Dinosaur Who's Who
In the field of dinosaur discovery nearly all of us have heard of Richard Owen who coined the name “dinosaur” back in 1842, but not many know about Marsh and Cope bitter rivals for over 20 years, or what about Andrew T. McDonald a current day palaeontologist. Below we have a few of the great Dinosaur detectives, past and present. They are in no particular order and we will add more later.
Sir Richard Owen KCB - Lancaster, 20 July 1804–18 December 1892
Sir Richard Owen was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.
Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile") and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. He agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred, but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's Origin.[1] Owen's approach to evolution can be seen as having anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology.[2] He was the driving force behind the establishment, in 1881, of the British Museum (Natural History) in London.[3] Bill Bryson argues that, "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for".[4]
1. Cosans (2009) pp. 97-103. 2. Amundson, 2005, pp. 76-106 3. Rupke, 1994 4. Bryson (2003), p. 81.
Dr William Buckland - 12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856
The Very Rev. Dr William Buckland DD FRS was an English geologist, palaeontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus. His work proving that Kirkdale Cave had been a prehistoric hyaena den, for which he was awarded the Copley Medal, was widely praised as an example of how detailed scientific analysis could be used to understand geohistory by reconstructing events from deep time. He was a pioneer in the use of fossilized feces, for which he coined the term coprolites, to reconstruct ancient ecosystems. Buckland was a proponent of Old Earth creationism, who later became convinced of Louis Agassiz' glaciation theory.
Taken from Wikipedia
Edward Drinker Cope -July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897
Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science. He published his first scientific paper at the age of nineteen. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations. Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years.
Cope had little formal scientific training, and eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as part of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Cope's financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s, and he was forced to sell off much of his fossil collection. He experienced a resurgence in his career towards the end of his life. Cope died of unidentified causes on April 12, 1897.
Cope's scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, but his contributions helped define the field of American paleontology; he was a prodigious writer, with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals would debate the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species including hundreds of fishes and dozens of dinosaurs. His theories on the origin of mammalian molars and "Cope's Law" on the gradual enlargement of mammalian species are among his theoretical contributions.
Taken from Wikipedia
Othniel Charles Marsh - October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899
Othniel Charles Marsh was one of the pre-eminent paleontologists of the 19th century, who discovered and named many fossils found in the American West.
Marsh and his many fossil hunters were able to uncover about 500 new species of fossil animals, which were all named later by Marsh himself. In May 1871, Marsh uncovered the first pterosaur fossils found in America. He also found early horses, flying reptiles, the Cretaceous and Jurassic dinosaurs; Apatosaurus and Allosaurus, and described the toothed birds of the Cretaceous; Ichthyornis and Hesperornis.
Marsh has posthumously come into disrepute when the notable "Evolution of Horses" theory, featured at many zoos and museums, was discovered to be inaccurate. It is alleged that in his haste to outdo his contemporaries, certain assertions were made without proper scientific study. This led to reevaluation of his works, with ultimate removal from most forums over time starting in the late 1950s.[citation needed]
Marsh is also known for the so-called Bone Wars waged against Edward Drinker Cope. The two men were fiercely competitive, discovering and documenting more than 120 new species of dinosaur between them. Marsh eventually won the Bone Wars by finding 80 new species of dinosaur, while Cope only found 56.
Taken from Wikipedia
Barnum Brown - February 12, 1873 – February 5, 1963
Barnum Brown, a paleontologist born in Carbondale, Kansas, and named after the circus showman P.T. Barnum, discovered the first fossil of Tyrannosaurus rex during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil hunters working from the late Victorian era into the early 20th century.
Sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), Brown traversed the country bargaining and trading for fossils. His field was not limited to dinosaurs. He was known to collect or obtain anything of possible scientific value. Often, he simply sent money to have fossils shipped to the AMNH, and any new specimen of interest often resulted in a flurry of letters between the discoverer and Brown.
After working a handful of years in Wyoming for AMNH in the late 1890s, Brown led an expedition to the Hell Creek Formation of Southeastern Montana. There, in 1902, he discovered and excavated the first documented remains of Tyrannosaurus rex.
The Hell Creek digs produced extravagant quantities of fossils, enough to fill up whole train cars. As was common practice back then Brown's crews used controlled blasts of dynamite to remove the tons of rock covering their fossil discoveries. Everything was moved with horse-drawn carriages and pure man-power. Seldom was any site data recorded.
After nearly a straight decade in Montana, Brown headed to Alberta, Canada and the Red Deer River near Drumheller. Here, Brown and his crew spent the middle 1910's floating down the river on a flatboat and stopping along the way to prospect for fossils at promising-looking sites. Trying to outdo them along the same stretch of river was the famous Sternberg family of fossil hunters. It was to be a playful but friendly rivalry for the Browns and the Sternbergs. Their competing discoveries went down in the annals of paleontology.
