Nicholas Hotton III (January 28,1921 –November 29,1999) [1] [2] was an American paleontologist renowned as an expert on dinosaurs and reptiles.
Hotton was born in Sault Ste. Marie,Michigan and was educated at the University of Chicago,where he received his bachelor's degree in geology and a Ph.D. in paleozoology.
Hotton taught anatomy at the University of Kansas from 1951 to 1959,before joining the staff of the Smithsonian Institution in 1959,initially as an associate curator of vertebrate paleontology and later as the curator of vertebrate paleontology for the National Museum of Natural History. In addition to administering collections at the National Museum,Hotton taught a course in vertebrate paleontology at George Washington University. Much of his work focused on dicynodonts,a group of mammal-like reptiles that lived in the Permian and Triassic Periods. Hotton remained at the Smithsonian until his death aged 78,from colon cancer. [3]
Hotton was the author of numerous technical papers and many other books regarding paleontology.
His more famous books include the widely praised Dinosaurs (1963) and The Evidence of Evolution (1968). A major paper on the physiology of dinosaurs was "An Alternative to Dinosaur Endothermy:The Happy Wanderers" in A Cold Look at the Warm Blooded Dinosaurs (D.K. Thomas and E.C. Olson. eds.,1980),in which he countered Bob Bakker's theory of endothermic,or "warm-blooded" dinosaurs with a theory that migration helped large cold-blooded dinosaurs maintain a constant body temperature.
John Robert Horner is an American paleontologist most famous for discovering and naming Maiasaura,providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. In addition to his paleontological discoveries,Horner served as the technical advisor for the first five Jurassic Park films,had a cameo appearance in Jurassic World,and served as a partial inspiration for one of the lead characters of the franchise,Dr. Alan Grant. Horner studied at the University of Montana,although he did not complete his degree due to undiagnosed dyslexia,and was awarded a Doctorate in Science honoris causa. He retired from Montana State University on July 1,2016,although he claims to have been pushed out of the Museum of the Rockies after having married an undergraduate student and now teaches as a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University.
Othniel Charles Marsh was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among his legacies are the discovery or description of dozens of new species and theories on the origins of birds.
Archosauria is a clade of diapsids,with birds and crocodilians as the only living representatives. Archosaurs are broadly classified as reptiles,in the cladistic sense of term which includes birds. Extinct archosaurs include non-avian dinosaurs,pterosaurs,and extinct relatives of crocodilians. Modern paleontologists define Archosauria as a crown group that includes the most recent common ancestor of living birds and crocodilians,and all of its descendants. The base of Archosauria splits into two clades:Pseudosuchia,which includes crocodilians and their extinct relatives,and Avemetatarsalia,which includes birds and their extinct relatives.
Robert Thomas Bakker is an American paleontologist who helped reshape modern theories about dinosaurs,particularly by adding support to the theory that some dinosaurs were endothermic (warm-blooded). Along with his mentor John Ostrom,Bakker was responsible for initiating the ongoing "dinosaur renaissance" in paleontological studies,beginning with Bakker's article "Dinosaur Renaissance" in the April 1975 issue of Scientific American. His specialty is the ecological context and behavior of dinosaurs.
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution,located on the National Mall in Washington,D.C.,United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2016,with 7.1 million visitors,it was the eleventh most visited museum in the world and the most visited natural history museum in the world. Opened in 1910,the museum on the National Mall was one of the first Smithsonian buildings constructed exclusively to hold the national collections and research facilities. The main building has an overall area of 1.5 million square feet (140,000 m2) with 325,000 square feet (30,200 m2) of exhibition and public space and houses over 1,000 employees.
John Harold Ostrom was an American paleontologist who revolutionized modern understanding of dinosaurs in the 1960s.
Sankar Chatterjee is a paleontologist,and is the Paul W. Horn Professor of Geosciences at Texas Tech University and Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University. He earned his Ph. D. from the University of Calcutta in 1970 and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution from 1977-1978.
