Dr. Dean Lomax

Being there was quite...

eye-opening and surreal because I'm there examining the fossils that they found I'm giving a talk I'm brought in as this international paleontologist and media person but I met so many people who were just so kind of like pleased to meet me and to be in their community and to help shine a light on their you know their place you you quickly realize that it's it's far bigger than just paleontology your help in that community and you had kids coming up to like shaking my hand and be like I'm not washing my hand now

Like getting me to sign their hands and sign their arms.

And I was like, yeah, it's crazy.

But it's so funny that you can see that.

And again, that's just through fossils, through paleontology.

I'd probably say because one of my biggest kind of discoveries and naming the ichthyotitan, which is this animal based on two massive jaw bones, like absolutely enormous jaw bones, based on them and comparing them to other ichthyosaurs, we're talking animal that's 25, 26 meters, right?

So that's blue whale sized animal.

I kind of predicted that based on that,

these animals probably were bigger than blue whales.

What I would love to find is a complete skeleton like that, because there are people who have criticised some of my research saying, oh, they weren't that big, and I'm confident they were.

That's what I'd love to find.

And I think it's out there, and I think it's the case that we just need to get out and explore more.

I think it's likely.

Yeah, I think it's likely.

Some of the digs that I went on last year in Canada and the one I'm going on next week, we are looking for more of those types of things.

So who knows, by the end of next week, I might be like, holy shit, there we go.

We're doing part two.

Generally speaking, most people are supportive and everybody's kind of like encouraging, but you do get people who are just, yeah, super critical no matter what.

And it's kind of like, oh, especially with me, because I do a lot of media stuff and I'll do if it's TV or speak on the radio, it's kind of, oh yeah, Dean, I saw you on the TV.