#DINO NUGGETS PROFESSIONAL#

“This not only translated into more dinosaurs in pop culture, but over the last two decades, the intense interest has also resulted in a major increase in academic paleontologists, the number of professional positions and a huge bonanza of dinosaur discoveries.

“The public interest in dinosaurs has always been high, but the release of the original Jurassic Park took that to the next level,” paleontologist David Evans explains. So dinosaurs are a symbol that carry over from childhood to adulthood.” Music teacher and children’s entertainer Randy Sauer says much the same, which is why he dedicated a kids’ song to dinosaur chicken nuggets that’s proven to be one of the most popular songs in his repertoire (this song has been stuck in my head for four days).Īnd while dinosaur nuggets didn’t necessarily inspire a generation to pursue paleontology, their alleged inspiration - Jurassic Park - certainly did. Then they started making adult movies with dinosaurs. As Mark Tolbert, who works in Perdue Chicken’s Innovation Center, tells me, “As kids, we all played with or watched cartoons with dinosaurs. They were a ubiquitous part of my childhood, and as I’ve grown older and become a parent myself, I’ve always had nostalgia for those saurian-shaped bits of processed chicken. Truth is, I don’t remember a time before I had dinosaur chicken nuggets in my life. So dinosaur nuggets - which debuted in schools, grocery stores and, most appropriately, at New York’s Museum of Natural History that year as well - would have been a big deal. In June 1993, Jurassic Park had come out, and by September, every kid in the world was an amateur paleontologist. Okay, I don’t actually remember the first time I encountered dinosaur chicken nuggets in the wild, but it’s safe to say that it went down something like that.

Absent were the circular, nondescript shapes I’d known for my entire existence and in their place was a Stegosaurus, a Triceratops and even the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex ! But when I got to the nuggets, I stopped dead in my tracks. I then fetched a tray and got in line for the day’s hot lunch, grabbing myself what passed as a nutritious meal in the early 1990s - a chocolate milk, some broccoli (which I’d throw away in about a minute), a small piece of cake and some chicken nuggets. As seven-year-old me entered the cafeteria, I made a point to show off my crisp new Jurassic Park T-shirt depicting the iconic T-Rex breakout scene from the summer’s coolest movie. It was the first week of school in September 1993.

Dino nuggets