News: Dino Lab Grant to Phil Currie

[bh480@scn.org]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org

In case this news item has not been mentioned yet:

http://www.gateway.ualberta.ca/view.php?aid=5331

Grant helps top dinosaur expert develop advanced 
palaeontology lab at U of A 

Derek Larson 

Even before Jurassic Park, dinosaurs had been the 
breadwinners of the palaeontological community, and one of 
this year?s Tier One Canadian Research Chairs is no 
exception. 

The federal government, through the Canadian Research 
Chair program, has given Dr Philip J Currie of the 
University of Alberta $1.4 million over seven years to 
study the prehistoric beasts. Currie, professor in the 
Biological Sciences Department as of October of this year 
and formerly of the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, 
couldn?t be happier. 

"I?m very pleased that I was able to capture one of these 
[Canadian Research Chairs], and the budgets that go with 
it," said Currie. "It?s a pretty good indication that the 
federal government ... is pretty serious about trying to 
keep scientists in Canada and to improve what?s being done 
in the country." 

Canada?s foremost dinosaur expert, Currie is also one of 
the most well-know palaeontologists in the world, 
specializing in theropod (meat-eating) dinosaurs. 

His popularity is evident in his schedule. Currently in 
the midst of a European lecture tour, he has already 
visited Sweden, Switzerland and Italy, and he plans to 
visit Spain as well. 

But no matter how far afield he travels, this world-
renowned palaeontologist has decided to come to the U of A 
to set up shop permanently. 

With his research money, Currie plans to build one of the 
most advanced palaeontology laboratories in the world, 
including equipment for CAT scanning and 3D imaging. With 
the lab, he?ll be better able to study features of bones 
and how they relate to other bones, allowing for a better 
understanding of how dinosaurs lived, moved, and grew over 
time. 

"I?ll have the opportunity to set up a lab to teach the 
next generation of palaeontologists working on dinosaurs 
the latest techniques," said Currie. 

And for all the projects that he?s working on, he?ll need 
a lab and a small team of students. Recently working on 
everything from Mongolian dinosaurs to small theropod 
dinosaurs to feathered dinosaurs, Currie has had to focus 
his energy on particular fields. 

"[I?ve been] working a lot this year on tyrannosaurs, 
because with the 100th anniversary of Tyrannosaurus rex 
and Albertosaurus [this year], I had a whole series of 
papers I had to finish off on that," Currie said, adding 
that he is currently writing a description of what could 
be the largest T-rex ever found. 

"The next step we?re going to go on this is starting to 
look at the mechanics of the skull and how the skull 
moves," he said. "If you don?t have some give in the 
skull, then I think you have a much better chance of 
breaking teeth and things like that, so there is 
presumably a way that we can model this and test it and 
see what kind of stresses are put on the jaws and the 
teeth themselves and see if, in fact, all that [movement] 
has something to do with solving the problem of breaking 
teeth." 

But Dr Currie has not spent the entirety of his two months 
here at the U of A designing his new lab, carefully 
observing fossils, and writing an endless stream of 
scientific papers. 

"We took out a bone [from the shores of the North 
Saskatchewan river] the other day, the day we left for 
Sweden, actually," said Currie. "But it looks like there 
are more bones there, so we?ll have to see next year what 
it leads to."