He looked so tiny in comparison, but he wasn't intimidated at all. Max held up his triceratops toy to the real triceratops looming above him. On our visit, she seemed pleased that the exhibit had the approval of a fellow palaeontologist (my son). 'I had explored every nook and cranny of this skeleton virtually, but walking around the corner and seeing it mounted was just… chills!' 'I had been looking at 3D scans on a computer for a year before I saw the real thing, so I thought it would be underwhelming,' she said. When she first laid eyes on the completed skeleton, she said it took her breath away. She's the curatorial research assistant in palaeontology who was responsible for figuring out how to reassemble this 1,000kg jigsaw puzzle in a posture that is both majestic and biologically accurate - the dino's best selfie pose for the Instagramassic Era. 'It's extremely special because it's the most complete Triceratops Horridus that has ever been discovered,' Hazel Richards told me. It was immense, mystifying and intimidating. In a short paragraph, email us your pitch: Meeting a real dinosaur Chances are there's others facing the same highs, lows and life experiences. Perhaps I wanted to get it out of his system - or out of mine.ĪBC Everyday's Perspectives is all about giving you a chance to share what you're going through. Perhaps I wanted to face my son's obsession to understand it. So, on a gloomy morning, I took Max to meet 'Horridus'. Then from out of the blue, like an asteroid crashing into my newsfeed, I read that the world's most preserved triceratops specimen was acquired by the Melbourne Museum.

What's the deal with dinosaurs anyway? Why are kids so nuts about these dead giant lizards? And before I get letters from angry five-year-olds - yes, I know they are more closely related to birds than lizards! Sure, I'm not as strong as a tyrannosaurus or as tall as a brontosaurus or have as many horns as triceratops, but at least I'm not extinct.

If I can't compare to an animated blue heeler, how can I compete with a giant prehistoric monster?

Triceratops would not make a good ninja