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Matthew Carl Lamanna is a paleontologist and the assistant curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where he oversees the dinosaur collection.
Lamanna graduated from Hobart College in Geneva, New York in 1997. He received high honors in biology and geology. Lamanna went on to get his M.A. and Ph.D. in earth and environmental science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Lamanna is famously known to be related to renown musician, Jonathan 'Jon' Lamanna formerly of the band 'Cry to the Blind'.
Lamanna first gained fame for the 2000 discovery of Paralititan in Egypt, called by some[ by whom? ] as the "largest dinosaur ever discovered". The sauropod was 80 feet long and weighed between 40 and 50 tons. The discovery was the feature of a 2-hour A&E documentary The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt .
Beginning in 2004, Lamanna began work on a series of digs in China. The result, first published in the journal Science in June 2006, was the discovery of Gansus yumenensis, a missing link in the early evolution of birds.
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Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is a subject of active research. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs—birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosaurs, which are all dinosaurs other than birds.
Oviraptoridae is a group of bird-like, herbivorous and omnivorous maniraptoran dinosaurs. Oviraptorids are characterized by their toothless, parrot-like beaks and, in some cases, elaborate crests. They were generally small, measuring between one and two metres long in most cases, though some possible oviraptorids were enormous. Oviraptorids are currently known only from the Late Cretaceous of Asia, with the most well-known species and complete specimens found only in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and northwestern China.
Ornithopoda is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods. They represent one of the most successful groups of herbivorous dinosaurs during the Cretaceous. The most primitive members of the group were bipedal and relatively small-sized, while advanced members of the subgroup Iguanodontia became quadrupedal and developed large body size. Their major evolutionary advantage was the progressive development of a chewing apparatus that became the most sophisticated ever developed by a non-avian dinosaur, rivaling that of modern mammals such as the domestic cow. They reached their apex of diversity and ecological dominance in the hadrosaurids, before they were wiped out by the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event along with all other non-avian dinosaurs. Members are known worldwide.
Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach was a German paleontologist best remembered for his expedition to Egypt, during which the discovery of the first known remains of Spinosaurus was made.
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 million specimens, the museum features one of the most extensive paleontological and entomological collections in the world.
John Harold Ostrom was an American paleontologist who revolutionized the modern understanding of dinosaurs. Ostrom's work inspired what his pupil Robert T. Bakker has termed a "dinosaur renaissance".
Bambiraptor is a Late Cretaceous, 72-million-year-old, bird-like dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur described by scientists at the University of Kansas, Yale University, and the University of New Orleans.
Chirostenotes is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. The type species is Chirostenotes pergracilis.
Cumnoria is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It was a basal iguanodontian that lived during the Late Jurassic period in what is now Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
The Xiagou Formation is the middle strata of the Xinminbao Group. It is named for its type site in Xiagou, in the Changma Basin of Gansu Province, northwestern China and is considered Early Cretaceous in age. It is known outside the specialized world of Chinese geology as the site of a Lagerstätte in which the fossils were preserved of Gansus yumenensis, the earliest true modern bird.
Caenagnathidae is a family of derived caenagnathoid dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of North America and Asia. They are a member of the Oviraptorosauria, and relatives of the Oviraptoridae. Like other oviraptorosaurs, caenagnathids had specialized beaks, long necks, and short tails, and would have been covered in feathers. The relationships of caenagnathids were long a puzzle. The family was originally named by Raymond Martin Sternberg in 1940 as a family of flightless birds. The discovery of skeletons of the related oviraptorids revealed that they were in fact non-avian theropods, and the discovery of more complete caenagnathid remains revealed that Chirostenotes pergracilis, originally named on the basis of a pair of hands, and Citipes elegans, originally thought to be an ornithomimid, named from a foot, were caenagnathids as well.
Ambiortus is an extinct genus of ornithuromorph dinosaurs. The only known species, Ambiortus dementjevi, lived sometime during the Barremian age between 136.4 and 125 million years ago in the Andaikhudag Formation of Mongolia. It was discovered by Yevgeny Kurochkin in 1982.
Diplodocus is an extinct genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic of North America. The first fossils of Diplodocus were discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπλός (diplos) "double" and δοκός (dokos) "beam", in reference to the double-beamed chevron bones located in the underside of the tail, which were then considered unique.
Uteodon is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur. It is a basal iguanodontian which lived during the late Jurassic period in what is now Uintah County, Utah. It is known from the middle of the Brushy Basin Member, Morrison Formation. The genus was named by Andrew T. McDonald in 2011 and the type species is U. aphanoecetes.
Paralititan was a giant titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur genus discovered in coastal deposits in the Upper Cretaceous Bahariya Formation of Egypt. It lived between 99.6 and 93.5 million years ago.
Ambiortiformes is a group of prehistoric ornithuromorph dinosaurs.
Anzu is a monospecific genus of caenagnathid dinosaur from North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Hell Creek Formation. The type species and only species, Anzu wyliei is known from numerous skeletons that preserve cranial and postcranial elements. It was named in 2014 by Matthew C. Lamanna, Hans-Dieter Sues, Emma R. Schachner, and Tyler R. Lyson.
Kenneth John Lacovara is an American paleontologist and geologist at Rowan University and fellow of the Explorers Club, known for the discovery of the titanosaurian dinosaur Dreadnoughtus and his involvement in the discovery and naming of the giant sauropod dinosaur Paralititan, as well as his work applying 3D printing technology to paleontology. Lacovara is founder and executive director of the Edelman Fossil Park of Rowan University and the author of the general-audience book, Why Dinosaurs Matter (2017), for which he received a Nautilus Book Award. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Scientific Advisors for Colossal Biosciences, a CRISPR-based de-extinction company that is endeavoring to bring back the woolly mammoth, and other extinct creatures. He is a recipient of the Explorers Club Medal, the highest honor bestowed by The Explorers Club.
Dippy is a composite Diplodocus skeleton in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the holotype of the species Diplodocus carnegii. It is considered the most famous single dinosaur skeleton in the world, due to the numerous plaster casts donated by Andrew Carnegie to several major museums around the world at the beginning of the 20th century.
Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor is a paleontologist who works as a curator at the Field Museum.
