Phil Currie | |
---|---|
Born | Brampton, Ontario, Canada [1] | March 13, 1949
Alma mater | |
Known for | Dinosaurs |
Spouse | Eva Koppelhus |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Paleontology |
Institutions | |
Thesis | The Osteology and Relationships of Aquatic Eosuchians from the Upper Permian of Africa and Madagascar (1981) |
Doctoral advisor | Robert L. Carroll |
Website | apps |
Philip John Currie AOE FRSC (born March 13, 1949) is a Canadian palaeontologist and museum curator who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta and is now a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. In the 1980s, he became the director of the Canada-China Dinosaur Project, the first cooperative palaeontological partnering between China and the West since the Central Asiatic Expeditions in the 1920s, and helped describe some of the first feathered dinosaurs. [1] [2] He is one of the primary editors of the influential Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, [3] and his areas of expertise include theropods (especially Tyrannosauridae), the origin of birds, and dinosaurian migration patterns and herding behavior. [4] He was one of the models for palaeontologist Alan Grant in the film Jurassic Park . [5]
Currie received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto in 1972, a Master of Science degree from McGill University in 1975, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in biology (with distinction) from the same institution in 1981. [6] His master's and PhD theses were on synapsids and early aquatic diapsids respectively. [2]
Currie became curator of earth science at the Provincial Museum of Alberta in Edmonton in 1976 just as he began the PhD program. Within three seasons he had so much success at fieldwork that the province began planning a larger museum to hold the collection. The collection became part of the Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, which was completed in 1985, [2] and Currie was appointed curator of dinosaurs. [1]
In 1986, Currie became the co-director of the joint Canada-China Dinosaur Project, with Dale Russell of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa and Dong Zhiming of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. [2]
Over the last 3 decades, Currie has worked on fossil discovery in Mongolia, Argentina, Antarctica, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, and many other locations.
His contributions to palaeontology include synonymising the genera Troodon and Stenonychosaurus in 1987 (with the former name taking precedence) [7] and later reversing this in 2017. [8] He has also synonymised the ceratopsian taxon Rubeosaurus with Styracosaurus , the latter being the valid, senior synonym. [9]
One of Currie's main interests has been the evolutionary link between modern birds and non-avian dinosaurs. The similarities between troodontids and birds in particular made him a major proponent of the theory that birds are descended from dinosaurs, [5] as did his finding that tyrannosaurids, along with many other non-avian theropod lineages, possessed furculae, a trait previously believed to be exclusive to birds and absent from non-avian dinosaurs. [10] As part of the joint China-Canada Dinosaur Project, he helped describe two of the first dinosaur specimens from the lagerstätten of the Liaoning in China that clearly showed feather impressions: Protarchaeopteryx [11] [12] and Caudipteryx . [12] In contrast with the 1996 discovery of Sinosauropteryx , which only showed the impression of downy filaments, these were indisputably feathers. [5] This not only helped cement the theory that birds are descended from dinosaurs, but indicated that many dromaeosaurids were feathered. [13] He was later featured in numerous popular articles and documentaries.[ citation needed ]
Currie was involved in exposing a composite specimen that had been the subject of the 1999 National Geographic "Archeoraptor" scandal. [14]
Currie became increasingly sceptical of the orthodox belief that large carnivorous dinosaurs were solitary animals, but there was no evidence for his hypothesis that they may have hunted in packs. However, circumstantial evidence came when he tracked down a site mentioned by Barnum Brown that featured 12 specimens of Albertosaurus from various age groups. [15] [16] Currie was also involved in the discovery of a bonebed which evidenced gregarious behaviour in the caenagnathoid Avimimus . [17] In 2023, Currie co-authored a paper describing evidence from the Danek Bonebed that Albertosaurus engaged in cannibalism. [18]
Currie has made important contributions to the study of phylogenetics. He contributed to a comprehensive revision of the phylogenetic relationships of ankylosaurid species in 2015. [19] He also reassessed the phylogenetic status of Nipponosaurus sachalinensis , discovering that it was much more basal among the Lambeosaurinae than palaeontologists had previously thought. [20] In 2022, he participated in a study that found Dineobellator to represent a novel dromaeosaurid outside any known clade of eudromaeosaurs. [21]
Currie has published multiple papers on the cranial anatomy of various dinosaurs. Together with Rodolfo Coria, he published a detailed description of the braincase of the large carcharodontosaurid Giganotosaurus carolinii in 2003, which led him to believe that Giganotosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus were very closely related genera. [22] In 2017, he and Ariana Paulina-Carabajal wrote a paper on the anatomy of the well-preserved braincase of Murusraptor barrosaensis , finding it to be more similar to tyrannosaurids than to allosaurids or ceratosaurids. [23] A year later, he coauthored a study detailing the endocranial morphology of the ankylosaurines Talarurus plicatospineus and Tarchia teresae . [24] In 2019, together with David Christopher Evans, Currie described newly discovered cranial material of the dromaeosaurid Saurornitholestes langstoni and found the poorly known tooth taxon Zapsalis likely to represent the same taxon as Saurornitholestes. [25]
