Dale Russell

Dale Russell
Born (1937-12-27) December 27, 1937
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Citizenship United States and Canada
Occupation Professor
Employer North Carolina State University

Dale Alan Russell (born 27 December 1937) is an American-Canadian geologist and palaeontologist. He is currently Research Professor at the Department of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS) at North Carolina State University. Dinosaurs he has described include Daspletosaurus, and he was amongst the first paleontologists to consider an extraterrestrial cause (supernova, comet, asteroid) for the extinction of the dinosaurs.[1]

In 1982, Russell created the "dinosauroid" thought experiment, which speculated an evolutionary path for Troodon if it had not gone extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 65 million years ago, and had instead evolved into an intelligent being. Russell commissioned a model of his dinosauroid by artist Ron Sequin, and the concept became popular. Various later anthropologists have continued Russell's speculations about intelligent Troodon-like dinosaurs, though they often find his original idea too anthropomorphic.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Russell, Dale & Tucker, Wallace (19 February 1971). "Supernovae and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs." Nature 229:553-554.
  2. ↑ Jeff Hecht (9 July 2007). "Smartasaurus". Cosmos Magazine. Retrieved 1 June 2017.


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