SCIENCE ADVISORS

In the film and Behind the Scenes

Michael Novacek, Ph.D. (Co-PI), Paleontology, Biology

As Senior Vice President and Provost at the American Museum of Natural History, Mike is the chief spokesman for the museum's scientific program. As Curator in the Division of Paleontology, he has also been a team leader of the joint AMNH/Mongolian Academy of Sciences ongoing expeditions to the Gobi Desert. Novacek was one of the discoverers of Ukhaa Tolgod, the richest Cretaceous dinosaur fossil site known in the world.

Mark Norell, Ph.D. Biology, Zoology

Curator and Chair of the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, Mark has acted as leader or co-leader on numerous international paleontological expeditions, including annual trips for more than a decade to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Much of Norell's recent research has yielded new evidence of the link between dinosaurs and birds. He is a widely published author in dinosaur science and paleontology.

Sterling Nesbitt, M.A.

Sterling is a doctoral student at Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History. He is a recipient of a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. He received a B.A. from the University of California Berkeley and a M.A. from Columbia University. Sterling investigates the early representatives of dinosaurs and distant relatives of crocodylians. Additionally, he researches the origin of the Mesozoic fauna at the end of the Triassic. He conducts fieldwork in Arizona, Utah, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Tanzania, Africa.

Alan Turner, M.S.

Alan is a doctoral student at Columbia University and holds a graduate fellowship from the American Museum of Natural History. He received a B.S. from the University of Cincinnati and an M.S. from the University of Iowa for which he completed an exhaustive description of a crocodylian relative from Madagascar. Alan is researching the closest relatives of birds, troodontid and dromeosaurid theropod dinosaurs for his PhD. Alan also studies early crocodylians and methods in reconstructing the biogeographic history of ancient organisms. He conducts his fieldwork in New Mexico, Arizona, and the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Amy Balanoff, M.S.

Amy is a doctoral student at Columbia University and holds a graduate fellowship from the American Museum of Natural History. She received a B.S. and M.S. from The University of Texas at Austin, and spent much of her time there working on developmental morphology of archosaurs. She is currently researching the evolutionary relationships and ontogeny of Oviraptorosaur dinosaurs. Amy has been involved in fieldwork in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, as well as the Gobi Desert in Mongolia.

Julia Clarke, Ph.D., Paleontology

Julia is an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, Research Curator of Paleontology at the North Carolina History Museum, and a Research Associate of the American Museum of Natural History. She holds a PhD. from Yale University (Department of Geology and Geophysics), and an undergraduate degree from Brown University (Comparative Literature and Geobiology). She appears in the film (as a researcher and expedition participant), and served as a Science and Education Adviser.

Behind the Scenes

Kristina Curry Rogers, Ph.D., Anatomical Sciences

As Curator of Paleontology at the Science Museum of Minnesota and Visiting Assistant Professor in the Geology Departments of Macalaster College and the University of Minnesota, Kristina research is focused on dinosaur growth rates and life cycles, and on the evolutionary history of titanosaurs, the Cretaceous survivors of the long-necked Sauropoda.

Stephen Gatesy, Ph.D., Organismic & Evolutionary Biology

An Associate Professor, Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University, Stephen studies the evolution, morphology, function and development of dinosaur limbs. Using three-dimensional computer modeling, Gatesy has produced unique visual insight into dinosaur locomotion.

David Loope, Ph.D., Geology

A professor in the Geology Department, University of Nebraska, David has been studying the geological environment of the Gobi Desert, advancing a popular new theory that the dinosaurs were so well preserved there, not because of sandstorms, but by being quickly buried in mudslides created by infrequent but fierce rainstorms.

David Weishampel, Ph.D., Geology, Biology

David is a professor in the Dept. of Cell Biology and Anatomy, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. A biologist with advanced degrees in geology, David has researched and written extensively on biogeography, evolution, morphology and biomechanics of dinosaurs of the Cretaceous Period.

Charles Gallenkamp, Historian

Charles is an anthropology and archaeology scholar, museum curator, and author of the best- selling biography Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews & The Central Asiatic Expeditions. Charles has lent his unequaled knowledge of Andrews' life and archives to the project and assured the film's historic accuracy.

David Stevens, Educator

David is the Earth science/paleontology educator now attached to Maryland State Department of Education as a Facilitator in Science in the Division of Instruction. His close relationship with public schools was helpful in assessing primary school children levels of knowledge and areas of interest as we shaped the science content of the film.