Matthew T. Carrano
Department of Paleobiology
Smithsonian Institution
P.O. Box 37012
MRC 121
Washington, DC 20013-7012
Matthew Carrano is the Curator of Dinosaurs at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of Natural History. Prior to this position, he received degrees
from Brown University (BS) and the University of Chicago (MS, PhD), and worked
as a research assistant professor at Stony Brook University. His research is
focused on several aspects of dinosaur evolution. Recently he has been revising
the systematics of basal theropods, in a project that has included descriptions
of the taxa Masiakasaurus and Majungatholus. Through fieldwork in
Madagascar, the western United States, and elsewhere, Matthew hopes to broaden
the temporal and geographic sample of dinosaur occurrences, as part of a larger
interest in sampling and its effects on understanding biogeography, phylogeny,
and coevolution. He has a longstanding interest in macroevolutionary patterns
in dinosaurs, especially body size and locomotion, and recently completed a
quantitative assessment of the former. Matthew is currently an associate editor
of the Journal of Paleontology, serves on committees for the Society of
Vertebrate Paleontology, and is the creator of the
Polyglot Paleontologist
website.