The Zanno Lab

Event held at the Daily Planet Theater in the Nature Research Center at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on Friday November 22, 2013. A new species of carnivorous dinosaur — one of the three largest ever discovered in North America — lived alongside and competed with small-bodied tyrannosaurs 98 million years ago. This newly discovered species, Siats meekerorum, (pronounced see-atch) was the apex predator of its time, and kept tyrannosaurs from assuming top predator roles for millions of years.

Eggs and nests are among the rarest dinosaur fossils. Although large numbers of spectacular fossil nests have been discovered in Asia, very few dinosaur eggs have been discovered in North America and those that have, largely belong to duckbill or raptor dinosaurs. Now a team of paleontologists led by Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and assistant research professor at NC State University, has recovered the first clutch of eggs from a fascinating group of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs — known as oviraptorosaurs — ever discovered in North America. The 97-million-year-old clutch contains at least eight football-sized eggs (the exact count is currently unknown) found buried next to the remains of an ancient bank laden with trees.

Museum Paleontologist to Unveil New Tyrannosaur Species Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and paleontologist at North Carolina State University, will announce the discovery of a new, diminutive – by T. rex standards – relative of the tyrant king of dinosaurs. The discovery reveals crucial new information about when and how T. rex came to rule the North American roost.