Kenneth Lacovara
American paleontologist, founding dean of Rowan University's School of Earth & Environment and director of the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park, author of "Why Dinosaurs Matter"
Kenneth Lacovara (American paleontologist, founding dean of Rowan University's School of Earth & Environment and director of the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park, author of "Why Dinosaurs Matter") has appeared as a guest on 1 episode in TMT. Topics they speak about most include Dinosaur denialism, Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, Jurassic Park.
In their words
Positions and remarks grouped by topic, each with the exact quote and where it was said.
Other remarks
Lacovara says Antarctica, unglaciated in the dinosaur era, likely holds vast numbers of undiscovered species.
“It's got to be thousands and thousands of dinosaurs and new species under that ice cap, and we have no idea what's down there”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 2:12:16
Lacovara credits the San Diego Zoo with the California condor's recovery from 22 birds.
“I think the San Diego Zoo is largely responsible for the emerging recovery of the California condor”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 1:44:21
Dinosaur denialism
Lacovara explains that museums now often display replicas while keeping original bones in collections for study.
“best practice now, you know, really is to keep the stuff in the collections and to mount the recreations”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 2:06:22
Lacovara argues that a dinosaur hoax would require an implausibly large conspiracy across nations and eras.
“this would require this massive conspiracy from different continents, different countries, people that have never met each other, people that didn't live at the same time”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 1:33
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
Lacovara argues non-avian dinosaurs, unable to burrow, were functionally extinct on the day of the impact.
“I think they're functionally extinct the day of the impact, which is shocking”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 51:08
Lacovara says falling impact debris heated the surface to extreme temperatures within an hour of the asteroid strike.
“temperatures got up somewhere between toaster oven and pizza oven”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 48:26
Jurassic Park
Lacovara says the first Jurassic Park film reflected state-of-the-art science apart from its oversized Velociraptor, but later films froze 1993-era models.
“that first Jurassic Park movie like that was state of the art science, you know, except for that”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 32:37
Lacovara states that no non-avian dinosaur DNA has been recovered, making Jurassic Park-style cloning impossible.
“We don't have any non-avian dinosaur DNA. We don't have any DNA that's that old”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 10:06
Fossilization
Lacovara argues that because fossils form mainly in lowlands, entire dinosaur habitats such as mountains are likely unknown to science.
“So there's probably whole environments that were occupied by dinosaur species that we don't know about that we'll probably never know about”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 7:42
Lacovara says non-avian dinosaur fossils are found only in rocks of a specific age range.
“you have to find rocks that are between about 237 million years old and 66 million years old to find non-avian dinosaurs”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 2:53
Hadrosaurus
Lacovara calls England the birthplace and southern New Jersey the cradle of dinosaur paleontology.
“England is the birthplace of dinosaur paleontology, but southern New Jersey is the cradle of dinosaur paleontology”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 19:41
Bone Wars
Lacovara says Cope and Marsh were bitter rivals but did not fabricate fossils.
“But they were dealing with real fossils. They just hated each other”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 2:01:56
Prehistoric Planet
Lacovara argues Prehistoric Planet's depiction of Dreadnoughtus head-slapping like giraffes is implausible given their anatomy.
“which I think they would absolutely not do. Their necks are really long and lightly built, filled a lot with air, and their heads are tiny”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 1:46:12
De-extinction
Lacovara supports reviving species that went extinct during the human era, arguing their ecosystems still exist.
“During the time of humans, that's still basically this world, and they have a place in this world”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 1:41:26
Cryptozoology
Lacovara argues cryptids would require breeding populations that would be hard to miss in places like Loch Ness.
“there has to be a breeding population of them to exist, right? Like, there can't be one Loch Ness monster or one Bigfoot”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 1:28:34
Geomagnetic reversal
Lacovara speculates that a geomagnetic reversal could raise rates of cancer and mutation.
“we would probably have an increased rate of cancer. We would maybe also have an increased rate of mutation”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 1:19:22
Uniformitarianism
Lacovara says reading Lyell's account of deep time gave Darwin the framework to conceive of natural selection.
“that gives him the intellectual space to imagine evolution through natural selection”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 1:02:26
Dreadnoughtus
Lacovara describes Dreadnoughtus as the most massive dinosaur whose weight can be calculated with confidence, at about 65 tons.
“it's the most massive dinosaur for which we can confidently calculate a weight”
The Joe Rogan Experience: #2580 - Kenneth Lacovara (Nov 12, 2026) · Listen from 34:53
Appearances
#2580 - Kenneth LacovaraThe Joe Rogan Experience · Nov 12, 2026 · 2 h 27 min
Joe Rogan talks with paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara about dinosaur denialism, fossilization, Dreadnoughtus, the asteroid extinction, deep time, de-extinction and fieldwork adventures.
Often appears with
- Joe Rogan · 1 shared episode