In the last few weeks we have pinpointed places to search for dinosaur fossils across our country and across the world. Now let's inform ourselves more about the "dinosaur hunters" (paleontologists) who have made contributions (or will make contributions in the future) toward what we know about dinosaurs. So far, much of what we have learned in class about the history of paleontological discoveries has involved scientists from northern countries like the United States, Canada, England, Russia and China.But it is important to view the world from different perspectives. Both hemispheres deserve to be "on top of the world"! So I would like to focus on the world that lies above the black line (30N latitude) in the map above. Who are some of the paleontologists of today's world -- born "above that black line" -- who are discovering new surprises about dinosaurs? Let's expand our knowledge!
Please search for a living paleontologist or paleontology student who is a native of one of the countries above the black line (such as countries in Australia, Africa, South America or Central America and also the southern part of Asia like India). Choose someone who has not yet been reported on here, describe that person and her/his work, and provide a link to information on that paleontologist. The paleontologist might be working anywhere in the world but should have one of the nationalities on which we are focused. Graduate students can be included.
18 comments:
Buenos Aires, Agentina, South America
Fernando E. Novas, Paleontologist
Fernando E. Novas is an Argentinian paleontologist whom is currently working for the Comparative Anatomy Department of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural History Argentine Museum in Buenos Aires. (Say that three times fast!) He has been contributed with the description or co-description of the following dinosaurs found mostly in the Patagonia region of Argentina: Abelisaurus, Aniksosaurus, Austroraptor, Megaraptor, Neuquenraptor, Orkoraptor, Patagonykus, Unenlagia, Arqucanoraptor, Skorpiovenator, Tyannotitan, Talenkauen, and Puertasaurus. He has been a busy paleontologist. For the past few years he has been working on a book called The Age of the Dinosaurs in South America. It was published in July 2009. He is currently at the Natural History museum in Buenos Aires, working behind the scenes in the comparative anatomy department. I have supplied three very different links. One is a document that describes one of the dinosaurs found with him and some colleagues describing it in pdf. format, second is a link to enchanted learning that gives a quick biography of him and the third is a different biography of him and his book. He has a facebook page if anyone wants to "friend" him.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/Paleontologists.shtml
http://www.vertpaleo.org/publications/jvp/16-723-741.cfm
http://www.paleoglot.org/files/Novas_86.pdf
Amy Shapiro, was a teaching assistant for the ASU Paleoanthropology, Paleontology, and Paleoecology Field School in South Africa last summer. Her and nine other undergraduate students, from ASU and seven other universities in “the states” along with faculty, have just started our fieldwork at Langebaanweg, a late Miocene/early Pliocene site (about 5.2 million years old) in the Western Cape of South Africa.
Langebaanweg is located in the West Coast Fossil Park. Her primary goal is not research but public education about the local fynbos (environment).
Amy represent an important and much needed link between science and the public at large which is the reason I've choosen her as my subject for this weeks blog. Though the efforts of scientist like Amy, the public is made aware of the diversity of life both former and present.
http://asuiho.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/amy-shapiro-langebaanweg-week-1/
José Fernando Bonaparte, Ph.D. was an Argentine paleontologist who discovered / named a plethora of South American dinosaurs. The following is a list(Thank you Wiki) of the dinosaurs he named and the locations found;
Abelisaurus comahuensis (1985, with Novas), a carnivorous theropod, like Allosaurus.
Agustinia ligabuei (1998, formerly Augustia), a sauropod like Brachiosaurus with spinal plates like Stegosaurus
Alvarezsaurus calvoi (1991), the original and most primitive member of the hard-to-classify bird-like alvarezsaurids.
Amargasaurus cazaui (1991, with Salgado), a diplodocid like Diplodocus, with spines (and a sail?) running down its back.
Andesaurus delgadoi (1991, with Calvo), a titanosaurid and one of the largest dinosaurs.
Argentinosaurus huinculensis (1993, with Coria), a titanosaurid and one of the largest dinosaurs.
Argyrosaurus superbus (1984), a titanosaurid and one of the largest dinosaurs.
Carnotaurus sastrei (1985), a bull-headed ceratosaurian carnivore.
Coloradisaurus brevis (1978, formerly Coloradia), an early (Triassic) sauropodomorph.
Dinheirosaurus lourinhanensis (1999, with Octávio Mateus), Portuguese sauropod
Guaibasaurus candelariensis (1998, with Ferigolo), a primitive saurischian.
Kritosaurus australis (1984, with Frenchi, Powell and Sepúlveda), the most well known South American duck-bill.
Lapparentosaurus madagascariensis (1986), a sauropod.
Ligabueino andesi (1996), a small ceratosaurian.
