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"The inspiring story of the man who doggedly sought the secrets hidden within dinosaur eggs. Serving in the German army in WWII, wounded and captured by the Soviets in Danzig and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Siberia, Karl Franz Hirsch (1921-1996) went on to become one of the world's leading experts on fossil eggs. After starting a new life in Colorado, Hirsch became an avid fossil hunter and one day discovered by accident a dinosaur egg. Armed with curiosity and a microscope, he began to study it. In 1979, at the age of 58, Karl published his first scientific paper on fossil eggs. During that time, the study of eggs, nests and baby dinosaurs was attracting much scientific and popular interest, thanks in part to the widely publicized studies of Jack Horner at the Museum of the Rockies in Montana. Horner concentrated on the distribution of nests, babies, and questions concerning the ecology and behavior of dinosaurs in nest colonies. Hirsch as an independent researcher knuckled down to the more difficult, less glamorous, and less publicized problems of describing the actual eggs and their complex shell microstructure, comparing them with the steady stream of new material that began to be reported from around the world. He went on to write dozens of influential technical papers and collaborate with professional paleontologists at the University of Colorado Boulder and elsewhere. At his death, Hirsch's immense research collection consisted of 35,000 photographs, 20,000 pages of notes, and 3000 fossil egg specimens. Fondly remembered by those who knew him best, Hirsch's life inspiringly demonstrates how brilliance and determination are key ingredients in the advancement of scientific understanding"--
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
PART I: Headlong into History
1. Motherless Child
2. Wänderlust
3. War Clouds
PART II. Prisoner of Fate
4. A Journey of a Thousand Miles
5. Retreat, Recuperation, and Redeployment
6. Siberia
7. Second Birthday
PART III. Wild West Wanderings
8. The New, Ancient, and Wild West
9. Do It Yourself Paleontology
10. Eggs, Explanations, and the Shell Game
11. Light on the Subject
PART IV. Man of Letters
12. Dragons, Dinosaurs, Maternity, and the Dinosaurian Big Time
13. O is for Ovum, Oeuf, and "Ooh"
14. From the Gobi Desert to Egg Mountain
15. From Russia and China with Love
16. A Man of Letters
Epilogue: Egg Money
Appendix A: Bibliography of Karl F. Hirsch
Appendix B: Announcement of the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters for Karl F. Hirsch
Appendix C: Karl Hirsch's Response on Receipt of the Harrell. L. Strimple Award from the Paleontological Society
Appendix D: Fossils Named in Honor of Karl F. Hirsch
About the author
Martin Lockley was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences and former director of the Dinosaur Tracks Museum at the University of Colorado Denver and is Associate Curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. He was the author (with Ryo Morimoto) of
How Humanity Came into Being: The Evolution of Consciousness and Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of Europe. Lockley passed away in 2023.
Bernie Spilka is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver. He is the author (with Ralph W. Hood and Peter C. Hill) of
The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach, fifth edition.
