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Matthew Lamanna's Snapshots

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  1. Coelophysis tooth crown (CM 82931)

    Coelophysis tooth crown (CM 82931) by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Fossil-rich block from Ghost Ranch, New Mexico by Matthew Lamanna

    A single, incomplete tooth crown in the maxilla (upper jaw bone) of the Coelophysis specimen CM 82931. What is probably the tip of this tooth is visible slightly below and to the left.

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  2. Coelophysis snout (CM 82931)

    Coelophysis snout (CM 82931) by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Fossil-rich block from Ghost Ranch, New Mexico by Matthew Lamanna

    The snout of another individual of the small predatory dinosaur Coelophysis bauri.

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  3. Coelophysis skull (CM 81765)

    Coelophysis skull (CM 81765) by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Fossil-rich block from Ghost Ranch, New Mexico by Matthew Lamanna

    A beautifully-preserved skull of Coelophysis bauri (specimen number Carnegie Museum [CM] 81765).

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  4. Allen

    Allen by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    GigaPan mastermind Allen Shaw!

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  5. Confuciusornis sanctus

    Confuciusornis sanctus by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    A life-sized sculpture of the primitive bird Confuciusornis sanctus, produced by well-known paleontological artist Gary Staab. Confuciusornis lived some 125 million years ago in what is now northeastern China. Literally hundreds, if not thousands, of skeletons of this crow-sized, evolutionarily important bird have been discovered. Many of these specimens preserve remnants of soft-tissues, such as feathers.

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  6. Rhamphorhynchus muensteri

    Rhamphorhynchus muensteri by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    This is a real fossil skeleton of the Jurassic pterosaur (flying reptile) Rhamphorhynchus muensteri. It was collected sometime prior to 1903 in the famed limestone quarries of Solnhofen in southern Germany.

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  7. Partial Apatosaurus femur, CM 83

    Partial Apatosaurus femur, CM 83 by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    In 1898, Andrew Carnegie read a newspaper article that announced the discovery of a gigantic dinosaur in Wyoming. This prompted Carnegie to try and buy the dinosaur for display in his new museum in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, however, this partial femur (thigh bone, now identified as that of an Apatosaurus) was the only bone of the specimen ever found!

    Thankfully, the discoverer of the fossil, William Harlow Reed, knew of other dinosaur sites in southeastern Wyoming. He soon led Carnegie Museum paleontologists Jacob Wortman and Arthur Coggeshall to Sheep Creek - where on July 4, 1899, they found the first bones of what would become the Museum's celebrated mounted skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii.

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  8. Podozamites lanceolatus

    Podozamites lanceolatus by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    This tree is Podozamites lanceolatus, a Mesozoic relative of living conifers. Since flowering plants, or angiosperms, had not yet evolved in the Jurassic, many ecological niches that today are filled by flowering plants were occupied by other kinds of plants during this time.

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  9. Czekanowskia rigida

    Czekanowskia rigida by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    The tree reconstructed here is Czekanowskia rigida. Czekanowskia is a member of the Czekanowskiales, a totally extinct group of plants related to today's conifers.

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  10. Marshosaurus skull

    Marshosaurus skull by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    This is a reconstructed skull of Marshosaurus bicentesimus, one of the rarest meat-eating dinosaurs in the Morrison Formation (the rock unit from which most North American Jurassic dinosaurs have been collected).

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  11. Jurassic dragonfly

    Jurassic dragonfly by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Diplodocus by Allen Shaw

    Insects were diverse and adundant during the Jurassic Period, just as they are today. Several kinds (such as ants and bees) did not appear until the following Cretaceous Period, however.

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  12. Palaeoaster inquirenda, a Cretaceous poppy

    Palaeoaster inquirenda, a Cretaceous poppy by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    Reconstruction of Palaeoaster inquirenda, a close relative of the modern poppy. Paleontologists know that this poppy lived with T. rex, because fossils of both organisms are known from the same rock unit - the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and the Dakotas.

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  13. Cretaceous magnolia

    Cretaceous magnolia by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    This tree should look familiar - it's a close relative of today's magnolias. Flowering plants like magnolias were very common by the end of the Cretaceous Period. Such plants (technically known as angiosperms) continue to dominate ecosystems today.

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  14. Edmontosaurus with tail injury

    Edmontosaurus with tail injury by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    This Edmontosaurus individual in this Dinosaurs in Their Time mural was based on a well-known fossil skeleton housed at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The tail of this specimen exhibits an injury that was healing at the time of the animal's death. Many paleontologists believe that this injury was caused by a bite from a large meat-eating animal, most probably Tyrannosaurus rex. This Edmontosaurus specimen therefore provides some of the best evidence to date that T. rex attacked live prey at least some of the time.

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  15. Triceratops skin

    Triceratops skin by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    The distinctive skin of the two Triceratops in this mural in Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Dinosaurs in Their Time exhibition was based on actual fossilized skin recently found with a Triceratops skeleton in Wyoming.

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  16. Allen

    Allen by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    Allen Shaw, the mastermind behind this brilliant GigaPan... :-)

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  17. Erlingdorfia montana

    Erlingdorfia montana by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    The ancient sycamore tree Erlingdorfia montana. Close relatives of many modern plants, such as sycamores, were abundant during the final stages of the Mesozoic Era, or Age of Dinosaurs.

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  18. Quetzalcoatlus

    Quetzalcoatlus by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    The gigantic Late Cretaceous flying reptile Quetzalcoatlus - perhaps the largest flying animal of all time.

