Lindsay E. Zanno | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1980 (age c. 44) |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | University of New Mexico University of Utah |
Scientific career | |
Fields | paleontology |
Institutions | Natural History Museum of Utah Field Museum of Natural History North Carolina State University [1] |
Lindsay E. Zanno (born c. 1980) is an American vertebrate paleontologist and a leading expert on theropod dinosaurs and Cretaceous paleoecosystems. She is the Head of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University.
Zanno received her B.Sc. in Biological Anthropology from the University of New Mexico in 1999, and her graduate degrees from the University of Utah in the department of Geology and Geophysics (M.Sc. in 2004, Ph.D. in 2008). [2] Her M.Sc. thesis was titled "The pectoral girdle and forelimb of a primitive therizinosauroid (Theropoda, Maniraptora) with phylogenetic and functional implications," which addressed the anatomy of Falcarius utahensis . [3] Her Ph.D. dissertation was titled "A taxonomic and phylogenetic reevaluation of Therizinosauria (Dinosauria: Theropoda): implications for the evolution of Maniraptora," which broadly addressed the relationships of therizinosaurs.
Zanno has contributed to more than 200 technical publications, [4] [5] and her work has been cited more than 2,000 times. She has published in leading international journals, including Nature, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science Advances, Current Biology, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, and Scientific Reports. Her primary focus is on the paleobiology of theropods from the Cretaceous of North America, [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] but she has also published on ornithischian dinosaurs, [12] [13] [14] [15] crocodylomorphs, [16] [17] [18] avians, [19] aetosaur pseudosuchians, [20] [21] temnospondyls, [22] and trace fossils. [23] [24] Zanno has contributed to naming many new species of theropods, including the therizinosaur Falcarius, [6] the troodontid Talos sampsoni , [25] the hadrosaur Velafrons coahuilensis , [26] the oviraptorosaur Hagryphus giganteus , [27] the iguanodontian Choyrodon barsboldi , [14] the allosauroid Siats meekerorum , [10] and the tyrannosauroid Moros intrepidus . [28] Her work is supported by numerous awards, primarily from the National Science Foundation, [29] [30] [31] [32] and has been extensively covered by major news outlets, including the Science Channel, History Channel, National Geographic, the New York Times, NPR and the BBC. [5] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]
Zanno serves as the president of the Jurassic Foundation [38] and co-chair of the program committee for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's annual meeting [39] and previously served as Science Advocate for the Walking With Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular and on-air host for The Ice Age Exhibition. [5]
Below is a list of taxa that Zanno has contributed to naming:
Year | Taxon | Authors |
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2024 | Fona herzogae gen. et sp. nov. | Avrahami, Makovicky, Tucker, & Zanno [40] |
2023 | Iani smithi gen. et sp. nov. | Zanno, Gates, Avrahami, Tucker, & Makovicky [41] |
2019 | Moros intrepidus gen. et sp. nov. | Zanno, Tucker, Canoville, Avrahami, Gates, & Makovicky [28] |
2018 | Choyrodon barsboldi gen. et sp. nov. | Gates, Tsogtbaatar, Zanno, Chinzorig, & Watabe [14] |
2013 | Siats meekerorum gen. et sp. nov. | Zanno & Makovicky [10] |
2011 | Talos sampsoni gen. et sp. nov. | Zanno, Varrichio, O'Connor, Titus, & Knell [25] |
2009 | Nothronychus graffami sp. nov. | Zanno, Gillette, Albright, & Titus [42] |
2007 | Velafrons coahuilensis gen. et sp. nov. | Gates, Sampson, Delgado De Jesús, Zanno, Eberth, Hernandez-Rivera, Aguillón Martínez, & Kirkland [26] |
2005 | Hagryphus giganteus gen. et sp. nov. | Zanno & Sampson [27] |
2005 | Falcarius utahensis gen. et sp. nov. | Kirkland, Zanno, Sampson, Clark, & DeBlieux [6] |
Zanno is active in community and science outreach, including on Twitter and through ExpeditionLive!, a platform developed to connect with the public during fieldwork. [43] She has spearheaded several initiatives through the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, such as FossilPhiles, which invites students in grades 8–11 to work with museum paleontologists; [44] Shark Teeth Forensics, which provides primary school students with the opportunity to conduct research using shark teeth; [45] and Cretaceous Creatures, which will provide students with the opportunity to conduct research using microvertebrates. The last of these is part of the new Dueling Dinosaurs Program, an exhibit slated to open in 2023 that is centered around a remarkable specimen of a complete skeleton of Tyrannosaurus side-by-side with a skeleton of Triceratops . [46] The specimen of T. rex represents the only fully complete skeleton of this species that is known to date, and the specimens were donated to the museum by the affiliated Friends of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, who purchased it for US$6 million from a private collector. [47] [48] The specimen had previously failed to sell at the seller's minimum price in 2013 and was subsequently the center of a lengthy legal battle over the ownership of the fossil. [49] [50] [51]
Therizinosaurs are an extinct group of large herbivorous theropod dinosaurs whose fossils have been mainly discovered from Cretaceous deposits in Asia and North America. Potential fragmentary remains have also been found in Jurassic deposits of Asia and Europe. Various features of the forelimbs, skull and pelvis unite these finds as both theropods and maniraptorans, making them relatives of birds. The name of the representative genus, Therizinosaurus, is derived from the Greek θερίζω and σαῦρος. The older representative, Segnosaurus, is derived from the Latin sēgnis ('slow') and the Greek σαῦρος.
