Mark Norell
Mark Norell
Mark A. Norellis an American paleontologist and molecular geneticist, acknowledged as one of the most important living vertebrate paleontologists. He is currently the chairman of paleontology and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He is best known as the discoverer of the first theropod embryo and for the description of feathered dinosaurs. Norell is credited with the naming of the genera Apsaravis, Byronosaurus, Citipati, Tsaagan, and Achillobator. His work regularly appears in major scientific journalsand was...
care early fossil goes interested people scientists understanding
People care about tyrannosaurs. People are interested in them - not just scientists - and this fossil goes a long way to understanding their early history.
fighting fights-and-fighting
It would not have been used for fighting - it would have been paper-thin. That's still a long way ahead.
birds close evolution feathers similar
Dromaeosaurs are really interesting because they are so close to birds in evolution, having feathers and other, similar attributes.
difficult feathers
Feathers are really just difficult things to preserve.
kids past perspective popular watch
Discoveries in the past 10 or 15 years have been incorporated into popular outlets. Kids watch these programs, so they do have a more up-to-date perspective than adults.
fight helped thin
I don't think it would have helped in a fight very much. It's very thin and fragile.
cat clearly reason
There is no reason to CAT scan this specimen, because clearly it's not pieced together,
best edge feathers fine found identical latest modern present preserved shown third
It is the third to be found, but the first one that has shown feathers identical to the ones in modern birds. They were probably present on some of those in the past, but the feathers weren't preserved well enough to be able to see the fine structure. On this latest one, feathers are found all over the fossil, and they are best preserved on the back edge of the forearms and hind limbs.
collected literally quarry skeletons
It was collected in this quarry that literally had hundreds of skeletons in it.
collect
We always collect more than we can study.
case dinosaur evolved jurassic looked park seeing
A lot of people, from seeing (the film) Jurassic Park know what an ostrich dinosaur looked like. This is a case of convergence with the ostrich dinosaur. It evolved more than once.
names number
A number of them don't even have names yet.
questions
There are still a lot of big questions about what they would have eaten.
bird central coming feather identical modern obvious structure veins
The feather structure is unmistakable. You see a central shaft, and then veins or barbs coming off the side. It is identical to a modern bird feather. It was even obvious to my 3-year-old daughter.