Cover Illustrations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artwork

One of the rewarding parts of my research is getting to collaborate with artists to illustrate specimens or create reconstructions of extinct species. Check out the examples below.

 

Original artwork by Michael Emerson depicting the skull and mandible of Miomancalla howardae in ventral and posterior views (also see Smith, 2011, figure 13).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original artwork by Katie Browne depicting Alca species from the Pliocene of North Carolina. (also see Smith and Clarke 2011, cover image).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original artwork by Robert Boessenecker showing a reconstruction of Miomancalla howardae, a flightless species of wing-propelled diving bird I described in 2011 (see Smith, 2011).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fieldwork

One of the most exciting parts of my research is getting to go into the field in search of new fossil discoveries. Check out the examples below.

 

Prospecting for avian fossils in Miocene and Pliocene sediments on the coast of North Carolina (2005).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excavating archosaur fossils from the Triassic Pekin Formation of North Carolina as part of a North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences field team (2006).

 

 

 

 

 

Prospecting for dinosaur remains in the Cretaceous Judith River Formation of Montana as part of a North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences field team (2007).

 

 

 

 

In 2009 I co-led a Texas Memorial Museum expedition to explore exposures of the Late Cretaceous (~68 million years old) Hell Creek Formation in Montana. In this picture I am excavating some Triceratops vertebrae.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excavating vertebrates from the Eocene Paracas Formation in the Atacama Desert of Peru as part of a National Geographic Society expedition including members of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and the Museo de Historia Natural of Lima (2009).

 

 

In 2010 I led a Texas Memorial Museum expedition to Wyoming to search for fossils in the Cretaceous Niobrara Formation. In this picture, some of the field crew (A. DeBee, C. Torres, and Z. Li) are prospecting for fossils along a newly discovered outcrop.

 

 

 

Me holding a fledgling Rhinoceros Puffin (Cerorhinca monocerata) on Teuri Island, Japan in August of 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparing a field jacket of K/T boundary strata for extraction in North Dakota in July of 2017.