Ostrom, John Harold

▪ 2006

      American paleontologist (b. Feb. 18, 1928, New York, N.Y.—d. July 16, 2005, Litchfield, Conn.), popularized the theory that many species of dinosaurs are ancestrally linked to birds. His enthusiasm and pioneering work did much to revitalize the scholarly interest in dinosaurs. Ostrom received a Ph.D. (1960) in geology and paleontology from Columbia University, New York City, and served (1961–92) on the faculty of Yale University. He was also curator of vertebrate paleontology at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Ostrom made two key discoveries in his career. While he was conducting fieldwork in Montana in 1964 he found a fossilized claw that he determined belonged to a speedy, predatory dinosaur that lived more than 125 million years ago. He named the dinosaur Deinonychus (Greek for “terrible claw”); this was the creature that was referred to as a velociraptor in the popular book and film Jurassic Park. The discovery gave new life to the theory that dinosaurs were not cold-blooded and sluggish but rather active and warm-blooded. His second major discovery came in 1970 while he was reviewing fossil specimens at a museum in The Netherlands. Ostrom determined that a specimen thought to be a gliding reptile was in fact a member of the genus Archaeopteryx, which had characteristics of both birds and dinosaurs. His discovery reenergized the theory linking dinosaurs to birds and sparked Ostrom's own research into the evolution of birds and their flight.

* * *