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  19. Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis

    Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    This is a cast skeleton of Pachycephalosaurus, a pachycephalosaur or "bone-headed" dinosaur. Pachycephalosaurs are a rare, poorly-known group of plant-eating dinosaurs that are thought to be closely related to horned dinosaurs such as Psittacosaurus, Protoceratops, and Triceratops. Pachycephalosaurus lived in western North America from about 68 to 66 million years ago. Recent studies suggest that the supposed pachycephalosaur "species" Stygimoloch spinifer and Dracorex hogwartsia are actually just juvenile forms of Pachycephalosaurus.

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  20. Diabloceratops eatoni

    Diabloceratops eatoni by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    A cast skull of a recently-named relative of Triceratops, Diabloceratops eatoni. Meaning "devil horned face", Diabloceratops is known from fossils discovered in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

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  21. Triceratops skull, CM 1219

    Triceratops skull, CM 1219 by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    The skull on Carnegie Museum of Natural History's mounted skeleton of Triceratops is an original fossil. It is catalogued under the number Carnegie Museum (CM) 1219. It was collected from Hell Creek, Montana in 1904 by the Museum's fossil hunter William H. Utterback. Displayed for decades in the Museum's former Dinosaur Hall, in 2008 this skull was united with a replica body (cast from the Triceratops skeleton on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History) to make the complete skeleton now on exhibit.

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  22. Edmontosaurus ribcage

    Edmontosaurus ribcage by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Tyrannosaurs Battle by Allen Shaw

    This is the ribcage of the "carcass" of the duck-billed plant-eating dinosaur Edmontosaurus that the two T. rex individuals are meant to be fighting over. The top of the skull of this Edmontosaurus (that of Edmontosaurus regalis, Carnegie Museum [CM] specimen 26258) is visible immediately to the left. Edmontosaurus and other duckbills were perhaps the most anatomically advanced of all herbivorous dinosaurs. They were extremely common in Late Cretaceous land environments, especially in the Northern Hemisphere.

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  23. Christie (?)

    Christie (?) by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    A fossil bird was discovered as this GigaPan was being taken, hence the cameras and smiling faces!

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  24. Matt and Jessie (again)

    Matt and Jessie (again) by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    Who says you can't be in two places at once?!

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  25. Dianne

    Dianne by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    Checking out a photo she just took.

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  26. Disembodied legs!

    Disembodied legs! by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    Since our team was working while this GigaPan was being taken, there are lots of weird "movement artifacts" (such as this) in this image.

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  27. Rock strata of the Xiagou Formation

    Rock strata of the Xiagou Formation by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    The archaic birds and other fossils that our team finds in the Changma Basin come from rocks belonging to the Xiagou Formation. The Xiagou Formation is a geologic unit that was deposited at the bottom of a lake approximately 115 million years ago, during the early part of the Cretaceous Period.

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  28. Cafeteria

    Cafeteria by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    Our yet-to-be-assembled lunch area.

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  29. Matt

    Matt by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    The author of this GigaPan.

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  30. Brenna

    Brenna by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    The fossil bird-finder extraordinaire!

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  31. Jessie

    Jessie by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    (With nearly severed arm!)

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  32. Donkey!

    Donkey! by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    (I think)

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  33. The village of Changma

    The village of Changma by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    This is the village of Changma, the largest (relatively speaking) town in the basin.

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  34. Qilian Mountains

    Qilian Mountains by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Quarry 3, Changma Basin, northwestern Gansu Province, China, June 2009 by Matthew Lamanna

    The snow-capped peaks of the Qilian Mountains, to the south of the Changma Basin.

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  35. Two-headed Jack

    Two-headed Jack by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan "Striking a pose" at Changma Basin Quarry 3 by Matthew Lamanna

    Next time, don't move!

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  36. Sauropod manus (?) track

    Sauropod manus (?) track by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Liujiaxia Dinosaur Geopark, Gansu Province, China by Matthew Lamanna

    This is the footprint of a sauropod - a quadrupedal, long-necked herbivorous dinosaur. It may be from the manus (i.e., forefoot) of the animal. Sauropod manus tracks tend to be vaguely horseshoe- or half-moon-shaped and proportionally smaller than the pes (i.e., hind foot) tracks.

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  37. Hekou Group strata

    Hekou Group strata by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Liujiaxia Dinosaur Geopark, Gansu Province, China by Matthew Lamanna

    The rocks that preserve the dinosaur footprints of the Liujiaxia Dinosaur Geopark belong to a geologic unit known as the Hekou Group. This unit was deposited sometime in the Early Cretaceous Epoch (~146-100 MYA), though precisely when is still a matter of debate.

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  38. Sauropod pes track

    Sauropod pes track by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Liujiaxia Dinosaur Geopark, Gansu Province, China by Matthew Lamanna

    This is a print of the hind foot (probably the right hind foot) of a sauropod - a quadrupedal, long-necked herbivorous dinosaur. Separate impressions of the innermost three toes (digits I-III) appear visible, even at this distance. In almost all sauropods, these toes were tipped with claws.

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  39. Theropod pes track

    Theropod pes track by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan Liujiaxia Dinosaur Geopark, Gansu Province, China by Matthew Lamanna

    This is a print of the hind foot of a theropod - a bipedal, probably carnivorous dinosaur.

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  40. Palaeoaster inquirenda, a Cretaceous poppy

    Palaeoaster inquirenda, a Cretaceous poppy by Matthew Lamanna from the GigaPan T. rex vs. T. rex, Carnegie Museum of Natural History Dinosaurs in Their Time by Matthew Lamanna

    Reconstruction of Palaeoaster inquirenda, a close relative of the modern poppy. Paleontologists know that this poppy lived with T. rex, because fossils of both organisms are known from the same rock unit - the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and the Dakotas.

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