Michael J. Polcyn
Dallas Morning News: Paleontologist puts passion for fossils to use as curator at Perot Museum
[caption id="attachment_5025" align="alignleft" width="220"]
Anthony Fiorillo excavates a Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum at a quarry in Alaska. (Credit: Dallas Morning News)[/caption]Dallas Morning News reporter Katharina Marino covered the research of Anthony Fiorillo, who is Perot Museum Curator of Earth Sciences at the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Victory Park.
Fiorillo is also an adjunct research professor of paleoecology in SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences. Continue reading
SMU contributes fossils, expertise to new Perot Museum in ongoing scientific collaboration
From dinosaurs to sea turtles, and from technical assistance to advisory roles, SMU faculty and students, the SMU Shuler Museum, and the SMU Innovation Gymnasium, team with the nation’s new premier museum of nature and science.
Fossils on loan by SMU to the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science include those of animals from an ancient sea that once covered Dallas. Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Society & Family, Earth & Climate, Fossils & Ruins, Learning & Education, Plants & Animals, Researcher news, Slideshows
Tagged Anthony Fiorillo, Bonnie F. Jacobs, Christopher Strganac, Dale A. Winkler, Diana Vineyard, Ellis W. Shuler, Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, James E. Brooks, Louis L. Jacobs, Michael J. Polcyn, Neil Tabor, Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Shuler Museum of Paleontology, Thomas L. Adams
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Dallas Morning News: Prehistoric crocodile thought to have originated in Europe may be a native Texan
Dallas Morning News reporter Marc Ramirez has written about the big prehistoric crocodile identified by SMU paleontologist Thomas L. Adams, a doctoral candidate in Dedman College’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.
The story, “‘Prehistoric crocodile thought to have originated in Europe may be a native Texan,” published in the Tuesday, July 20 edition of the Dallas Morning News. Continue reading
Posted in Earth & Climate, Fossils & Ruins, Plants & Animals, Researcher news, SMU In The News, Student researchers
Tagged Dale A. Winkler, Dedman College, Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Institute for the Study of Earth & Man, Louis L. Jacobs, Michael J. Polcyn, Thomas L. Adams
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Daily Mail: Meet the 25 ft prehistoric Texas crocodile who lived 100 million years ago
London Daily Mail reporter Mark Duell has written about the big prehistoric crocodile identified by SMU paleontologist Thomas L. Adams, a doctoral candidate in Dedman College’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.
The story, “‘Its fossil looked like a loaf of bread from Subway’: Meet the 25ft prehistoric Texas crocodile who lived 100 MILLION years ago,” published in the Sunday, July 17 edition of the Daily Mail.
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New Texas Native: 96-million-year-old crocodile Terminonaris makes its first appearance in Texas, switches origins
Making its first appearance in Texas, a prehistoric crocodile thought to have originated in Europe now appears to have been a native of the Lone Star State.
The switch in origins for the genus known as Terminonaris is based on the identification of a well-preserved, narrow fossil snout that was discovered along the shoreline of a lake near Dallas. SMU paleontologist Thomas L. Adams identified the reptile.
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Youtube: Trailer of Projecto PaleoAngola documentary
SMU paleontologists Louis L. Jacobs and Michael J. Polcyn appear in a new documentary about Projecto PaleoAngola, a collaborative international scientific research program focused on the ancient life of Angola.
“The results of our fieldwork in the Cretaceous of Angola have been extraordinarily spectacular,” says Jacobs. Besides the discovery of the first dinosaur of Angola the team has uncovered mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles and other Cretaceous marine animals. Continue reading
Earth magazine: “Mapping Dino Footprints in 3-D”
The May 2011 issue of Earth Magazine reports on the research of SMU paleontologists in the SMU Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.
In a project led by SMU paleontologist Thomas L. Adams, the scientists used portable laser scanning technology to capture field data of a huge 110 million-year-old Texas dinosaur track and then create to scale an exact 3D facsimile.
They have shared their protocol and findings with the public — as well as their downloadable 145-megabyte model — in the online scientific journal Palaeontologia Electronica. The model duplicates an actual dinosaur footprint fossil that is slowly being destroyed by weathering because it’s on permanent outdoor display, says Adams.
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Associated Press: Projecto PaleoAngola discovers Angola’s first dinosaur
The research of an international team co-led by SMU paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs is receiving worldwide coverage for discovery of the first fossil of a dinosaur from Angola.
A paper published in the “Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Science” described the long-necked, plant-eating sauropod based on a fossilized forelimb with unique skeletal characteristics that indicates it’s from a previously unknown dinosaur. Continue reading
3D digital download of giant Glen Rose dinosaur track is roadmap for saving at-risk natural history resources
Internet users now can download an exact facsimile of the huge fossil footprint of a 110 million-year-old dinosaur that is a favorite track from Texas’ well-known Dinosaur Valley State Park.
SMU scientists created the digital facsimile using 3D laser technology and are making it available free to the public. The model preserves a footprint on permanent outdoor display that’s being destroyed by weathering, says SMU paleontologist Thomas L. Adams.
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