Best Theropods
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Mark A. Norell is an American vertebrate paleontologist who served as the curator of fossil reptiles at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He is known for his extensive fieldwork in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, leading expeditions that uncovered numerous well-preserved Cretaceous fo...
John Ostrom (1928–2005) was an American paleontologist whose work fundamentally altered modern paleontology and evolutionary biology. In 1969, he described the predatory dinosaur "Deinonychus," sparking a major revision of how dinosaurs were perceived in terms of their activity levels and metabolism...
Philip J. Currie is a prominent Canadian paleontologist recognized for his extensive research on theropod dinosaurs, particularly those from the Late Cretaceous period. He played a key role in the founding of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta and later became a professor at the Un...
Altangerel Perle is a Mongolian paleontologist known for his research on the dinosaur fossils of the Gobi Desert. He has co-described several theropod dinosaurs, including Erlikosaurus andrewsi, a therizinosaur, and Achillobator giganticus, a dromaeosaurid, both named from Late Cretaceous Mongolian...
Dale Russell was a Canadian paleontologist known for his research on theropod dinosaurs and the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. He famously co-created the speculative "dinosauroid" model in 1982 alongside Ron Séguin, which envisioned a humanoid evolutionary path for the dinosaur *Troodon*. Th...
Stephen L. Brusatte is an American vertebrate paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who serves as a professor at the University of Edinburgh. His extensive research focuses on the origins, anatomical evolution, and ultimate extinction of dinosaurs, with a particular emphasis on theropods and the...
Sergei Kurzanov is a Russian paleontologist associated with the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. During the 1970s and 1980s, he participated in extensive Soviet-Mongolian paleontological expeditions in the Gobi Desert. Kurzanov's research focused heavily on the...
Xu Xing is a leading paleontologist specializing in Chinese dinosaurs. His work has dramatically reshaped our understanding of dinosaur evolution. Notably, he identified and named numerous species, most famously Microraptor, a feathered theropod that provided crucial evidence for the link between di...
Philip J. Currie is a Canadian paleontologist born in 1949, known for his extensive fieldwork and discoveries in Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Gobi Desert. He co-founded the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and later became a professor at the University of Alberta. Currie is a reco...
Andrea Cau is an Italian vertebrate paleontologist affiliated with the University of Bologna whose research centers on theropod dinosaur phylogenetics. He has published on the evolutionary relationships of maniraptoran and paravian theropods, and in 2017 he co-authored the description of Halszkarapt...
Paulina Carabajal is an Argentine vertebrate paleontologist who uses CT imaging to reconstruct the brains and sensory systems of extinct reptiles.
Yevgeny Maleev was a Soviet paleontologist who studied Mongolian dinosaurs and named the tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus bataar in 1955.
Mignon Talbot was an American paleontologist who in 1911 described Podokesaurus holyokensis, becoming the first woman to name a nonavian dinosaur.
Rinchen Barsbold was a pioneering paleontologist specializing in the dinosaurs of Mongolia. His extensive work in the Gobi Desert significantly advanced our understanding of theropod evolution, particularly through his foundational research on oviraptorosaurs beginning in 1976. He is most notably re...
Ronan Allain is a French paleontologist and fossil-reptile curator in Paris, known for theropod research and for co-describing Laos's Ichthyovenator in 2012.
Halszka Osmólska (1930–2008) was a prominent Polish paleontologist associated with the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. She specialized in the study of Mongolian dinosaurs, co-authoring significant research on theropods, oviraptorosaurs, and pachycephalosaurs. In 1970, sh...
Philip J. Currie is a Canadian paleontologist known for research on dinosaurs, particularly theropods and the evidence for their growth, behavior, and relationships. He worked as a curator at Alberta's Provincial Museum and later at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology before joining the Univer...
Fernando Novas is an Argentine paleontologist working at the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires. He specializes in the study of Cretaceous-era theropod dinosaurs from the Southern Hemisphere, particularly their evolutionary link to modern birds. Novas is well-known for co-d...
Karol Sabath was a Polish paleontologist and scientific illustrator known for research on dinosaur eggs, theropods, and dinosaur biology.
Mark Norell is an American paleontologist who serves as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History. He is recognized for his extensive fieldwork in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, which led to the discovery of important theropod dinosaur fossils. Norell's research focuses heavily on the evolut...
Rodolfo Coria is an Argentine paleontologist known for his extensive research on Cretaceous dinosaur fossils in Patagonia. In 1995, he co-described the giant theropod dinosaur Giganotosaurus with Leonardo Salgado, which was notably comparable in size to Tyrannosaurus rex. Throughout his career, he h...
Steve Brusatte is an American paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh, where he conducts research on the evolution of dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles. He has made significant contributions to the study of theropod dinosaurs, particularly tyrannosaurs, and has described numerous new fossi...
Matthew Carrano is an American vertebrate paleontologist associated with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, where his work includes dinosaur research and fossil collections. His scholarship examines dinosaur systematics, ecology, and large-scale evolutionary patterns,...
Thomas R. Holtz Jr. is an American vertebrate paleontologist and educator at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on dinosaur evolution and classification, particularly the anatomy, relationships, and ecological history of theropod dinosaurs such as tyrannosaurs. He is also known for com...
Oliver Rauhut is a German vertebrate paleontologist whose research focuses on dinosaurs, particularly theropod evolution, anatomy, and diversity during the Mesozoic Era. He is associated with paleontological research institutions in Munich and has studied fossils from Europe, South America, and othe...
Lindsay Zanno is an American vertebrate paleontologist whose research focuses on theropod dinosaurs and the evolution of Cretaceous ecosystems. She is affiliated with North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where her work includes field research, fossil ana...
Daniel Chure is a vertebrate paleontologist noted for Dinosaur National Monument work; he and colleagues named the sauropod Abydosaurus in 2010.
Juan Porfiri is an Argentine paleontologist associated with the Universidad Nacional del Comahue who notably co-authored the description of the large theropod Megaraptor in 1998.
