Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago who has discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents, including at sites in Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger. One of his most widely publicized discoveries is that of a nearly complete specimen of Sarcosuchus imperator — popularly known as SuperCroc — at Gadoufaoua in the Tenere desert of Niger.

Biography

Youth and education

The son of a mail carrier and an art teacher at Prairie Elementary, Sereno grew up in Naperville, Illinois and graduated from Naperville Central High School. He was then educated at Northern Illinois University (B.S., Biological Sciences, 1979) and Columbia University (M.A., Vertebrate Paleontology, 1981; M. Phil., Geological Sciences, 1981; Ph.D., Geological Sciences, 1987).

Career

Sereno was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People (1997). Sereno co-founded Project Exploration, a non-profit science education organization to encourage city kids to pursue careers in science. He appears in the 2009 DVD Dinosaur Discoveries, featuring classic segments of CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite as the host, which aired on A&E in 1991. It was later re-shown on the Disney Channel until the late 1990s. On August 14, 2008, it was revealed that Sereno had uncovered a large Stone Age cemetery at Gobero in the Nigerien Sahara, remnants of a people who lived from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago on the edge of what was then a large lake. The National Geographic documentary, Skeletons of the Sahara was made about this discovery and premiered in 2013.

Fossil species described by Sereno or his team

Dinosaurs Other fossil reptiles

Documentaries featuring Sereno and his discoveries

In addition to his many discoveries in the field, public communication has been a big part of Sereno's career.