This guy's not a paleontologist. He's a poet. Brilliant.

As a paleontologist, this made me cry. The love my colleagues and I feel for fossils, and evolution, and science, is so immense that my heart swells to the point of tears when I get reminded once again of why my job is important. I love this field, I love this guy, and I can say without a doubt that this is the most profound TED talk ever done. Brilliant.

Amazing presentation -- informative, interesting, poetic, thought provoking, and measured. To speak so eloquently for 16 minutes without so much as a single flub is stunning, just stunning.

The best lecture I've seen in a long time

This stuff is the reason I no longer watch TV. Fabulous!

So much build-up and intensity at the end ! This was brilliant !

Why study ancient history? Because it gives us perspective.

arguably one of the best TED talks ever.

He sounds like he found a thesaurus-Rex

Thanks for reccomending this. From all random recommended videos this was most unique and thoughtfull.

This. was. epic. I salute you good sir! This talk puts me in mind of Carl Sagan and that is a big compliment indeed.

Wonderfully written. Beautifully delivered. It was like poetry and it is definitely going to resonate with people.

Such an eloquent speaker! Thoroughly enjoyed the talk, especially at the end

I grew up in pine hills Florida in the 70s and there were massive clay pits in the woods with every type of shark teeth you could find everywhere,it was awesome.You could also go to a spring and dive into the caves for shark teeth

I teared up when he got a standing ovation. You can see the passion in Kenneth’s eyes. Glad I found this video

i felt like i was listening to poetry, what an eloquent speaker!

One of the best ted talks ever. Beautiful links between old and new. Perfect

Powerful and compelling. Lacovara firmly puts humanity in its place and challenges us to actually change the course of history to avert disaster.

If only people had listened to him and the many other scientists who had said this for 30+ years.

What an amazing talk. Poetic, revealing, enthusiastic and with a callenging outlook. Thanks forever.

absolutely phenomenal, I'm just speechless. Someone please give this man an award

Powerful and immensely important speech. I was nearly tearing up by the end. BRAVO!

Boy, you don't expect a paleontologist to be a poet.

This lecture should be part of a compulsory curriculum for all schools around the world. The amount of perspective one can get from this presentation is beyond amazing... Hats off to this scientist!

One of the most clear and concise talks I've heard in a while. Well done.

"Perhaps on a Thursday" - I got that :)

This guy clearly loves his job and that makes me love to listen to him talk about it.

wow. this was amazing. thanks so much

I watched this on a Thursday by pure chance.

I knew this was going to become about global warming. The soap box, the grandstanding, oh my! I am 100% sure he has given up his car, and everything else to reduce his carbon footprint to almost nil. What a saint♥️

Pretty excellent talk! Geology and palaeontology truly can be surprisingly humbling topics.

What a great speaker. I find this very entertaining to watch. I especially like the part of the dangers of gravity when being such a huge dinosaur.

God dang this was super interesting!

How does this video only have 200k views? Easily top 2 ted talks I’ve seen and better than any 5m+ ted talk out there. A truly incredible presentation.

People like him are the reason I want to become a paleontologist, going to work every day knowing that I might be a single step away from an amazing discovery must feel wonderful, I want to live that , everyday like he did

What an excellent speaker and communicator. Thank you professor Lacovara.

Brilliant articulation, delivery, storytelling and drama! Humbled!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Edit: I had to watch this again and I noticed this man´s remarkable ability to through storytelling transform every person in that audience into a child. I hope it had the same affect on you as it did on me, and I hope this talk can be a reminder of how important it is to tell stories, because through them comes change. - Absolutely epic presentation, such a different and sorely needed viewpoint. A prime example of how to change the world through one´s interests and passions. Really can feel this mans passion and wow Im lost for words. Truly astonishing. Thank you for sharing these important words. I will also definitely go searching for dinosaurs in the next desert I come across. Peace and love and may the force be with you all, lets go.

Wow! No extra superlatives, simply, WOW.

Absolutely superb presentation. Eloquent and beautifully crafted. Have to share this with others!

what a fantastic speaker! very stimulating and enjoyable to watch

"Perhaps on a Thursday" The day I'm watching this video happens to be a Thursday 😊

Brilliant and terrifying content so well delivered. Bravo Mr Kenneth Lacovara

What an incredibly gifted public speaker. It's amazing how easy it is to get up in front of an audience and talk like that because of how passionate you are about your work. I envy this man.

This guys analogy with the library was such an excellent choice in logic, well done speech man

"... Each one a small miracle, but collectively, inevitable." Eat your heart out, Crichton.

One of the best TEDs I have seen! Well written, well delivered, and 100% true. Brings me hope to see people that just get it. Refreshing talk man. also, great name ;)

Wow... The ending was unexpected... THIS is a high quality speech, very intellectual, interesting and informative. Bravissimo!!

This man cares more about this dinosaur than most people care about anything. It's beautiful.

I miss ted talks like this.

What an engaging and charismatic speaker. This is how you should sound when you speak about your job; if not, you're in the wrong job. Excellent talk.

That was an amazing speech cannot get enough.

Im sharing this in the Hope that my friends will watch it with their sons, daughters, grandkids and hope they understand what a miracle it is to Live on this earth, right now and how lucky we are!....fingers crossed!

At the half way mark I was so moved, involved in his presentation, I was expecting a standing ovation at the end.

