Mark A. Norell
| Mark Norell | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 26, 1957 St. Paul, Minnesota, United States |
| Residence | Manhattan, New York City, United States |
| Fields | paleontology, cladistics, molecular genetics |
| Institutions | American Museum of Natural History |
| Alma mater |
Long Beach State University (AB) San Diego State University (MS in Geology) Yale University (PhD) |
| Influences | John Ostrom, Roy Chapman Andrews, Edward Drinker Cope |
| Notable awards | Orbis Pictus Award, Scientific American's Young Readers Book of the Year Award, New York City Leader of the Year |
Mark A. Norell (born July 26, 1957) is an American paleontologist and molecular geneticist, acknowledged as one of the most important living vertebrate paleontologists. He is currently the chairman of paleontology and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. He is best known as the discoverer of the first theropod embryo and for the description of feathered dinosaurs. Norell is credited with the naming of the genera Apsaravis, Byronosaurus, Citipati, Tsaagan, and Achillobator. His work regularly appears in major scientific journals (including cover stories in Science and Nature) and was listed by Time magazine as one of the ten most significant science stories of 1993, 1994 and 1996.
Norell is both a fellow of the Explorer's Club and the Willi Hennig Society.
Norell's research has encompassed a number of different areas, from the theoretical study of diversity through time, and his doctoral thesis of the evolutionary variations in maize. Following his M.S. at San 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 the American Museum of Natural History in 1990 and helped oversee the renovation of the Halls of Vertebrate Evolution. The organization, where visitors progress in a circular motion around the floor, mirrors the evolutionary patterns of a phylogenetic tree. Thus, guests begin their exploration with the simplest vertebrates, placoderms and bony fishes, and conclude their visit with advanced mammals, such as mammoths and artiodactyls.
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