Currie's contributions to the study of dinosaur dentition include helping discover the first known instance of alveolar remodelling in dinosaurs [26] and revealing in a 2020 study that the dentition of Sinraptor bore extreme similarities to that of Allosaurus , further concluding that Sinraptor would likely have actively hunted medium-sized dinosaurs such as Jiangjunosaurus junggarensis . [27]
Currie has extensively studied the subject of juvenile dinosaurs and dinosaur ontogeny. His publications on the subject have included studies on juveniles of Chasmosaurus , [28] Pinacosaurus , [29] Gorgosaurus , [30] Daspletosaurus , [31] and Saurornithoides . [32]
In 1997, Currie teamed up with Microsoft's Chief Technical Officer Nathan Myhrvold to create a computer model demonstrating that diplodocids could snap their tails like whips, and create small sonic booms. [33]
In addition to his work on dinosaurs, Currie has been involved in numerous research projects on pterosaurs. In 2011 and 2016, he was involved in the description of the first pterosaur fossils from the Northumberland Formation, a part of the Nanaimo Group, of Hornby Island in British Columbia, finding that they probably represented indeterminate members of Istiodactylidae and Azhdarchidae, respectively. [34] [35] In 2017, he assisted in the description of the first known pterosaur pelvic material from the Dinosaur Park Formation; [36] he has also helped study pterosaur material from the Cenomanian found in Lebanon. [37]
Currie helped rediscover the type localities of the Mongolian sauropods Nemegtosaurus mongoliensis and Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii in 2017; the location of both quarries had become unknown due to them being described several decades before and not having been studied for some time. The next year, he published a paper as the lead author in which he suggested the two taxa may represent the same species. [38]
Currie's research interests have included ichnofossils as well as body fossils. In 1979, at the beginning of his career, he and William A. S. Sarjeant described Amblydactylus kortmeyeri from the Peace River Valley. [39] In 1981, Currie authored in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology a description of the ichnospecies Aquatilavipes swiboldae from the Aptian Gething Formation of British Columbia. [40] He went on to work on dinosaur footprints from the St. Mary River Formation. [41] In 2004, he studied footprint assemblages from the Lance Formation and described the ichnospecies Saurexallopus zerbsti. [42] In 2018, Currie coauthored a study describing dinosaur footprints at the Nemegt locality. [43]
Over the course of his career, Currie has described dozens of new species of dinosaurs as well as other animals. In 1980, he named the tangasaurid species Acerosodontosaurus piveteaui based on a partial skull and partial skeleton found in Madagascar. [44] In 1993, he and Xi-Jin Zhao described Sinraptor dongi from the Shishugou Formation in Xinjiang. [45] He was involved in the China-Canada Dinosaur Project as part of the research which described Protarchaeopteryx robusta [11] [12] and Caudipteryx zoui . [12] In 2000, he was part of a team describing the Mongolian oviraptorid Nomingia gobiensis . [46] In 2004, he was involved in the description of Atrociraptor marshalli . [47] In 2009, he contributed to the scientific paper describing Hesperonychus elizabethae , the first known microraptorine found in North America. [48] In 2012, Currie, along with David Christopher Evans and other colleagues, described the leptoceratopsids Gryphoceratops morrisoni and Unescoceratops koppelhusae from the Milk River Formation and Dinosaur Park Formation, respectively, of Alberta. [49] In 2013, he worked with David Christopher Evans and Derek W. Larson to study and name the velociraptorine dromaeosaurid Acheroraptor temertyorum , [50] and with Dong Zhiming and other palaeontologists to describe Nebulasaurus taito . [51] In 2014, he and Victoria Megan Arbour described the ankylosaurid Zaraapelta nomadis . [52] In 2015, Currie, as part of a team of twelve scientists, described Ischioceratops zhuchengensis from Shandong Province. [53] In 2016, he and Gregory Funston described Apatoraptor pennatus , a novel caenagnathid taxon from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of Alberta. [54] In 2017, Currie helped describe Aepyornithomimus tugrikinensis , the first species of ornithomimosaur found in the Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia, [55] Halszkaraptor escuilliei , a halszkaraptorine dromaeosaurid, [56] and Latenivenatrix mcmasterae , the largest known troodontid. [8] In 2019, Currie coauthored a study describing the fossil hagfish Tethymyxine tapirostrum found in the Hâdjula Lagerstätte, a fossil site of Cenomanian age in Lebanon, [57] as well as one which described Mimodactylus libanensis , a pterosaur from that same locality. [37] In 2020, Currie, together with longtime collaborator Rodolfo Coria, was part of a team of researchers that published a description of Lajasvenator ascheriae , the oldest known carcharodontosaurid from the Cretaceous period. [58]
In 2015, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum was opened in Wembley, Alberta. It is located about a 15-minute drive west of Grande Prairie, and about 500 kilometres (310 mi) northwest of Edmonton. The museum was designed by Teeple Architects, and has won several awards. It celebrates the Pipestone Creek bone bed, one of the world's richest dinosaur-bearing bone beds. [59]
Currie is a lifelong fan of science fiction and the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He is married to the Danish palaeobotanist and palynologist Eva Koppelhus, [60] and has three sons from a previous marriage.[ citation needed ]
Dinosaur species named in honour of Currie include Quilmesaurus curriei (Coria, 2001), Epichirostenotes curriei (Sullivan et al., 2011), Teratophoneus curriei (Carr et al., 2011), Philovenator curriei (Xu et al., 2012), and Albertavenator curriei (Evans et al., 2017).
