On episode 9 of Polar Diaries, we are joined by Matt Lamanna, the Mary R. Dawson Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology and senior dinosaur researcher at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Some of you mayalready know this, and others may not, but I’ve loved dinosaurs and palaeontology for as long as I can remember, and I even considered studying it at degree level for a time. So, as you can imagine, I was incredibly excitedabout this episode! Originally from the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, Matt received his B.Sc. from Hobart College in 1997, followed by an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Over the past 27 years, Matt has directed or co-directed field expeditions across Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, China, Croatia, Egypt, Greenland, and the western United States, which have led to the discovery and identification of more than 20 new species of dinosaurs and other fossil animals from the Cretaceous Period. Remarkably, Matt is one of only a handful of scientists in history to have discovered dinosaur fossils on all seven continents, including Antarctica, where Late Cretaceous discoveries from the James Ross Basin have helped reshape our understanding of dinosaur biogeography at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. Matt’s research covers an incredible range of prehistoric life, from enormous long-necked dinosaurs discovered in Patagonia, to strange meat-eating dinosaurs from the ancient southern continents, to marine reptiles from Antarctica and fossil birds from China. More recently, he has helped describe a brand-new species of giant dinosaur from Egypt, worked out how the arm muscles of certain predatory dinosaurs were arranged and how they might have moved, helped determine the age of fossil rocks in Antarctica from just before the dinosaurs went extinct, and contributed to a major Nature study exploring whether some carnivorous dinosaurs may even have hunted in the water. Matt also served as chief scientific advisor to Carnegie Museum’s $36 million Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition and has appeared on PBS, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, the History Channel, and more, helping bring cutting-edge palaeontology to global audiences. From the frozen landscapes of Antarctica to the deserts of Patagonia and North Africa, Matt’s work tells the story of a planet in motion, of drifting continents, evolving ecosystems and the final chapters of the dinosaurs. In this episode, we chat about Matt’s childhood obsession with dinosaurs, our shared love of Jurassic Park, the iconic Dippy the Dinosaur connection between London and the Carnegie, where he’d time-travel to in the dinosaur age, the surreal moment of hearing David Attenborough say one of his discoveries on Prehistoric Planet, and the big, unanswered questions that still keep him up at night. Do you have a burning question you'd like to ask a polar scientist? Use the Q&A function here on Spotify or DM the page on Instagram (@polardiariespodcast) to feature on the show. Learn more about Matt and his work: https://carnegiemnh.org/research/matthew-lamanna/Follow Polar Diaries on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/polardiariespodcast/
