Like a prehistoric nod
to the sea outside,
a 17-foot-long mosasaur
floats above Joan
and Henry Kriegstein
in their home in Mas-
sachusetts. The marine
reptile is one of several
fossils Henry Kriegstein
has collected over
the past 30 years. An
ophthalmologist, he
tracks his love of extinct
beasts to childhood.
Kriegstein grew up in
Manhattan, and the
American Museum of
Natural History was
his favorite local spot.
“I was amazed by these
dinosaur skeletons in
the middle of New
York,” he says. Every
summer he digs in the
Dakotas, Wyoming, or
Montana, often with
his oldest daughter,
Adie, who found the
mosasaur. To him, fossils
represent a key to our
biological past. Being in
their presence, he says,
awakens “a very spiritual
feeling of connection
with the history of life.”PRIVATE
COLLECTORS’
PASSION FOR
PA L E O N T O L O G Y
MEANS THAT
DINOSAURS
AND OTHER
FOSSIL GIANTS
CAN TURN UP
ALMOST
ANYWHERE.THE DINOSAUR IN THE ROOM 129