Mussaurus patagonicus (1979, with Vince), an early (Triassic) sauropodomorph known only from eggs and tiny baby skulls.
Noasaurus leali (1980, with Powell), a ceratosaurian that was thought to have a Deinonychus-like hind claw (but the claw belongs on the hand).
Patagopteryx (1992) - the world's most primitive flightless true bird
Piatnitzkysaurus floresi (1979), a tetanuran theropod.
Pterodaustro (1970), a pterosaur.
Rayososaurus agrioensis (1996), a rebbachisaurid sauropod.
Riojasaurus incertus (1969), an early (Triassic) sauropodomorph.
Saltasaurus loricatus (1980, with Powell), an armored titanosaurid.
Velocisaurus unicus (1991), a ceratosaurian built for speed.
Volkheimeria chubutensis (1979), a sauropod.
Ligabuesaurus leanzai (2006), a sauropod."
In short Bonaparte's acheivements are nothing less than astounding.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Bonaparte#Discoveries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Bonaparte
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/famouspaleontologists/p/josebonaparte.htm
Alexander Kellner is a Brazilian paleontologist who described and named over 30 species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs including the Santanaraptor which had the best soft tissue reported in dinosaurs. He has been on many paleontological expeditions including Brazil, Chile, Iran, China, and Antarctica and is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, an honourable member of the New York Paleontologial Society and the Sociedad Palentologica de Chile.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Kellner
I choose Indian paleontologist Sohan Lal Jain
The genus Jainosaurus was named in his honour.
He mostly works on studies of sauropods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohan_Lal_Jain
Dr. John Long is an Australian paleontologist who specializes in Palaeozoic fish evolution. He is the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and has also written some science books. He has worked at several different universities and museums all over the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Long_(paleontologist)
Mike Archer is a paleontologist with Australian roots. He was born in Sydney, Australia, and then he was raised in the United States. He attended school at Princeton University and returned to Australia in 1972. He has many honors and publications in the paleontology world. He is involved in many different aspects of the field from being Curator of Mammals at the Queensland Museum from 1972-1978 to helping explore the Riversleigh fossil site in Queensland. He has also been the director of the Australian Museum and Dean of Science at the University of New South Wales. He is considered to be one of Australia's leading paleontologists.
He is also married to a palentologist, and her name is Suzanne Hand.
Here are links to read more about him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Archer_(paleontologist)
http://www.rationalistinternational.net/associates/m_archer.htm
A smaller, but just as important contributor to fossil findings is Varavudh Suteethorn from Thailand:
http://www.biomedexperts.com/Profile.bme/1373136/Varavudh_Suteethorn
Over 10,000 fossils have been found by their crew since studying in Thailand. Previously, it was "taboo" to bring home the so-called bones that farmers came across as they worked. Surprisingly, many of those could have been innovative findings in the dinosaur stories in that area!
Varavudh also is pushing for children to become interested in paleontology, so as to not lose the momentum of findings and history:
"Mr. Varavudh and others hope that the younger generation will embrace the region's dinosaur past more enthusiastically. The Sirindhorn Museum, a dinosaur museum named for Thailand's crown princess, Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who has shown an interest in paleontology, opened in the area three years ago, drawing about 200,000 visitors a year, many of them schoolchildren.
Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/old-bones-yield-a-new-age-of-dinosaurs-in-thailand-37148?cp"
I would like to introduce Dr. Pedro Raul Gutierrez. Born 1957. He is a current employee of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenes Aires, Agentina. He works as an independent researcher, and is the Chief of the Department of Paleontology . He received his doctorate degree in Geological Sciences. He is also currently a member of the Research Career of CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technological Research) and develops activities in the field of biostratigraphy from the Late Paleozoic. To date he has published and contributed to 96 works in various journals, books, abstracts and has received several awards for his efforts.
A read through his biography on the museum website will show a well educated and devoted man to his life’s work. His career is really impressive and humbling.
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.macn.secyt.gov.ar%2Fcont_ElMuseo%2Fem_pers_pgutierrez.php
Joan Wiffen. New Zealand.
Joan only finished a small portion of secondary school because her father thought that higher education was wasted on women. She joined the Womans' Auxilairy Airforce during WWII, serving 6 years. Joan had a fascination with fossils, and read everything she could about dinos. Most paleontologists did not believe that there were fossils in New Zealand. Joan was set to prove them wrong. She discovered the first dinosaur fossil in New Zealand. Joan has won various awards for her amateur work in paleontology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Wiffen
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/famouspaleontologists/p/joanwiffen.htm
Dr. Sankar Chatterjee is a geologist and paleontologist from India, currently the curator of paleontology at Texas Tech University. His work is primarily focused on the origin and evolution of vertebrates in the Mesozoic era - including dinosaurs, pterosaurs and birds - and unique discoveries in Late Triassic formations of Western Texas, which has redefined the timeline of the origin of birds.
