This week YA Author Jingmai O’Connor took over our Twitter as a part of our weekly Thursday Twitter Takeover. Jingmai O’Connor is the author of When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies: The incredible story of bird evolution. When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies: The incredible story of bird evolution has insight into how dinosaurs evolved flight and conquered the skies (See YEM’s write up of Jingmai O’Connor here.) See highlights from the takeover below.
Yooo YEM fam! My name is Jingmai O’Connor (@Paleontologista) & I recently wrote my 1st book, When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies. I’m actually not a writer, I’m a scientist. WDCTS features a lot of my research #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Being a research scientist actually means you do a lot of writing – you have to translate your research into a paper for other scientists to read! Some scientists also write popular books about the things they have learned, like me with WDCTS #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
I never thought about writing a book TBH, but Publisher @QuartoKids approached me about writing a book and I thought the idea sounded like fun. And it was! Hey, maybe I’ll write more 😉 #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
I am the Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles (aka the dinosaur curator) @FieldMuseum in Chicago. Our most famous specimen is SUE, one of the largest and most complete adult T. rex specimens ever found! #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Did you know birds and tyrannosaurids together form a group called the Tyrannoraptora? So when you see a bird you can say, "Look at that sick tyrannoraptoran!" #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
People always ask me what my favorite dinosaur is. It’s one that didn’t make it into the book: Mononykus! It has weird arms with only one finger – but its big and clawed, what was it for? Scientists don’t know! HMU with your hypotheses #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
What I love about science is the questions we are unable to resolve – the mystery! And there is so much we don’t know! What were T. rex’s short arms for? Why did birds survive the 5th mass extinction? How did pterosaurs evolve flight? We don’t know! #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
For me, being a scientist is the best job in the world, there is nothing more thrilling than contributing to human knowledge and adding a little bit of information to the ‘known’ column – and then writing a book to share all this knowledge with the world XD #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Being a scientist never gets boring – there are always new things to learn, new methods of discovery, new information uncovered by other researchers, and new specimens (fossils in my case) to study – what we think we know is always changing! #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
I lived in Beijing, the capital of China, from 2009-2019. It was AMAZING! The food, the friends, the fossils – all to die for. HMU if you have any questions about life in China #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
I moved to China after my PhD because China is the best place in the world to study Mesozoic birds and the evolution of dinosaurian flight. I worked at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) – the best place to be a paleontologist #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
The IVPP is the only place with over 100 paleontologists under the same roof (the Field Museum only has 5). My advisor was Zhou Zhonghe – he is a really nice person, amazing scientist, and really great fossil hunter. You can read about him in my book WDCTS #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
I <3 dogs, how about you? These cuties are my fur babies Kokonaut (the blondie) and her daughter Shamone. I brought them with me from Beijing #YAauthorTakeover #DogLovers pic.twitter.com/oIzHC1FhUk
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
As a kid I was huge book nerd (still am). I guess it makes sense now I am writing books of my own! My favorite author was @MadeleineLEngle who is most famous for writing A Wrinkle in Time (but her other books are great too) #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
I love reading fantasy books! Growing up I loved The Song of the Lioness series by @TamoraPierce and The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by @PatriciaCWrede. #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
As an adult I read GOT (long before the show :P) and the Chronicles of Amber by Robert Zelazny. Recently a friend turned me on to the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
My parents are my biggest inspiration. When I was younger I wanted to be an artist like my dad. When I got older I decided to be a Geologist like my mom. And while in College, I discovered my love for evolution and fossils #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
My mom and I did PhDs in the same place 12 years apart, how cool is that? She did her PhD when I was 10. She had 4 kids but worked so hard she finished in 3.5 years (it's usually 5). She showed me nothing is impossible! Now she's writing a book so stay tuned #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
I hope to write more books. I want to write one with my mom about how my grandmother’s struggled to help my mom get where she is, and how my mom has helped me become the strong woman I am today. It’s a story of love and epigenetics. Would you read it? #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
My true love as a kid was #comicbooks. My dad introduced us to them when we were little (he loves comics too) and he took us to @Comic_Con every year #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
We started off reading Uncle Scrooge comics but as we got older we all really got into manga – Japanese comic books. Dragon Ball is my fave – I even have a Dragon Ball tattoo! Can you guess which character is my favorite? #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Hmmm, I should have included the dancing parrot fact in my book When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies! Check out some dancing dinosaur videos on the internet if you need a smile, they are so cute! (2/2) #snowballthedancingcockatoo
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
My book When Dinosaurs Conquered the Skies would not be the awesome book it is without the gorgeous illustrations by Maria Brzozowska so big shout out to Maria @brzozo! This is one of my favorite illustrations, love the gingko #YAauthorTakeover pic.twitter.com/jOFJCSeAn6
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Sustainability is how we live our lives – how we consume. Overconsumption is the #1 underlying cause of the Anthropocene mass extinction – the 6th one in earth’s history – caused by human actions. But if we are the cause, we can be the solution! #YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Here are a few easy steps to living more sustainably: avoid single use plastics by getting a metal reusable water bottle, using shampoo bars, and bringing your own to-go containers to restaurants (to name a few solutions)
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
use less electricity (because it's mostly generated with fossil fuels); use less water (even if it seems there is a lot, it takes resources to clean for use); don’t waste food; and avoid products with palm oil (to save the orangutans).
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Start with these and branch out if you can. We all must do our part to protect our home planet and it feels good to know you are helping out. HMU if you want more sustainability pro-tips.
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
Thanks for joining me during this take over and hearing me out. Hope everyone finds their passion in life! Would love to connect on Twitter, you can find me @Paleontologista. Have a good night ✌️#YAauthorTakeover
— all about firsts (@YoungEntmag) March 31, 2023
