[3] At Yale University Bakker studied under John Ostrom, an early proponent of the new view of dinosaurs, and later earned his PhD at Harvard.

He began by teaching anatomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and Earth and Space Sciences, where future artist Gregory S. Paul worked and collaborated informally under his guidance.

As a Pentecostal,[10] Ecumenical Christian minister, Bakker has said there is no real conflict between religion and science, and that evolution of species and geologic history is compatible with religious belief.

He has advised non-believers and creationists to read the views put forward by Saint Augustine, who argued against a literal understanding of the Book of Genesis.

Bakker appears in the 1989 BBC series Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives presented by David Attenborough, in the third episode Dinosaur discussing his theory regarding Tyrannosaurus rex and other theropods being warm-blooded animals.

He had many appearances in the TLC television series Paleoworld, and was also among the advisors for the film Jurassic Park, with some of the early concept art being informed by Bakker's works.

He was profiled on location at his Wyoming dinosaur excavation site in an episode of the Discover Magazine (TV series) on The Disney Channel in 1992.

[15] The bearded paleontologist Dr. Robert Burke, who is eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex in Steven Spielberg's film The Lost World: Jurassic Park, is an affectionate caricature of Bakker.