On the Subject of Horner Bashers

Oh dear, oh dear. Where do I begin? In recent years there has been an increasing trend of bashing Jack Horner on the internet over some of his ideas. This seems to have started when he first proposed that Tyrannosaurus rex was a scavenger, rather than a predator, but began to intensify after the release of Jurassic Park III. Many people were upset that he chose Spinosaurus to star in the movie and have it kill T. rex. However, things began to get really nasty after he proposed that certain dinosaurs were actually ontogenetic stages of other species (specifically the idea that Dracorex and Stygimoloch are growth stages of Pachycephalosaurus and that Torosaurus and Nedoceratops being stages of Triceratops).

These types of attacks annoy me to no end. My issue is not just with the remarks that are being made about Jack, which can be very nasty, but also the way these bashers present their disagreement with him. When you hear or read someone disputing Horner's ideas, more often than not it's something along the lines of "T. rex wasn't a scavenger" or "Dracorex isn't a juvenile Pachycephalosaurus," without actually providing evidence to back up their own claims, and usually accompanying another ad hominem attack on Jack. Whenever I read or hear these kinds of things, I feel embarassed to be a paleo fan. I simply cannot stand such closed-mindedness.

Now, to make things clear, I'm not saying Horner's propositions should be immune to criticism. On the contrary, I think they, like all scientific theories, should be placed under scrutiny. It is the way they are criticized that is important. If you are to dispute something, you need to do it with science. For example, in response to the obligate scavenger hypothesis, Thomas Holtz performed an empirical study analyzing the features that Horner claimed support his view. Similarly, Andrew Farke recently wrote a paper describing the Nedoceratops holotype and also stated some of his objections to the idea that Torosaurus is a mature Triceratops. Note that neither of these guys just posted their disagreements on some forum or made personal attacks. They actually examined the claims made and arrived at different conclusions. That's how science works. It's not about your personal preference or opinion, it's about evidence. Unfortunately, many amateurs seem to forget this.