 Hello, I’m Mike Riley and I am the developer, designer, author, and synthesizer of the content of The Dinosaur Fan
website. I embarked on this project as an extension of my dinosaur card-collecting hobby. As time has gone by, my ‘free time’ energies have become split between non-sports collecting and research pertaining to extinct life. I am hopeful that some of this material will be of interest to prehistoric animal enthusiasts as well as to non-sport card collectors. The following is a brief outline of my key interests and background as well as personal tidbits for those of you who are curious about the "forces" that lead me to develop this website.
- HOBBIES
DINOSAUR CARD COLLECTING: I have been collecting domestic and foreign ephemera (e.g., paper items like cards, stickers, POGS) with the images of prehistoric animals (e.g., dinosaurs and other extinct creatures) since late 1998. As of forth quarter 2010, this website contains a listing of over 1,900 prehistoric animal-related sets comprised of over 56,000 individual items.
The scope of my collecting interests is described in the Cards section of this website. If you are a non-sports card and/or prehistoric animal card collector, I encourage you to take a look at these pages as they may contain information useful to your collection. Also, while I have obtained and/or became aware of many, many different types of items, it is impossible to find the time to research all of them. If you have information, checklists, and/or images pertaining to any of these sets, please feel free to contact me at mmriley@dinofan.com.
BASEBALL CARD COLLECTING: For thirty years I collected domestic and foreign baseball cards. For a variety of reasons with which I will not bore you, I officially retired from this hobby in November 1998 and began my pursuit of those captivating prehistoric beasts which fill this website.
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"PREHISTORIC" BACKGROUND
Like many kids, I was a dinosaur-nut as a youth but lost interest as sports, baseball card collecting, and girls became more appealing pursuits.
To make a very long story relatively short, in 1993 I happened to attend one of Steven Spielberg’s movie gems entitled, “Jurassic Park”. The movie tweaked my old interest in dinosaurs and I began reading non-fiction and fiction books involving prehistoric animals. Then in 1997, the movie “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” was released which further fueled my interest in dinosaurs. It was about that time that I became increasing disenchanted with baseball card collecting and was having a tough time finding dinosaur-related fiction books I had not already read. So, I embarked on an effort to write my own dinosaur fiction book which I hope to finish someday. The research for this book, combined with my rekindled interest in dinosaurs, lead me to research Cryptozoology (the theories that present evidence supporting the potential survival of prehistoric animals into present day a. la. the Coelacanth), the casual study of extinct life, and finally to collecting prehistoric animal cards.
You will probably notice from my professional experience below that I do not have a background in Vertebrate Paleontology, Geology, or any other related field of study.
 While I have taken night courses in paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, all scientific data contained in these pages is paraphrased and/or quoted from the sources cited on the applicable pages. I have however had to take some “liberties” with life form details for the sake of website presentation. If errors or inaccuracies are detected, please feel free to contact me at mmriley@dinofan.com so that I can follow up.
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PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
I currently make a living developing Microsoft Access database applications, front-end reporting tools, SQL code, EDI maps, and Reporting Services presentations for a major CLEC in the Telephony industry. Prior to that, I was a Computing Asset Manager and a Technical Writer for one of the major US Defense Contractors.
I earned an MBA from Claremont Graduate School in 1981 and a BS in Management from the University of Redlands in 1979.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born February 23, 1957, married to a wonderful woman, and have three great children. In addition to prehistoric animal collecting and research, my hobbies include this website, figure skating, viewing all manner of other sporting events, watching action & science fiction movies, and reading fiction novels involving prehistoric animals, bizarre creatures, and/or mutant life “On the Rampage”
(e.g., check out the Fiction book section contained in this website).
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In Memoriam:
John & Dolores Riley
(A cartoon from my childhood that my mom & dad saved for me in a memory album)
(In my case it was a baseball card rather than a space capsule but I'm sure you get the point)