I love how some of the speakers on ted have such a love for their job. Just look at this dude, all happy he got to name a dinosour, and named it dreadnoughtus, fears nothing. If he writes a book, I'm reading it

1:45 My wife is a geologist. When she was a teenager her parents asked her what she wanted to study to which she replied 🤘🏼ROCK🤘🏼So they send her to university to study geology 🤦🏼‍♂️

One of the best ted talks i've ever watched, quite humbling to think about this on the large scale!

The most interesting talk on the subject I've ever seen. Well done. :-)

This is one of the best and most underrated TED talks ever. I've watched this 6 or 7 times and it moves me every time.

This guys talk was beautiful to listen to. Incredibly well spoken, was a pleasure.

so well spoken well done sir!!

I live on the "Jurassic coast" in southern England. There's a beach that is literally covered in small fossils. You can walk along the beach after the tide goes out and pick up fossils. I loved school trips to that place.

Did you see how fast they came to their feet at the end of the presentation. It shows that he's a genius.

This narration is just amazing.

One of the greatest TED talks ever, well deserved standing ovation.

The TED talk all other TED talks should be measured against. Awesome.

His speaking is poetic. He draws you in and keeps you transfixed.

"No vestige of beginning, no prospect to an end".

This should be one of the most underrated Tedtalks ever

Where did all the water and mud come from to cover them fast enough so they could be compressed sealed and fossilized before they could rot?

Best TedTalk EVER!

Amazing talk, absolutely brilliant

Beautiful presentation. Well written is an understatement. It was meaningfully poetic, and engaging. Great job. One of the best TED talks I've come across.

1) "...among the *63 billion days* already enjoyed by the dinosaurs..." I'll take that as deeply poetic, that sinked in slow and meaningful 😁 2) One thing I like about watching TED talks is guessing that a speaker will get a standing ovation - and guessed right!

What a great speaker and storyteller!

When I see some comments on this section.... "yup, we are all going to die"

Just came here to nerd out for a minute.. leaving with a profound sense of perspective and a deep sense sense of unease...

Absolutely epic talk, masterfully delivered by a wordsmith of note! Wonderful!

He is not only a great scholar but also an excellent public speaker! His speech is so impressive and touching!

This guys is amazing, he speaks with such passion, his love for planet Earth is contagious. The ending made me feel like going outside to clean some garbage. LOL

I am amazed to see such praise in the comments. I thought that this was a cheezy representation of something that is common knowledge. And I am wrong again.

not an Umm or an Errr

Wish i could like this video again!! Awesome

Wonderful talk. I really enjoyed it and he really put things into perspective. It’s a shame that despite all the warnings we will go extinct too and take most species, if not all, on Earth down with us. We are intelligent but our lack of action and our destructive nature shows that our brains really haven’t developed as much as we think they have. We seem to have no clue that we actually are not as intelligent as we think we are. We think we have a choice but do we really? If our brains had another million years to develop further we might have been able to save ourselves. But, time will run out for us before we are able to act as a species. We cannot overcome our bad behavior as a species or else an intelligent species would not act as we do. Therefore we are not intelligent to know better. We just think we know better. It’s not real enough for us to be able to comprehend the concept that we are going to go extinct sooner than we actually would have at the hands of ourselves because our brains just haven’t grown enough yet. I am sure we are not the only species that has killed itself off. There is a good chance that we are not the most intelligent animal on the planet at this time anyways. There are a few creatures in the sea that rival our intelligence. We are again in denial and not smart enough to even see it. I am not talking about dolphins or whales in case you were thinking I was thinking. The species I am referring to unfortunately must start over from complete scratch as a species every time one is born so it cannot and has not have any ability whatsoever to progress as a species and reach its full potential. If only it’s life span wasn’t as short as it is and didn’t die prior to the birth of it’s babies which live solitary lives. But given millions of years there could be enough gene mutations that expand it’s life and changes it’s social attitudes to which that species could be next to win the race. You just don’t know what history will be written on Earth.

You now bear witness to coming of the dawn of the human church, a church I would attend. A church that’s devoted to finding answers and holding no particular doctrine that would assuage our beliefs one way or the other. This! This is the sermon I would show up to on Sunday morning dressed in tie with fresh coat of Old Spice.

We are at the beginning stages of a magnetic pole reversal (Google it) and no, there's nothing we can do about it.

Amazing! What a great talk...could have used another 15 minutes.

is that "rocks of the right age" map at 1:30 available somewhere with labels or a key or something?

First time in a while where i've felt a standing ovation was deserved.

this guy spoke as eloquently and moving as any famous poet. his passion is moving.

Wow, didn't imagine i would tear up at this. What a brilliant speech!

Wow this was truly inspiring

Awesome video till the end when he brought climate change into it....Earth has been going through warming periods and cooling periods since it's inception

WOW! Excellent speech!!! I'm awestruck. Great ending. Respect to our Earth and ancestors

By far the best TED talk ever. Great lecturer with brilliant control of his topic and the pacing necessary to wonderfully wrap up such big thoughts! Study this for eloquence and subject matter.

An excellent clear and logical talk, those with serious disagreement to this need to finish their education. Or perhaps just get a decent unbiased education.

"Their hegemony was snuffed out in a fiery apocalypse. " Damn that's poetry right there.

Science asks questions that might never be answered; religion preaches answers that may never be questioned.

What I find just so amazingly mind boggling about our existence here, is that after Billions of years of Evolution, and after facing incredible challenges over and over again, humanity somehow created "Taco Bell". Life has got to be a comedy.

The right words full of common sense and intelligence. Thank you that was inspiring