Becoming a dinosaur hunter

Discovering a new species is many scientists’ dream. While some can wait their whole career to achieve it, for 24 year old UCL graduate student Michael Pittman, the dream has already been realised. Here, he explains to Sarah Day how he made to discovery, and what it has meant to him.

Whilst on a research trip in Inner Mongolia, Michael, who is studying for a PhD in dinosaur tail evolution, came across the perfectly preserved skeleton of a new species of carnivorous dinosaur, which has since been named Linheraptor exquisitus.

‘As a kid growing up, I was always fascinated by dinosaurs, and I’ve always wanted to discover one’, he says, ‘but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon in my career!’

The discovery came at the very end of what was beginning to look like a disappointing trip. ‘The expedition was only two weeks long, and for most of it we didn’t find anything. By the last day we were getting quite upset! But then my friend Jonah came over to me with a claw in his hand. We both realised very quickly that it was from a dinosaur’.

With just the claw to go by, it was not clear at first what they had found. Once a specimen has been found, it can take many months to uncover it from the rock, and then even more time to prepare a scientific report of the find. Whilst Michael’s find was published in the journal Zootaxa earlier this year, the research trip itself took place in 2008.

‘It was a year before I received a photo of the skeleton, and it was only then that we knew for sure what type of dinosaur it was. Before that, it was like waiting for a Christmas present’, says Michael.

The dinosaur is from a family called dromaeosaur – better known as raptors. The most famous member of the family is Velociraptor, made famous by the film Jurassic Park. Now, with Linheraptor to study as well, palaeontologists hope to gain a deeper understanding of how dromaeosaurs evolved over time.

‘Most dromaeosaurs are only known from very fragmentary material – skulls and partial skeletons’, says Michael. ‘Velociraptor is known from one complete skeleton, and now we have Linheraptor as well, so we can start filling in the gaps and work out more about what they looked like and how they changed’.

Like many well known dinosaurs, including Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex, Linheraptor comes from the Cretaceous period, around 75 million years ago. At nearly two metres in length, with a large curved claw on each foot, it would have been a ferocious predator.

‘Linheraptor and other dromaeosaurs were very agile hunters’ explains Michael. ‘They would probably have eaten animals like Protoceratops, horned dinosaurs which were a bit like the cows of the Cretaceous period. We also find lots of lizards, so they were probably on the menu as well’.

As a dinosaur hunter, Michael’s geological training is an essential tool. In the millions of years since dinosaurs lived on Earth, environments have changed considerably, and it is only by recognising the signs of past environments that palaeontologists know where to look for fossils.

‘Although there is a lot of luck involved in finding dinosaurs, as a geologist I’m fortunate because I understand something about the paleoenvironment. That really helps, because you can narrow down the search area’.

Inner Mongolia in the Cretaceous would have been similar to the present day Kalahari Desert – large fields of sand dunes with vegetation around the edges. It is in these vegetated areas that animals tend to live. So by identifying where similar areas of vegetation might have once been, the dinosaur hunters knew where to look. Even then, Michael points out, there are no guarantees.

‘Once you know where to look, it’s pretty much a case of wandering around the desert until you see something – we did a lot of that! We found more specimens within a few days of each other, one of which we came across because I nearly stepped on it’.

The discovery of Linheraptor, then, is not the only important find of the expedition.

‘We’ve got some more discoveries from the trip which we’ll be publishing soon, so it’s a very exciting time for us at the moment’.

With plans for another trip to Mongolia underway, a career in geology is already taking Michael to some amazing places.

‘I think I’m so lucky to have this opportunity, especially at such a young age. It’s not just paleontology that takes you to great places – I have friends who work in Antarctica, Thailand, all over the world’.

The research trip was part of a project led by Geological Society Honorary Fellow, Professor Xu Xing. Professor Xu works at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is famous for his remarkable dinosaur discoveries.

‘He’s discovered and named about 25 dinosaurs already’, says Michael, ‘so I’ve got a way to go before I beat him! But I’m sure there’s many more cool dinosaurs waiting to be discovered. That’s really the goal in paleontology – to discover new things’.

Michael Pittman is featured in episode 6 of the Society's podcast series, which can be listened to online