With six years of phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish mostly spends long hours in the library, hunched over his laptop. But he gets out sometimes, and picks up litter and pursues exotic lizards across the British countryside, aiming all the while to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He also messes around with pterosaurs, swimming giraffes, British big cats and stuff like that. He has given up on the stupid idea of being a dedicated academic and ekes out a living as a technical consultant, editor and author. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
I suppose it's not every day you get to appear in a TV series called MonsterQuest. I appear in two places in one episode (first screened last week): once for a little while in the section embedded here, and again much later on. The bit with me starts 2 minutes, 20 seconds in (let's not worry about the bit later on). Things to note: the lion skull that previously featured in one of the articles on the Functional Morphology Conference and (right in the background, covering a small cupboard that contains keys) Steve White's drawing of the big cats of Rancho La Brea...
And am I really an 'archaeological palaeontologist'? Hmm, not sure where they got that one from. Amusing, or offensive (depends on your point of view), is the fact that the Scottish wildcat is described as being present 'in England today' (said as if Scotland was part of England). Anyway, for the background to all of this please see Europe, where the sabre-tooths, lions and leopards are, pumas of South Africa, cheetahs of France, jaguars of England, and Britain's lost lynxes and wildcats.
Coming soon: a quick history of tree-climbing dinosaurs.
Life Science
Comments
I reckon people have seen a puma, but either in low light or at a distance so it looked darker that it truly was.
However I think now every unidentified large creature is imagined by people to be The Beast; if they are on Exmoor or Dartmoor they expect to see a Beast, so when they see a dog or badger or large house cat at a distance or in low light they jump to conclusions.
Posted by: Rosel | July 16, 2008 7:04 AM
Perhaps they wanted to invent a term for "archaeozoologist". But I doubt it.
Posted by: David Marjanović | July 16, 2008 7:12 AM
Monster quest always looks so promising and then is usually done so poorly. At least a) your bit was interesting an not melodramatic and b) you didn't suffer the indignity one of the guys in the giant snake episode did - he got bit recreating a python capture for the show.
Posted by: tai haku | July 16, 2008 7:26 AM
Here in the panhandle of North Florida, and up to South Georgia, I have frequently heard people, and these generally woods-crafty types, claiming to have seen black panthers. Of course the Florida panther Puma concolor coryi does still live in the southern peninsular area but I am very skeptical of any animals making it this far north. I also find the "black" description to be rather curious because I have heard of no confirmed descriptions of melanistic pumas. I do know that there was a feral population of introduced jaguarundi was supposed to exist at one point in north Florida. I hear claims that the population has not been extirpated and I suppose some of the sightings might be of jaguarundi. But surely not all of them.
So what it seems to me is that people are just really apt to believe that they have seen big black cats. I don't know why.
Posted by: Diego | July 16, 2008 7:55 AM
At least on the placard you're given as a "vertebrate paleontologist". I suspect someone just read it wrong.
Posted by: Mike from Ottawa | July 16, 2008 10:30 AM
Brilliant performance, me mann. I notice that the moderator has an American accent. Was this an American production? That would explain "archeological paleontologist" and other glitches. Here in the states they are trying to cover over our dumbed-down TV and adverts by using British (and Ozzie) moderators. Lord, I hope this isn't happening over there.
Posted by: chris wemmer | July 16, 2008 11:35 AM
Lol part 2 has a few blunders "hunting is illegal in England, so they cant carry guns" ..if only! Then its "so they will have to rely on -insert south african trackers name- superior tracking skills to stay safe" need I say more!? lol
Posted by: Neil | July 16, 2008 7:26 PM
ooo John McGowan too. Is the hair being tested what we spoke about on our trip around the new forest?
Posted by: Neil | July 16, 2008 7:59 PM
"Vertebrate Paleontologist"? What, you do fishes, too, now?
But I suppose we're all fish. Ambulatory, air-breathing, talking, tool-using, alcohol-drinking, hairy fish, but still really just fish.
Posted by: Nathan Myers | July 16, 2008 9:31 PM
Yayay, I posted this video. :)
Posted by: Ryan | July 17, 2008 4:10 AM
Yeah, "MonsterQuest" is kind of a craptacular show with a lot of melodrama, unreliable witnesses and LOTS of plot holes. But it's amusing. I was actually sort of falling asleep and suddenly sat up and said "THAT'S DARREN NAISH!" Nice job at adding some much needed credibility to the show.
Posted by: Shawn | July 17, 2008 8:45 AM
"so they will have to rely on -insert south african trackers name- superior tracking skills to stay safe"
You never know they might run into a woozle.
Posted by: Dave Godfrey | July 17, 2008 1:42 PM
Another reason for me to catch the repeat on that one as I missed the first showing.
Posted by: Rob Jase | July 21, 2008 4:49 PM