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Dinosaur Detective
Michael K. Brett-Surman co-author of James Gurney's The World of Dinosaurs and The Complete Dinosaur |
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Dino Stats (tm) Name: Michael K.Brett-Surman Age: 47 (1998) Legnth: 6 feet" Weight: Too much. Favorite Food: Steak Family: Wife and 3 cats Genus: Anatotitan (in my real life) Place of Origin: Larchmont, NY, USA Residence:Spotsylvania County, Virginia . Favorite Movie: The Mysterians, The Time Machine, Forbidden Planet Favorite TV Show: now = Babylon 5, then = Outer Limits Favorite Dinosaur: Anatotitan Favorite Sport: football Exercise: walking, bicycling Hobbies: Photography, READING (a lost art!) Distinguishing Features: Classified (by the X-Files)
Vera Velociraptor's Very Vast, Verbose, Voracious Vocabulary E. D. Cope. Famous 19th century paleontologist who fought in the "bone wars" with Marsh. Students? Pay Attention! Be sure to check out that is to say, investigate, (humph), certain other useful pieces of terminology at the 7V-WOW Archives. |
 Michael
K. Brett-Surman grew up in Larchmont, New York. He was one of
the many children who was permanently affected by seeing the skeleton of
Tyrannosaurus rex at the American Museum Of Natural History in New
York City. He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, initially as
a business major. He switched to anthropology to continue his interest
in the geologic past.
One of the professors who influenced him most was Paleontologist H. E. Koerner (who, incidentally, bore a passing resemblance to famous paleontologist E.D. Cope). With the increasing belief that most anthropologists were "graduates of the Twilight Zone," Brett-Surmann moved further back in time to the Mesozoic era. Upon entering graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley,he specialized in dinosaurs. At this time, there were only 20 dinosaur specialists in the world, as compared to the 80 or so now. After obtaining a master's degree on the anatomy of hadrosaurian (duckbill) dinosaurs, he transferred to the Johns Hopkins University to continue his studies. This move resulted in a once-in-a-lifetime accident. While doing research at the Smithsonian Institution, he asked the curator, Dr. Nicholas Hotton, if there were any "spare jobs" in the Paleobiology Department. An opening had appeared that same week. Without hesitation, Brett-Surman took the job and began a career that started in 1979. In 1988, he finished his Ph.D. by going to school part-time at George Washington University. He has named three new dinosaurs for science: Secernosaurus, Gilmorosaurus, and Anatotitan. Michael Brett-Surman is the co-editor of TheComplete Dinosaur, Indiana
University Press. He resides in Northern Virginia, with his wife and three
black cats and an astounding Dr. Who collection.
from James
Gurney's The World of Dinosaurs, Greenwich Workshop Books, 1998, page
47
Photo above: Mike Brett-Surman
at Dinofest 1998, Philadelphia, PA. (c)1998, 1998 Edward Summer, All Rights
Reserved.
GurneyTopia - James Gurney's
The World of Dinosaurs
 The
Complete Dinosaur by Michael Brett-Surman and James O. Farlow. |
