Dinosaur Studies Aren’t Extinct : Science: Paleontologist tells teachers of a time when the creatures ruled. In many classrooms, they still do.

They came by the thousands to see him, many just to get his autograph. No, he’s not a blockbuster film director or a baseball superstar.

Robert Bakker is a paleontologist. He’s gained national recognition among dinosaur fanatics by just doing what he’s loved since he was 9--learning about those huge creatures who haven’t been around for a few million years but who still kindle the human imagination.

Bakker looks every bit the dinosaur-lover a la “Jurassic Park,” in jeans, bush hat, long beard and waist-length ponytail of frizzy, brown hair. He inspired and entertained about 5,000 people at the National Science Teachers Assn. conference here Friday morning with his maverick theory that dinosaurs actually resembled warm-blooded chickens, not the cold-blooded lizards they were named after.

Bakker, known as Dr. Bob to his fans, described dinosaurs as “10,000-pound road runners from hell” and “10,000-pound turkeys with attitude.”

“Once you get it in your mind that the dinosaur is like a chicken, it does look like a chicken,” he said.

His bird argument, based on evaluations of body parts such as toe joints and air chambers, isn’t new to his legions of followers. Many had heard it before, had read his book “Dinosaur Heresies.”

But members of the crowd still vied for front-row seats and applauded warmly when he offered his strong opinions on subjects such as cutting the salaries of lawyers and the theory of evolution.

“He looks at so-called truths and says, ‘Where’s the data to support it?’ ” said Lori Gillam, a middle-school science teacher from Anchorage, Alaska. “And a lot of times there isn’t data to support it.”

She said she has read and reread “Dinosaur Heresies,” which stunned the paleontology world when it came out in 1986 and has now been translated into Norwegian and Japanese. She was crushed when she missed hearing him speak at a previous NSTA conference, and so she made sure not to miss this address at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Gillam said children of all ages are interested in learning about the brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. That includes her son, Colin, 11, who was thrilled when Bakker drew a dinosaur on the back of his T-shirt.

“If I want to be a popular teacher, all I have to do is teach a dinosaur class and they’ll come flocking,” she said.

Admirers swarmed Bakker after the lecture, wanting him to explain how to estimate a dinosaur’s speed from foot and stride measurements--he referred them to a free World Book Inc. handout--and asked his opinion on whether governments are spending enough money on science museums. (He said no.)

Many paleontologists dismiss his arguments that dinosaurs weren’t sluggish and cold-blooded as an extreme view not supported by hard research. But Bakker, an associate professor at the University of Colorado, says his theory is based on forgotten scientific lore from the late 1800s.

The free handout, “Dr. Bob’s Guide to Teaching Dino Science,” is a bright orange-and-yellow booklet detailing how to dissect a whole chicken in the classroom, an exercise that he says shows how the feet, heart and muscles are similar to a dinosaur’s. The booklet has become popular with science teachers, who are always searching for ways to interest kids in science.

Science teacher Anne Younce of St. Catherine school in Laguna Beach said: “I teach this. I’ve been following him for a long time,” as Bakker signed a booklet for her nephew, Robby.

Robby, Younce said, is already a dinosaur enthusiast even though he’s only 2 years old.