Paul Sereno	Back     Site Map
	Early life Paul is the son of a postman, born in Naperville, Illinois. He studied art and biology at the Northern Illinois University. He was soon drawn to palaeontology, seeing it as a chance to combine many of his passions- travel, art, geology and biology. Soon he earned a Doctorate in Geology in Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.  He has taught Palaeontology and Evolution and Human Anatomy in the University of Chicago since 1987. He is a co-founder of Project Exploration, an organisation formed to spread scientific awareness, and is one of National Geographic's Explorers-in-Residence. Fossil discoveries Sereno's first finds were in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina. These were some of the earliest dinosaurs ever found: the predatory 'Eoraptor' and 'Herrerasaurus' (Fig. 1), from 225million years ago. These were important in that they significantly expanded our knowledge of the first dinosaurs of the Triassic period.  Expeditions in Saharan Africa in the early 1990s revealed Afrovenator, a 27-foot long meat-eater, Nigersaurus and Jobaria, herbivorous sauropods, as well as Suchomimus, a clawed, sail-backed fish eater (Fig. 2), and Deltadromeus, a swift-footed carnivore.  His team also discovered Carcharodontosaurus, a giant therapod carnivore, and Rugops, a suspected scavenger. Quite apart from Sereno's impressive dinosaur hauls, his team also found the largest crocodilian ever known- the 40-foot long Sarcosuchus imperator (often referred to as 'Supercroc').  More recently, Sereno travelled to India in 2001, and discovered among other things Rajasaurus narmadensis, a carnivorous therapod. Aside from finding dinosaurs, Sereno has rearranged their family tree somewhat. In 1986, he proposed the creation of the clade 'Cerapoda', within the Ornithiscian group and containing Ornithopoda and Marginocephalia.       See also - The American Bone Rush References and Further Reading      Sereno, P. C. 2002. Introduction to SuperCroc and the Origin of Crocodiles. National Geographic Society, Washington. Sereno, P. C. 2002. Skeletons in the Sand: A popular book on the adventures and science of the 1993 Expedition to Niger. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc. Sereno, P. C. and Martinez, R. N. 2002. and O. A. Alcober. 2002. The primitive dinosaur Eoraptor lunensis and the early evolution of Theropoda. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Supplement. (37) URLs http://en.wikipedia.org http://www.paulsereno.org http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers-program/eir/psereno.html	Figure 1. Herrerasaurus Figure 2. Suchomimas