Paul Sereno

Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11 1957) is an American paleontologist who is the discoverer of several new dinosaur species on several continents. He has conducted excavations at sites as varied as Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger. He is a professor at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence." The son of a mailman and an art teacher at Prairie Elementary, Paul grew up in Naperville, Illinois and graduated from Naperville Central High School.

Sereno's most widely publicized discovery is that of a nearly complete specimen of Sarcosuchus imperator (popularly known as SuperCroc) at Gadoufaoua in the Tenere desert of Niger. Other major discoveries include Eoraptor - the oldest known dinosaur fossil, Jobaria, the first good skull of Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, Afrovenator, Suchomimus and the African pterosaur.

On August 14th 2008, it was revealed that Sereno had uncovered a large Stone Age cemetery in Sahara, and together with a team of archaeologists had worked on it the last eight years.

He has been named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People (1997).

Dr. Sereno founded a non-profit science education organization to encourage city kids and girls to pursue careers in science called Project Exploration.