Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
that love as a small child. When she used to visit her grandparents in
Pittsburgh, they would take her to the Carnegie Museum, and she
would demand that her grandmother read every word on every label
in the dinosaur halls. One year, her grandmother tired of this exercise
and failed to read the last few sentences on one of the labels. Eliza-
beth immediately protested that her grandmother had not read all of
the text. Elizabeth had memorized all of each passage.
Elizabeth had joined us for a few days at the end of our expedition
in November 1997 so she could get a better idea of what we had
found. She had wandered around the site with childlike amazement
and glee, picking up eggs off the surface of the flats and inspecting
them for remains of fossilized skin and embryos. From her curiosity
and wonderment, we knew that this was one of the most satisfying
moments of her career.
When Elizabeth had the chance to help us announce our discov-
ery, she pulled out all the stops. For weeks before the press confer-
ence, she contacted media outlets all over the world to let them
know that a significant announcement was in the works. The day
before the conference, she faxed hundreds of press releases to
reporters around the world. Of course, there was no guarantee that all
the correspondents would be interested, so she was always cautious
with us about how many news organizations would respond.
On the day of the press conference, we arrived early to set out
some of the fossils for the reporters to see and then calmly went back
to our offices to wait. We were sure that some reporters and television
crews would show up, but we didn't think it would take too long. As
the hour arrived, we walked into the room where the conference was
to be conducted. To our amazement, the room was packed solid
with cameras and reporters. At least fifty reporters and ten television
cameras were crammed throughout the room, with camera techni-
cians jostling each other for prime positions as we walked in to begin
our presentation. We glanced at each other in stunned amazement.
Elizabeth began to brief us about who had shown up; the list was
staggering. The
New York Times, Time, Newsweek,
and the Associated
Press had all sent reporters, as had numerous other local New York
newspapers. CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, the Associated Press, the Dis-
covery Channel, and several local New York television stations had
sent camera crews. Even several publications and media outlets from
