Mattel toy dinosaur named after Purdue Fort Wayne professor

James Farlow said his love for dinosaurs began when he was 5 years old, while watching an episode of “The Mickey Mouse Club.”

The main focus of Farlow’s research is dinosaur footprints.

In the world of paleontology, it’s common for new discoveries to be named after a paleontologist, so when scientists discovered footprints belonging to a meat-eating dinosaur in Brazil, they decided to name it after Farlow, who is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Less than a year later, Farlow received a phone call from a colleague at the Canadian Museum of Nature asking if he knew a Farlowichnus toy was made.

View the full broadcast coverage from 21Alive and WAND out of Champaign, Illinois, to learn more.

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