Biarmosuchia is an extinct clade of non-mammalian synapsids from the Permian. Biarmosuchians are the most basal group of the therapsids. They were moderately-sized,lightly-built carnivores,intermediate in form between basal sphenacodont "pelycosaurs" and more advanced therapsids. Biarmosuchians were rare components of Permian ecosystems,and the majority of species belong to the clade Burnetiamorpha,which are characterized by elaborate cranial ornamentation.
Titanosuchidae is an extinct family of dinocephalians.
The physiology of dinosaurs has historically been a controversial subject,particularly their thermoregulation. Recently,many new lines of evidence have been brought to bear on dinosaur physiology generally,including not only metabolic systems and thermoregulation,but on respiratory and cardiovascular systems as well.
Charles Whitney Gilmore was an American paleontologist who gained renown in the early 20th century for his work on vertebrate fossils during his career at the United States National Museum. Gilmore named many dinosaurs in North America and Mongolia,including the Cretaceous sauropod Alamosaurus,Alectrosaurus,Archaeornithomimus,Bactrosaurus,Brachyceratops,Chirostenotes,Mongolosaurus,Parrosaurus,Pinacosaurus,Styracosaurus ovatus and Thescelosaurus.
Cultural depictions of dinosaurs have been numerous since the word dinosaur was coined in 1842. The non-avian dinosaurs featured in books,films,television programs,artwork,and other media have been used for both education and entertainment. The depictions range from the realistic,as in the television documentaries of the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century,or the fantastic,as in the monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s.
The dinosaur renaissance was a small-scale scientific revolution that started in the late 1960s and led to renewed academic and popular interest in dinosaurs. It was sparked by new discoveries and research indicating that dinosaurs may have been active and warm-blooded animals,rather than cold-blooded and sluggish as had been the prevailing view and description during the first half of the twentieth century.
The Dinosaur Heresies:New Theories Unlocking the Mystery of the Dinosaurs and Their Extinction is a 1986 book written by Robert T. Bakker.
James Allen Hopson is an American paleontologist and professor at the University of Chicago. His work has focused on the evolution of the synapsids,and has been focused on the transition from basal synapsids to mammals,from the late Paleozoic through the Mesozoic Eras. He received his doctorate at Chicago in 1965,and worked at Yale before returning to Chicago in 1967 as a faculty member in Anatomy,and has also been a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History since 1971. He has also worked on the paleobiology of dinosaurs,and his work,along with that of Peter Dodson,has become a foundation piece for the modern understanding of duckbill crests,social behavior,and variation.
Hans-Dieter Sues is a German-born American paleontologist who is Senior Scientist and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,DC.
Edwin Harris "Ned" Colbert was a distinguished American vertebrate paleontologist and prolific researcher and author.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is among the oldest,largest,and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh,the early paleontologist. Most known to the public for its Great Hall of Dinosaurs,it’s collection of artifacts which have been stolen and then disregarded,which includes a mounted juvenile Brontosaurus and the 110-foot-long (34 m) mural The Age of Reptiles, it also has permanent exhibits dedicated to human and mammal evolution;wildlife dioramas;Egyptian artifacts;and the birds,minerals and Native Americans of Connecticut. There are currently several Native American canoes that have been disregarded and built into the rafters. The Peabody has one of the largest pilfered collections of PreColumbian antiquities,the overwhelming majority of which have no documentation. This has led to literal caches of artifacts being amassed with no official provenance.
Nicholas Campbell Fraser,known as Nicholas C. Fraser,is a British palaeontologist,academic,and museum curator. He specialises in the Triassic period and vertebrate palaeontology. Since 2007,he has been Keeper of Natural Sciences at the National Museums Scotland. He has been adjunct professor of geology at Virginia Tech since 1993 and at North Carolina State University since 2007.
David Hosbrook Dunkle was an American paleontologist. Dunkle was curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and later associate curator for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.