In one of its most significant finds, made in 1910, Brown's team uncovered several hind feet from a group of Albertosaurus collected in Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park. For years the fossils were largely forgotten in the recesses of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Then Dr. Phil Currie, who was the Head of Dinosaur Research at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in the 1990's, relocated the site of the bones using only an old photograph as a guide, and reopened the site for excavation in the summer of 1998. Examination of the site under Tyrrell Museum auspices lasted until August, 2005. However, once Dr. Currie took a new job at the University of Alberta, his new crew worked the site in 2006 and intends to continue for several years.
Taken from Wikipedia
Edwin Harris Colbert - September 28, 1905 — November 15, 2001
Edwin Harris Colbert was a distinguished American vertebrate paleontologist and prolific researcher and author. He received his A.B. from the University of Nebraska, then his Masters and Ph.D. from Columbia University, finishing in 1935.
Born in Clarinda, Iowa, he grew up in Maryville, Missouri.[1] Among the positions he held was Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History for 40 years, and Professor Emeritus of Vertebrate Paleontogy at Columbia University. He was a protege of Henry Fairfield Osborn, and a foremost authority on the Dinosauria.
He described dozens of new taxa and authored major systematic reviews, including the discovery of more than a dozen complete skeletons of a primitive small Triassic dinosaur, Coelophysis at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, in 1947 (one of the largest concentrations of dinosaur deposits ever recorded),[1] publication of their description, and a review of ceratopsian phylogeny.
His fieldwork in Antarctica in 1969 helped solidify the acceptance of continental drift, by finding a 220-million-year-old fossil of a Lystrosaurus. His popularity and his text books on dinosaurs, paleontology, and stratigraphy (with Marshall Kay) introduced a generation of scientists and amateur enthusiasts to the subject. He was the recipient of numerous prizes and awards commemorating his many achievements in the field of science.
He became curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1970. Along with his wife, Margaret, he had five sons. He died at his home in Flagstaff.[1]
1. O'Connor, Anahad. - "E. H. Colbert, 96, Dies; Wrote Dinosaur Books ". - New York Times. - November 25, 2001.
Dr Philip J. Currie, AOE -born 1949-03-13 - present , Brampton, Ontario
Philip J. Currie, AOE 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.[2][4] He is one of the primary editors of the influential Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs,[5] and his areas of expertise include theropods, the origin of birds, and dinosaurian migration patterns and herding behavior.[1]
1. Calgary Herald. 2008-06-08.
2. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation.
3. "Dr. Philip J Currie > Professor". Faculty of Science. University of Alberta Department of Biological Sciences. 2006-08-17.
4.Tanke, Darren; Carpenter, Ken (eds.) (2001). Mesozoic Vertebrate life: New Research Inspired by the Paleontology of Philip J. Currie. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-33907-3
5. Currie, Philip J.; Padian, Kevin (eds.) (1997). Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. Academic Press.
Peter Dodson
Peter Dodson is an American paleontologist who has published many papers and written and collaborated on books about dinosaurs. Dodson described Avaceratops in 1986; "Suuwassea emilieae" in 2004, and many others. An authority on Ceratopsians, he has also authored several papers and textbooks on hadrosaurs and sauropods. Dr. Dodson is a professor of vertebrate paleontology and of veterinary anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2001, two former students named an ancient frog species, Nezpercius dodsoni, after him (as well as after the Native American Nez Perce people).[1]
1. Bradt, Steve (2001). "Former Students Name Ancient Frog Fossil In Honor Of Peter Dodson" University of Pennsylvania. Last accessed 2008-07-25.
Dong Zhiming (January,1937- present, Chinese: 董枝明, Pinyin: Dǒng Zhimíng)
Dong Zhiming, from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, is one of China's leading paleontologists.[1] He began working at the IVPP in 1962, learning from Yang Zhongjian who was director at the time. He has described many dinosaurs, including sauropods Shunosaurus, Datousaurus and Omeisaurus, as well as Archaeoceratops. He developed the Dashanpu Formations - important as they are Middle Jurassic beds, uncommon in yielding fossils.
Dong has written or co-written books on Chinese Dinosaurs:
* Dong Zhiming (1988). Dinosaurs from China. China Ocean Press, Beijing & British Museum (Natural History). ISBN 0-565-01073-5.
* Dong Zhiming (1992). Dinosaurian Faunas of China. China Ocean Press, Beijing. ISBN 3-540-52084-8.
1. Spalding, David (1993). Dinosaur Hunters: Eccentric Amateurs and Obsessed Professionals. Prima Lifestyles. p. 275
Peter M. Galton - born 1942 - present
Peter M. Galton is a British vertebrate paleontologist working in America, who has to date written or co-written about a hundred papers in scientific journals or chapters in paleontology textbooks, especially on ornithischian and prosauropod dinosaurs.
With Robert Bakker in a joint article published in Nature in 1974, he argued that dinosaurs constitute a natural monophyletic group, in contrast to the prevailing view that considered them polyphyletic as consisting of two different not closely related orders, thus initiating a revolution in dinosaur studies and contributing to the revival of the popularity of dinosaurs in the field of paleontology.
Taken from Wikipedia