As one of the world's foremost palaeontologists, Currie has been featured in many films, programs in radio and television, as well as in newspapers. [64] Apart from this, he has also been accessorial to many books:
Saurornitholestes is a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Canada (Alberta) and the United States.
Struthiomimus, meaning "ostrich-mimic", is a genus of ornithomimid dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous of North America. Ornithomimids were long-legged, bipedal, ostrich-like dinosaurs with toothless beaks. The type species, Struthiomimus altus, is one of the more common, smaller dinosaurs found in Dinosaur Provincial Park; their overall abundance—in addition to their toothless beak—suggests that these animals were mainly herbivorous or omnivorous, rather than purely carnivorous. Similar to the modern extant ostriches, emus, and rheas, ornithomimid dinosaurs likely lived as opportunistic omnivores, supplementing a largely plant-based diet with a variety of small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, invertebrates, and anything else they could fit into their mouth, as they foraged.
Dromiceiomimus is a genus of ornithomimid theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. The type species, D. brevitertius, is considered a synonym of Ornithomimus edmontonicus by some authors, while others consider it a distinct and valid taxon. It was a small ornithomimid that weighed about 135 kilograms (298 lb).
Achillobator is a genus of large dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period about 96 million to 89 million years ago in what is now the Bayan Shireh Formation of Mongolia. The genus is currently monotypic, only including the type species A. giganticus. The first remains were found in 1989 during a Mongolian-Russian field expedition and later described in 1999. Remains at the type locality of Achillobator may represent additional specimens. It represents the first and largest dromaeosaurid known from the Bayan Shireh Formation.
Chirostenotes is a genus of oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada. The type species is Chirostenotes pergracilis.
The Bayan Shireh Formation is a geological formation in Mongolia, that dates to the Cretaceous period. It was first described and established by Vasiliev et al. 1959.
The Dinosaur Park Formation is the uppermost member of the Belly River Group, a major geologic unit in southern Alberta. It was deposited during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, between about 76.5 and 74.4 million years ago. It was deposited in alluvial and coastal plain environments, and it is bounded by the nonmarine Oldman Formation below it and the marine Bearpaw Formation above it.
The Oldman Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Late Cretaceous age that underlies much of southern Alberta, Canada. It consists primarily of sandstones that were deposited in fluvial channel and floodplain environments. It was named for exposures along the Oldman River between its confluence with the St. Mary River and the city of Lethbridge, and it is known primarily for its dinosaur remains and other fossils.
Elmisaurus is an extinct genus of caenagnathid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. It was a theropod belonging to the Oviraptorosauria.
The Horseshoe Canyon Formation is a stratigraphic unit of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in southwestern Alberta. It takes its name from Horseshoe Canyon, an area of badlands near Drumheller.
The Barun Goyot Formation is a geological formation dating to the Late Cretaceous Period. It is located within and is widely represented in the Gobi Desert Basin, in the Ömnögovi Province of Mongolia.
The Nemegt Formation is a geological formation in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, dating to the Late Cretaceous. The formation consists of river channel sediments and contains fossils of fish, turtles, crocodilians, and a diverse fauna of dinosaurs, including birds.
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.
Wendy Sloboda is a Canadian fossil hunter from Warner, Alberta. She has made fossil discoveries of dinosaurs and other extinct animals on several continents, with finds in Canada, Argentina, Mongolia, France, and Greenland. She is commemorated in name of the horned dinosaur Wendiceratops, remains of which she discovered in 2010, as well as the fossil footprint Barrosopus slobodai which she discovered in 2003.
David Christopher Evans is a Canadian palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who specializes in the evolution and paleobiology of Cretaceous dinosaurs in western North America. He received his B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and a member of the Royal Society of Canada and currently serves as the Senior Curator and Temerty Chair of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. He is also a faculty member in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto. Evans is particularly renowned for his work on the paleobiology of hadrosaur ("duck-billed") dinosaurs and has conducted international research on a wide variety of paleontological topics.
Natovenator is a genus of halszkaraptorine dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Barun Goyot Formation of Mongolia. The genus is known from a single species, N. polydontus. Natovenator is crucial to the understanding of halszkaraptorines due to it providing more support for the semi-aquatic lifestyle that has been proposed for this clade. This discovery is important as the semi-aquatic lifestyles of halszkaraptorines was contested in early 2022.
Harenadraco is an extinct genus of troodontid theropod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Baruungoyot Formation of Mongolia. The genus contains a single species, H. prima, known from a fragmentary skeleton. Harenadraco represents the first troodontid known from the Baruungoyot Formation. Since members of this family are also known from the Nemegt and Djadochta Formations, the discovery of Harendraco indicates that troodontids were important faunal components of every formation within the Nemegt Basin.