He was also the one who first proposed that birds were descended from dinosaurs. Such views, vigorously and frequently expressed, have made Bakker a controversial and well-known figure.
Robert Bakker was born in 1945. The son of an electrical engineer, Bakker graduated from high school in 1964 on the class honor roll and entered Yale University and Harvard where he completed his PhD in 1976.
After teaching for eight years at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, he moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1984 to work as an independent paleontologist.
Like his mentor John Ostrom, Bakker has helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs, particular arguing in favor of the theory that some dinosaurs were warn-blooded; he has expanded and/or changed many conventional ideas about dinosaur behavior.
He is the author of many books, including Dinosaur Heresies, Raptor Red, Maximum Triceratops and Raptor Pack.
In his book, The Dinosaur Heresies, he discredits the meteorite theory of extinction and suggests that viruses caused the dinosaur’s demise.
Robert Bakker – American Paleontologist