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/PaleoWebsite/chatterjee.html
Dr. Fransisco J. Vega is a contemporary Mexican paleontologist. In 2006, he wrote a section of the book "Studies on Mexican Paleontology". His credentials are listed on this page http://www.powells.com/biblio/95-9781402039850-0#product_details
There was a team of paleontologists that consisted of a paleontologist Matt Lamana from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History that was in charge of naming a dinosaur. The dinosaur was an herbivore Suzhousauraus megatherioides and it lived 115 million years ago. This dinosaur lived in what we call today Northwestern China. The dinosaur was found not just by Matt Lamana but by a whole team which was led by Daqing Li of the Fossil Research and Development Center of the Third Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration Academy of Gansu Province and Hailu You of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. The Suzhousaurus is an interesting dinosaur. You can get more info on an article, the paleontologists, and the Suzhousaurus
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/breaking/s_530984.html
I would like to pay some focus to Tim Flannery who is a mammalogist, paleontologist and environmentalist. He is from Australia and was awarded Australian of the year in 2007. He had a part in the ground breaking discovery of Cretaceous mammal fossils in Australia during 1985. Also famous for his work on the evolution of macropods.
http://www.rareresource.com/paleontologist-by-country.php?page=2&country=AS
http://socyberty.com/activism/tim-flannery/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1376985/Tim-Flannery#
Dr. Charles K. Brain was born in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in 1931. He has studied and taught African cave taphonomy for over 50 years.For 30 years Dr. Brain headed the excavation at Swartkin's Cave, known as the cradle of humankind. This cave area was the first place to show sign of robust ape-men (Paranthropus) coexisting with early humans. The cave yielded over 240,000 fossils of fauna, humans, and animals over the years.
The doctor has written 4 books over the years and contributed to countless scientific journals. He was the director of the Transvaal Museum from 1965-1991. Dr. rBain is currently active as a research associate at the Bernard Price Institute for Paleontological Studies in South Africa. For the past ten years, he has been searching for the Earth's earliest predators in 700 million year old limestone of Namibia.
Quotes taken from the National Research Foundation of South Africa via Wikipedia
Rodolfo Coria- Argentina
Rodolfo Coria is a paleontologist born in Argentina in 1959. He has been a leading researcher at Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Science Museum in Buenos Aires, as well as founder and director of the Museo Carmen Funes in Plaza Huincul. He is currently part of the National Research Council of Argentina.
This dinosaur hunter very much focuses his attention on his homeland, specifically the fossil-rich region of Patagonia. Coria is responsible for finding some of the largest dinosaurs known to man, including the Argentinasaurus and the Gigantosaurus (both of whom he also named). The discovery of Gigantosaurus was groundbreaking because it was the first giant carnivore ever found in South America. Its discovery also marked the first time scientists had found evidence of mega-carnivores and huge plant eaters living in the same place during the same time period. Coria later helped discover an even larger dinosaur, the Mapusaurus, whose remains were found in bone beds that suggest that they lived in groups - another first for carnivores. It is also thought that they may have hunted as a pack, which would have made hunting the enormous Argentinasaurus a little bit more manageable.
An interesting article can be found at:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0417_060417_large_dino.html
Coria and his work were also featured in the film "Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia" in 2007.
Dong Zhiming, China
At only 26, setting out in Beijing Dong discovered a verteba from a sauropod! Dong later set out if Sichuan province and found contruction being done on 170 million year old rock. After having that stopped he excaavated and fouund a Middle Jurassic dinosaur in Dashanpu, which was the first major discovery in China in 1976.
http://martinwilliams.tripod.com/dongzhiming/dongzhiming.html
Sorry I'm a little late to the party, but I'm here with an offering: here's an Australian paleontologist that likes to name dinosaurs after her kids!
Patricia Vickers-Rich and her husband, Tim Rich, are paleontologists that found the remains of an ancient river channel on Australia's southern coast. They began a number of excavations and found many fossils there, including a small, big-eyed therapod Leaellynasaura (named after their daughter) and a mysterious ornithomimid Timimus (named for their son). Once they ran out of children, they started using Australian corporate institutions. Qantassaurs was named after Qantas, the Australian national airline.
What is particularly interesting is that in the Mesozoic Era, Australia was a much colder climate -- so the dinosaurs they've found actually lived in almost Antarctic conditions!
http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/famouspaleontologists/p/vickersrich.htm
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