Robert Raymond Makela (, 20 March 194026 June 1987), known as Bob Makela, was an American paleontologist who described Maiasaura alongside fellow paleontologist and college buddy Jack Horner, providing the first clear evidence that some non-avian dinosaurs cared for their young.
Biography Bob Makela was born in Kemmerer (Wyoming) from John Alfred Mäkelä (1906-1970, born in Montana, of Finnish descentMyheritage.fi Tutki henkilöitä nimeltä John Mäkelä (in Finnish)) and Ila M. Mäkelä (19101985Family Search, John Alfred Makela, née Danley, born in Missouri). He grew up in Great Falls, Montana and attended Great Falls High School, where he graduated in 1958.
After having spent one year at the University of Montana in Missoula, Makela served three years at the U.S. Army, then went back to Missoula. Back to the University of Montana, he graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science in secondary education (with a biology minor). The same year in Missoula, on November 14th, Makela married Doris M. Johnson. Both husband and wife found jobs teaching at Rudyard's high school in 1970 (named "Blue Sky High School" at the time). They had two children, James Makela and Jay Makela.Chester, Montana, Liberty County Times, archived obituaries, 1987, Robert Raymond Makela
In the mid-1960s and onwards, Makela and old college buddy Jack Horner started exploring Montana fossil sites during the summers.John R. Horner and James Gorman, Digging Dinosaurs: The Search That Unraveled the Mystery of Baby Dinosaurs (p. 30), Perennial Library edition, 1990, reprint of the original edition by Workman Publishing, 1988
Scientific career Alongside his paleontological prospectings and excavations in Montana, Bob Makela had joined numerous scientific organisations, including the Montana State Science Teacher's Association and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 1985 he attended the National Science Foundation convention, the National Geographic convention and was one of the finalists for Montana's Presidential Scientist Award.
In 1978, Bob Makela and friend Jack Horner went to Bynum and learned that Marion Brandvold spent many years trying to put together the bones of small animals that she and her husband John Brandvold had been finding on a site close to their house.John R. Horner, ProQuest, "Dinosaur Behavior", ProQuest (Phi Kappa Phi Journal); Summer 1998 Horner identified the remains as baby dinosaurs and this led to both paleontologists to discover a new entire colonial nesting site: nests, eggs (some containing embryos, the first ever discovered in the field of dinosaur research), adults and juveniles. Identified as a new species of Hadrosaur, Makela and Horner named and described Maiasaura peeblesorum in 1979. Within a few years the site earned the name Egg Mountain because of the number of eggshell remains.
In 1983 Makela became officially involved in research for the Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, Montana) which granted him to be the camp manager on academic dinosaur excavation sites.
As for the Egg Mountain discovery, it was Makela who first alerted Horner to the presence of what appeared to be an important paleontological site near Choteau, Montana. As quoted from The New York Times (1986):
Other dinosaur discoveries of Makela, though not named by him, include Brontotholus (named by Woodruff et al.) Orodromeus (named by J. Horner) and Ceratopsians of the Dino Ridge Quarry such as Achelousaurus and Einiosaurus (both named by S. D. Sampson). Einiosaurus procurvicornis had been first informally named "Styracosaurus makeli", in honor of Makela. In 1988 Jack Horner and David B. Weishampel named Orodromeus makelai in his memory.
In media In 1987, shortly before his death, Makela appeared in the television documentary film Digging Dinosaurs produced by the television channel WHYY Philadelphia with fund by the William Penn Foundation. He is seen talking and pointing out to the camera a layer of sediment containing the eggs of a then unknown species of dinosaur.Digging Dinosaurs, produced by WHYY-TV Philadelphia, aired in 1987 (archive.org/Internet Archive added date 8 December, 2023)
Road accident and death On 26th June, 1987, while driving a pickup truck in order to bring excavation tools to a recently discovered dinosaur site located North of Cut Bank, Montana, Makela's pickup left the roadway and rolled several times. He died at the place of the accident at the age of 47.
References
Notes
External links North Star Public Schools Museum of the Rockies