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Who's
Who
Dale
Russell | Michael Stoskopf | Paul
Fisher | Reese Barrick |
Andrew Kuzmitz | Mike Hammer
Dr. Dale Russell, a dinosaur specialist, has looked for and studied dinosaurs in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. He holds joint positions at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where he is senior curator of paleontology, and at NC State University, where he is a visiting professor in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
Russell also serves as director of the Center for the Exploration of the Dinosaurian World, a joint venture now being planned by NC State and the Museum. Before coming to North Carolina in 1995 he worked for 30 years at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa as a research scientist and curator. He holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada.
Russell, 62, is known for his work on the ecology of the dinosaurian world, the topic of his 1989 book, An Odyssey in Time: the Dinosaurs of North America. (University of Toronto Press, 240pp.) His current research focuses on the biogeography of Southeastern American dinosaurs, how dinosaur-dominated ecosystems differed from older and younger ecosystems, and the recognition of trends in the evolution of life on Earth that may occur on other, Earth-like planets. Recent contributions to the scientific literature include description of a new species, Atlasaurus imelakei, a sauropod from the middle Jurassic era of Morocco. (1999, co-authored with M. Monbaron and P. Taquet.) At NC State, he collaborates with other researchers in planning the Center and on studies of dinosaurian biology and ecology.Russell has earned a reputation for communicating his zeal for dinosaur explorations to scientific and lay audiences alike. In 1996, he received the Bancroft Award, given by the Royal Society of Canada for publication, instruction, and research that have contributed to public understanding of the earth sciences.
Russell was instrumental in the Museum of Natural Sciences' acquisitions of Willo, the Thescelosaurus with the first known fossilized dinosaur heart, as well as the world's only mountable specimen of Acrocanthosaurus, the largest North American predator of the early Cretaceous era. These valuable specimens are on exhibit in the new Museum, which opened April 7, 2000.
Russell earned a Ph.D. in geology at Columbia University in 1964; a master's degree in paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley, 1960; and a B.A. in biological sciences at the University of Oregon, Eugene, 1958.
Dr. Michael K. Stoskopf is a veterinian and professor of wildlife and aquatic medicine and environmental toxicology at NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He provided the Willo team with expertise on the comparative anatomy of mammals, birds and reptiles, particularly of their circulatory systems. "By studying living animals with different life styles and adaptations for surviving environmental extremes, we can make comparisons with what we find in dinosaurs," he says. He was a member of the NC State research team that studied three rare dinosaur eggs with intact embryos in 1995.
Stoskopf holds a doctorate in environmental and biochemical toxicology from Johns Hopkins School of Hygeine and Public Health, and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Colorado State University. He is a diplomate of the American College of Zoological Medicine and a Smithsonian Institution research associate. Prior to joining the NC State faculty in 1989, he was a faculty member at Johns Hopkins and chief of medicine at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
Paul E. Fisher is director of the Biomedical Imaging Resource Facility at NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. He is pursuing a doctoral degree in paleontology at NC State. His work to characterize Willo, and to develop and test new, nondestructive imaging technologies for use on fragile dinosaur fossils, will be the basis of his dissertation.
In addition to his pioneering 3-D composite CAT scan images of Willo, he has used his technological expertise to produce state-of-the-art images of other dinosaur specimens, including the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences' rare Acroacanthosaurus atokensis fossil, the most complete skeleton of the species ever found.
Dr. Reese E. Barrick is visiting assistant professor of geology at NC State. He is an expert in isotope paleobiology, paleoecology and the evolutionary history of metabolism and body size in Paleozoic and Mesozoic vertebrates. He and graduate student William Straight conducted the x-ray diffraction analyses of Willo that confirmed the presence of iron in its heart.
Barrick holds a doctoral degree in geological science from the University of Southern California, and was a member of the NC State research team that studied three rare dinosaur eggs with intact embryos in 1995. He has collaborated numerous times with Russell and other paleontologists to identify and analyze dinosaur fossils, and will be a key contributor to the proposed Center for Exploration of the Dinosaurian World, a joint research and outreach program of NC State and the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.
Dr. Andrew Kuzmitz is a family practitioner in Ashland, OR, and an avid amateur paleontologist. He became involved in the Willo project through his friendship with fossil collector and preparator Michael Hammer. When Kuzmitz saw Willo in Hammer’s lab they agreed that the concretion in the chest could very well be a fossilized heart. Kuzmitz arranged a CT of the dinosaur’s chest cavity, first at Rogue Valley hospital and then at Ashland Community hospital after they installed a new CT scanner capable of making 3-D reconstructions of the images. Careful study of the images proved it was indeed a heart.
At Mike Hammer’s laboratory, Paleotek Inc., in Jacksonville, OR, he and his two sons contract to institutions and private concerns in the fields of paleontology, archaeology and art. Hammer is a consultant and appraiser for major auction houses and studios.
Hammer worked from 1960-1976 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History as senior scientific preparator of vertebrate paleontology, specializing in fieldwork, preparation and restoration. Hammer earned the nickname "The Magnet" for his gift of finding fossils and is known for his work on freestanding dinosaur mounts.
During a two-week period in 1993, the Hammers found a Tyrannosaurus rex, two duckbills, a Triceratops and "Willo, " the Thescelosaurus, in South Dakota. When extracting "Willo" Mike noticed two unusual concretions, one in the chest cavity and one in the pelvic region. Mike had them scanned, leading to the discovery of the heart.