Cafe Scientifique: The Origin of Modern Birds

Carnegie Science Center's Podcast

Matthew C. Lamanna, Ph.D. Assistant Curator Section of Vertebrate Paleontology Carnegie Museum of Natural History Birds are today's most diverse group of land-living backboned animals. They comprise more than 10,000 species. But their origins remain poorly understood. Lamanna's expeditions have unearthed dozens of exquisitely-preserved avian fossils – many of them including soft-tissues such as feathers and skin – from ~120 million-year-old sediments in the Changma Basin of northwestern Gansu Province, China. More recently, Lamanna and his team have conducted expeditions to latest Cretaceous exposures in the James Ross Basin of the Antarctic Peninsula in search of what may be the world's most ancient neornithines. Dr. Lamanna studied at Hobart College and the University of Pennyslvania. He serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Planetary Science at University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Lamanna has extensive paleontological field experience in Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, China, Egypt, and the United States. In 2000, he co-led a research team that unearthed Paralititan stromeri, one of the largest dinosaurs yet discovered, in Egypt's Bahariya Oasis. More recently, Lamanna served as chief scientific advisor to Carnegie Museum of Natural History's $36M dinosaur exhibition, Dinosaurs in Their Time, which opened in 2008. Recorded on Monday, May 5, 2014 at Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, PA.