Mark Norell | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1957-07-26)July 26, 1957 (age 67) |
| Alma mater | Long Beach State University(AB) San Diego State University(MS inGeology) Yale University(PhD) |
| Awards | Orbis Pictus Award,Scientific American's Young Readers Book of the Year Award, New York City Leader of the Year |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | paleontology,cladistics,molecular genetics |
| Institutions | American Museum of Natural History |
Mark Allen Norell (born July 26, 1957) is an Americanvertebrate paleontologist.[2] He is currently the chairman of paleontology and a research associate at theAmerican Museum of Natural History. He is best known as the discoverer of the firsttheropod embryo and for the description of feathered dinosaurs. Norell is credited with the naming of the generaApsaravis,Byronosaurus,Citipati,Tsaagan, andAchillobator. His work regularly appears in major scientific journals (including cover stories inScience and Nature) and was listed byTime magazine as one of the ten most significant science stories of 1993, 1994 and 1996. Norell is both a fellow of theExplorer's Club and theWilli Hennig Society. He was featured in the fourth installment ofMiracle Planet—a six-part documentary series that was released in 2005.
Norell's research has encompassed a number of different areas, from the theoretical study of diversity through time, his doctoral dissertation on alligator phylogeny, and his postdoctoral work on evolutionary variations in maize.[3] Following his M.S. atSan Diego, Norell published papers on the efficacy of the fossil record in capturing phylogenetic history, and how missing data can influence the estimation of phylogeny.
Norell became a curator at theAmerican Museum of Natural History in 1990 and helped oversee the renovation of theHalls of Vertebrate Evolution. The organization, where visitors progress in a circular motion around the floor, mirrors the evolutionary patterns of aphylogenetic tree. Thus, guests begin their exploration with the simplest vertebrates,placoderms andbony fishes, and conclude their visit with advanced mammals, such asmammoths andartiodactyls.
Currently, Norell studies relationships of small carnivorous dinosaurs to modern birds and develops new ways of observing fossils throughCT scans andimaging computers.[4] He has led over twenty international paleontological expeditions, in locales such as Patagonia, Cuba, the Chilean Andes, the Sahara and West Africa. The famous Mongolia project, which has delivered numerous discoveries in vertebrate evolution, has received world-wide attention.
Mark Norell is the direct discoverer of the enigmatic theropodShuvuuia, co-led the group that discoveredUkhaa Tolgod, the richestCretaceous terrestrial vertebrate fossil locality in the world, discovered the first embryo of a theropod dinosaur, described a series of dinosaurs with feathers, and discovered the first direct evidence of dinosaur brooding.[5] Norell's theoretical work has a focus of data evaluation in large cladistic sets, as well as fossil pattern estimation through phylogeny, in order to see trends in diversity and extinction. He has authored several papers that discuss the relationship between stratigraphic position and phylogenetic topology.
In 1998, Norell was named a New York City Leader of the Year by theNew York Times. In 2000, he was honored as a distinguishedAlumnus of California State University Long Beach. His popular science book, Discovering Dinosaurs, wonScientific American's Young Readers Book of the Year Award. Another of his books for the general public, entitled A Nest of Dinosaurs, was given anOrbis Pictus Award by theNational Council of Teachers.
Dinosaur Hunters (1996, written and directed by Kage Glantz credited as Kage Kleiner, narrated by Michael Carroll) is aNational Geographic documentary about the 1990s AMNH expeditions led in Mongolia, in theGobi Desert, by paleontologistsMike Novacek and Mark Norell.
