" After
scores of fossil discoveries on strings
of expeditions, there is no secret to success
in the field. An expedition makes the big
discoveries because of the kind of team
that one has on the ground, period. I’m
impressed with this team. On average they’re
very inexperienced; with the exception of
Gabe and Didier, no one has ever seen the
Sahara, some have never been on a paleontological
expedition. Why take such a team? My most
successful teams are composed of people
with those very characteristics, who have
the chance to do something they never had
before. who are inspired to perform beyond
100%.”
–
Paul Sereno, Expedition Team Leader,
University of Chicago Paleontologist and
Project Exploration co-founder.
 Ronan
Allain is one of two French team
members, an added plus in Niger, which uses
French as its official language. A 29-year-old
instructor at the University of Rouen, Ronan
has a passion for fieldwork and specializes
in predatory dinosaurs. Ronan has conducted
fieldwork in Morocco’s Sahara –
but this is his first time working in the
central Sahara and collaborating with Americans.
Given that only two people on the team speak
French fluently, Ronan is finding the expedition
involves much more work as a translator
than he had anticipated.
 The
second French team member is Didier
Dutheil, the expedition’s
ambassador. Didier has been Paul’s
companion for ten years in all adventures
in Africa. With an African father and a
French mother, Didier walks with ease between
both worlds. Didier specializes in fossil
fish and microfossils. As part of a team
that specializes in excavating big dinosaurs,
Didier has borne the brunt of the team’s
jokes about France and fossil fish for a
decade. All we know about Didier’s
age is that he was born “during the
rainy season.”
 Twenty-four-year-
old Andy Gray makes everyone
feel at ease. He’s a laid back character
with an intense drive for adventure and
science. When he’s not at work back
in Chicago cleaning fossils in Sereno’s
lab, he works as a fisheries observer, collecting
specimens and measuring and tagging fish.
After the Sahara expedition, he’s
off to work on an Alaskan fishing boat -
in the dead of winter. Andy is a veteran
of Sereno’s 2001 Expedition to Inner
Mongolia. As Gabe’s able assistant,
or “sous-chef”, he will be responsible
for ensuring the team has the supplies they
need.
 Carol
Gudanowski, the youngest member
of the team, turned 21 the day we arrived
in Niger. A first-generation Polish-American,
Carol’s love of travel was one reason
she came on the trip. Her interest in paleontology
is another. “I want to figure out
what I want to do with my life – and
if paleontology is going to be ‘it.’”
Carol graduated from the University of Chicago
in June. She is applying her artistic talents
to produce caricatures of the team. Along
with a suite of other responsibilities,
Carol will be the expedition’s “Breakfast
Meister”.
 Mike
Hettwer is the expedition photographer.
His work has been published in more than
500 books, magazines and websites, including
National Geographic, New York Times, The
Washington Post and Science. An avid traveling,
Mike’s journeys have taken him to
more than 50 countries, as well as on three
dinosaur expeditions with Paul Sereno. Along
with Gabrielle Lyon, he produces the Project
Exploration Dinosaur Expedition 2003 website
and designed and operates the satellite
system in the field.
 Luke
Mahler, a 22- year-old University
of Chicago graduate, Luke is a research
assistant at the Field Museum. A reptile
enthusiast, Luke manages to round up every
reptile and amphibian within a mile of camp.
In the last four years, Luke has demonstrated
his talent for organization and working
with people by guiding a group of Nigeriennes
across the United States to visit dinosaur
localities and organizing volunteers from
all walks of life in Sereno’s dinosaur
lab. Luke spent six months in East Africa,
but this is his first visit to the Sahara.
 Joshua
Miller, a 25-year- old and Paul’s
newest graduate student, has already been
in the field in South Africa and Madagascar.
Before deciding on paleontology and geology
as a career, he studied ethnomusicology
in Australia on a Watson fellowship. The
only team member to have been adopted by
an Aboriginal tribe – with the given
name of “lorrpo,” meaning “white
bird” – Josh’s ready jokes
have kept people laughing since arrival.
This is Josh’s first time to the Sahara
and his first African expedition with Paul.
Josh, along with Luke, will assist Paul
with recording and managing the expedition’s
collections.
 At
age 31, Gabrielle Lyon
is a Sahara expedition veteran and education
activist. As co-founder and executive director
of Project Exploration, a Chicago-based
non profit science education organization,
Gabe is creating ways to bring the adventure
and excitement of science to the public
in ways that have never been done before.
Gabe has been the “quartermaster”
for six international expeditions –
logistics and supplies are her specialty.
She is also a University of Chicago alum
and is married to Paul Sereno.
 Nels
Peterson was amongst the advance
crew that headed to Niger with Paul a few
weeks early to get things rolling. Nels
is the team’s “Paul Bunyon.”
A 25-year old electrical engineering student
at Montana State University, field captain
for Jack Horner’s work in Montana
and an itinerant mechanic, Nels has been
providing the brains and muscle behind getting
the armada back on its wheels. This is Nel’s
first international expedition and his first
time in Africa.
 A
last minute cancellation opened a window
of opportunity for Colorado College archaeology
student Jeff Stivers. He
got the invitation just six days before
the team departed. 22-year old Jeff met
Luke Mahler during a study abroad program
in East Africa and participated this summer
in a prospecting mission in the Western
United States to help find dinosaur sites
for Paul’s university class. Despite
his interests in archaeology, he readily
admits that“this fossil stuff with
Paul is the coolest thing I’ve ever
done.” Jeff was recently designated
“water-boy” and is responsible
for keeping the team supplied with purified
water.
Read
more about
the Dinosaur Expedition 2003 team
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