Enigmosaurus is a genus of therizinosauroid that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period. It was a medium-sized, ground-dwelling, bipedal herbivore that represents the third therizinosaur taxon from the Bayan Shireh Formation, although it is known from the lower part. The genus is monotypic, including only the type species E. mongoliensis, known from a well preserved pelvis and other tentative body remains.
Buitreraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that lived during the Late Cretaceous of Argentina at the Candeleros Formation. Buitreraptor was described in 2005 and the type species is Buitreraptor gonzalezorum. It was rooster-sized and had a very elongated head with many small teeth.
Fukuiraptor was a medium-sized megaraptoran theropod dinosaur of the Early Cretaceous epoch that lived in what is now Japan. Fukuiraptor is known from the Kitadani Formation and possibly also the Sebayashi Formation.
Tenontosaurus is a genus of iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaur. It had an unusually long, broad tail, which like its back was stiffened with a network of bony tendons.
Hagryphus is a monospecific genus of caenagnathid dinosaur from southern Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. The type and only species, Hagryphus giganteus, is known only from an incomplete but articulated left manus and the distal portion of the left radius. It was named in 2005 by Lindsay E. Zanno and Scott D. Sampson. Hagryphus has an estimated length of 2.4–3 metres and weight of 50 kilograms.
The Kaiparowits Formation is a sedimentary rock formation found in the Kaiparowits Plateau in Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, in the southern part of Utah in the western United States. It is over 2800 feet thick, and is Campanian in age. This Upper Cretaceous formation was formed from alluvial floodplains of large rivers in coastal southern Laramidia; sandstone beds are the deposit of rivers, and mudstone beds represent floodplain deposits. It is fossiliferous, with most specimens from the lower half of the formation, but exploration is only comparatively recent, with most work being done since 1982. It has been estimated that less than 10% of the Kaiparowits formation has been explored for fossils. The Natural History Museum of Utah has conducted most fieldwork.
The Eumeralla Formation is a geological formation in Victoria, Australia whose strata date back to the Early Cretaceous. It is Aptian to Albian in age. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, particularly from the Dinosaur Cove locality.
The Aguja Formation is a geological formation in North America, exposed in Texas, United States and Chihuahua and Coahuila in Mexico, whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. Fossil palms have also been unearthed here.
The Prince Creek Formation is a geological formation in Alaska with strata dating to the Early Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.
Beishanlong is a genus of giant ornithomimosaurian theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China. It is the second-largest ornithomimosaur discovered, only surpassed by the related Deinocheirus.
Scott Donald Sampson is a Canadian-American paleontologist and science communicator. Sampson is currently the Executive Director of California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. He was previously Vice President of Research & Collections and Chief Curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Sampson is notable for his work on the carnivorous theropod dinosaurs Majungasaurus and Masiakasaurus and his extensive research into the Late Cretaceous Period, particularly in Madagascar. He is also known as the presenter of the PBS Kids show Dinosaur Train.
Juratyrant is a tyrannosauroid dinosaur genus from the late Jurassic period of England. The genus contains a single species, Juratyrant langhami, which was once classed as a species of Stokesosaurus.
Siats (/see-ats/) is an extinct genus of large theropod dinosaurs known from the Late Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, United States. The genus contains a single species, Siats meekerorum. It was initially classified as a megaraptoran, a clade of large theropods with controversial relationships. Alternative positions within the Neovenatoridae, Allosauroidea, and Tyrannosauroidea have also been proposed.
The timeline of therizinosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on therizinosaurs. They were unusually long-necked, pot-bellied, and large-clawed herbivorous theropods most closely related to birds. The early history of therizinosaur research occurred in three phases. The first phase was the discovery of scanty and puzzling fossils in Asia by the Central Asiatic Expeditions of the 1920s and Soviet-backed research in the 1950s. This phase resulted in the discovery of the Therizinosaurus cheloniformis type specimen. Soviet paleontologist Evgeny Maleev interpreted these unusual remains as belonging to some kind of gigantic turtle.
Fona is an extinct genus of thescelosaurine thescelosaurid ornithischian dinosaurs from the 'mid'-Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, United States. The genus contains a single species, F. herzogae, known from several partial skeletons and skulls. Based on anatomical similarities to the closely related and similarly aged Oryctodromeus, Fona was likely a semi-fossorial animal, likely spending a significant amount of time in underground burrows. It also represents the oldest known definitive thescelosaurine.