Paul Sereno
Paul Sereno was born in Aurora, Illinois on October 11, 1957. He was the second oldest of six children: he has an older brother, Marty, and four younger sisters- Joan, Anne, Margaret and Sara - in that order.

As a kid, Paul was mischievous and often caused trouble in school. Paul's mother, Rena was an art teacher and all of the children were encouraged to experiment in art and ask lots of questions about things.

In high school Paul played french horn in the marching band and began to paint seriously. By the time he went off to Northern Illinois for college Paul had decided to major in biology and art. It wasn't until he was almost ready to graduate from college that he decided to study paleontology.
During a trip to the American Museum of Natural History in New York with his brother Marty, Paul got to see the 'behind the scenes" activity that surrounded the science of fossils: bones, technical drawing, biology and travel. He was hooked! He turned his artistic talent to recording the fossil record and got a doctorate in geology at Columbia University. He currently teaches at the University of Chicago.

Paul has led three previous expeditions to Niger (in 1993, 1997, and 2000) not to mention numerous expeditions to other places such as Morocco and Inner Mongolia. Considering their success with discoveries of new dinosaur species such as Jobaria, Afrovenator, Nigersaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Suchomimus, and the 40-foot-long crocodile Sarcosuchus, it is impossible to say what types of new discoveries await the 2003 expedition.

• Interview with Dr. Paul Sereno