PAUL
SERENO Paleontologist, Explorer-in-Residence at the
National Geographic Society
Paul Sereno, Ph.D., is a paleontologist and a professor in the University of Chicago’s Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy. A discoverer of new dinosaur species on several continents, Sereno fuses his mission of scientific research with educational efforts that engage his students in the process of discovery. He is also an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society.
Sereno and his colleagues recently have pieced together a portrait of an ancient crocodile, Sarcosuchus imperator—which they've dubbed SuperCroc—based on fossils they've collected at a remote site in the Sahara Desert. During expeditions in 1997 and 2000, Sereno and his team found skulls, vertebrae, limb bones, and foot-long bony armor plates called scutes. The 1997 dig had barely begun when the team discovered the fossilized jaws, each as long as some members of the team. From this trove of bones, the scientists were able to assemble about half of the giant croc's skeleton.
Since then, Sereno has teamed up with National Geographic reptile expert specialist Brady Barr to travel the globe for close-up looks at living crocodilians, in a further search for clues to put flesh on bone and create a life-size reconstruction of SuperCroc.
Sereno’s fieldwork began in 1988 in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, where his team unearthed the first complete skeletons of the primitive dinosaur Herrerasaurus. Returning to this area in 1991, Sereno’s team discovered a small skeleton belonging to the new species Eoraptor, and dated the fossils as 228 million years old — the dawn of the dinosaur era.
In the early 1990s, Sereno’s focus shifted to Africa and to rocks in the Sahara dating from the end of the dinosaur era, when the continents were drifting apart. Expeditions to Niger in 1993, 1997, and 2000 and to Morocco in 1995 resulted in many discoveries, including the first skulls and skeletons of dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period in Africa.
In 1998 Sereno and his wife, Gabrielle Lyon, co-founded Project Exploration, an organization dedicated to bringing dinosaur discoveries and natural science to the public and providing innovative educational opportunities for city youths.
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in downtown Raleigh, documents and interprets the natural history of the state of North Carolina through exhibits, research, collections, publications, and educational programming. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sun., noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Visit the Museum on the web at www.naturalsciences.org. The Museum is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary.
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