Lindsay E. Zanno | |
---|---|
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 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 , [12] the oviraptorosaur Hagryphus giganteus , [26] the iguanodontian Choyrodon barsboldi , [14] the allosauroid Siats meekerorum , [10] and the tyrannosauroid Moros intrepidus . [27] Her work is supported by numerous awards, primarily from the National Science Foundation, [28] [29] [30] [31] 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] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36]
Zanno serves as the president of the Jurassic Foundation [37] and co-chair of the program committee for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's annual meeting [38] and previously served as Science Advocate for the Walking With Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular and on-air host for The Ice Age Exhibition. [5]
Zanno is active in community and science outreach, including on Twitter and through ExpeditionLive!, a platform developed to connect with the public during fieldwork. [39] 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; [40] Shark Teeth Forensics, which provides primary school students with the opportunity to conduct research using shark teeth; [41] 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 . [42] 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. [43] [44] 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. [45] [46] [47]
Segnosaurus is a genus of therizinosaurid dinosaur that lived in what is now southeastern Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous, about 102–86 million years ago. Multiple incomplete but well-preserved specimens were discovered in the Gobi Desert in the 1970s, and in 1979 the genus and species Segnosaurus galbinensis were named. The generic name Segnosaurus means "slow lizard" and the specific name galbinensis refers to the Galbin region. The known material of this dinosaur includes the lower jaw, neck and tail vertebrae, the pelvis, shoulder girdle, and limb bones. Parts of the specimens have gone missing or become damaged since they were collected.
Falcarius is a genus of primitive therizinosaur dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now North America. Its remains were first collected in the Cedar Mountain Formation in 1999, with subsequent findings made during the 2000s. The genus is known from multiple specimens ranging from immature to fully-grown individuals.
Therizinosaurs were large herbivorous theropod dinosaurs whose fossils have been found across the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous deposits in Europe, Asia and North America. 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.
Nothronychus is a genus of therizinosaurid theropod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period. The type species, Nothronychus mckinleyi, was described by James Kirkland and Douglas G. Wolfe in 2001. It was recovered near New Mexico's border with Arizona, in an area known as the Zuni Basin, from rocks assigned to the Moreno Hill Formation, dating to the late Cretaceous period, around 92 million years ago. A second specimen, described in 2009 as a second species, Nothronychus graffami, was found in the Tropic Shale of Utah, dating to the early Turonian, between one million and a half million years older than N. mckinleyi.
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.
Therizinosauridae is a family of derived (advanced) therizinosauroid dinosaurs whose fossil remains have been found in mostly Late Cretaceous boundary. Even though representative fossils have only been found throughout Asia and North America, the range of Therizinosauridae is believed to have spanned much of the supercontinent of Laurasia based on several footprints and isolated remains in Europe and Africa. Currently, Therizinosauridae comprises eight described and named taxa.
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.
Nanshiungosaurus is a genus of therizinosaurid that lived in what is now Asia during the Late Cretaceous of South China. The type species, Nanshiungosaurus brevispinus, was first discovered in 1974 and described in 1979 by Dong Zhiming. It is represented by a single specimen preserving most of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae with the pelvis. A supposed and unlikely second species, "Nanshiungosaurus" bohlini, was found in 1992 and described in 1997. It is also represented by vertebrae but this species however, differs in geological age and lacks authentic characteristics compared to the type, making its affinity to the genus unsupported.
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. Most fieldwork has been conducted by The Natural History Museum of Utah.
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 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.
Xiongguanlong is an extinct genus of tyrannosauroid theropod from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now China. The type and only species is X. baimoensis. The generic name comes from Jiayuguan City and the Mandarin word "long" which means dragon. The specific epithet, "baimoensis" is a latinization of the Mandarin word for "white ghost" in reference to one of the geological features of the type locality.
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 Deinocheirus.
Sterling Nesbitt is an American paleontologist best known for his work on the origin and early evolutionary patterns of archosaurs. He is currently an associate professor at Virginia Tech in the Department of Geosciences.
This is an overview of the fossil flora and fauna of the Maastrichtian-Danian Hell Creek Formation.
Talos is an extinct genus of carnivorous bird-like theropod dinosaur, an advanced troodontid which lived during the late Cretaceous period in the geographic area that is now Utah, United States.
Siats (/see-ats/) is an extinct genus of large theropod dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, United States. It contains a single species, Siats meekerorum. It was initially classified as a megaraptoran, a clade of large theropods with very controversial relationships. Siats may be a neovenatorid allosauroid, a coelurosaur of uncertain phylogenetic position, or a tyrannosauroid.
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.