, have been fake bones found in China, but that's because once you've got a market, people are going to try and cheat the market. And how do you tell that bones are fake? Well, you compare them to real ones and the experts, the paleontologists spot the fake ones and say, look at those, look at those. It's a different thing. So of course, you can tell the fakes because of the real. I don't get this at all. This is mad. Why would you...
believe in dinosaurs? I mean she says people don't believe in God but then they do believe in dinosaurs? I guess with dinosaurs you're dealing with the natural world, you're dealing with physical evidence that you can see and examine. It's not just paleontology, you've got paleobiology as well, you've got evolutionary genetics. There's loads of fields here that converge and tell the same story and if you've got lots of different witnesses telling the same story, the story is probably true.
So there we go, Candice Owens says dinosaurs are fake. I'm here to tell you dinosaurs are not fake. Enjoy studying paleobiology and evolutionary biology. You can listen to my interviews with Matt Wilkinson and Simon Conway Morris and Zach Arden. Enjoy them. Thanks. Look forward to seeing you next Wednesday for another episode.