 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Center for the Exploration of the Dinosaurian World is a unique collaboration between two of the Southeast’s leading paleontological research institutions: North Carolina State University and the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.
Scientists at the center will study dinosaurian ecosystems -- the plant and animal species, climates and natural resources that existed when dinosaurs roamed the Earth -- not just as an end in itself, but as a way to understand modern environmental changes from a historical perspective.
"Dinosaurs lived in harmony with changing environments for a major part of our evolutionary history, but most research has focused on their taxonomical classification or the mystery that shrouds their disappearance, not their role as bioindicators of change.
 Dr. Dale A. Russell |
We hope to change that," says the center’s director, Dr. Dale A. Russell, who holds joint appointments as a senior research curator at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences and faculty member at NC State University.
"Our goal is not only to advance scientists’ understanding of the dinosaurian world, but to identify broad patterns of change in the history of life, by linking millions of years of changes weathered by dinosaurian ecosystems to the changes in our own environment that cause us concern today," Russell says.
Using modern technologies and the combined resources of its two partners, the center will foster research by scientists and educators from the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, NC State, other institutions and private partners.
Results of the center’s research will be available to teachers and students, and to the general public, through a degree program and courses at NC State and through joint museum-university Web pages, lectures, educational materials and outreach programs.
The center is expected to begin operations in 2001. It will be administered through NC State’s College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.