This is 1977, during recess at Pine Orchard Primary School in Branford, Connecticut. , when third-
First-year student Matthew Carano has decided to take his obsession with dinosaurs to another level.
Can he draw a life?
Size of Diplodocus, Longnecked, long-
Almost 90 feet long tail creature?
While most of his classmates were playing football, karano took a stick on a piece of dirt and gravel next to the school.
Using the building as a guide to measurement, he began to map ancient animals.
"Most children have a stage of being fascinated by dinosaurs," says Frank, Carrano's younger brother . ".
"Matt never got out of that stage. ”Flash-
In the first 42 years, Carrano was the curator of the Smithsonian Institution's dinosaur House, his 7-year-
Remake The Fossil Museum at the National Museum of Natural History, one of the most popular exhibitions. “The David H.
Koch fossil museum-
Depth time "began again in June 8, five years later.
The renovation project, which cost US $0. 125 billion, is 109-year history.
More than 3 "deep time" inspections.
There are 7 billion years of life on Earth, telling a complicated story with nearly 700 fossil specimens and other artifacts.
The thoroughly renovated gallery has updated technology and interactive displays that invite visitors to participate rather than just observe.
The museum's dinosaur fossils, including the National dinosaur fossils, are the highlights of the exhibition.
Rex is an important addition to the Hall and the first large predator fossil displayed in Washington. The T.
Rex posed on the triangular muscles and took a bite from the skull.
The rest of the dinosaurs were sleeping to protect their offspring.
Carrano, 49, and his colleagues strive to accurately represent an ancient ecosystem in an interesting way, balancing drama and scientific facts in an engaging and relevant story.
"It's an exciting and dramatic battle, and it's a battle that makes things come true that we know," Carrano said in a recent interview in his office, A Warren, made up of bookcases and fossil cabinets, exudes the modern dad atmosphere of Indiana Jones. Salt-and-
Carrano is like your favorite professor and always has time to chat after class.
He is a research scientist immersed in his field, but he also likes to ride bicycles, Cook, TV and movies.
He can switch between reading the journal of ancient biology and watching HBO's dead wood (
Prepare for the new film).
He will patiently explain why Chicago
Should not be classified as Pizza (
He thinks it's a casserole)
Even though he 'd gobble while he was in Chicago.
Brent Ryan, a lifelong friend, said karano was "a multi-disciplinary intellectual, but he was not out of society.
For a person who works in academia, he is very humble.
Carrano's superpower seems to be his ability to convey complex ideas in an understandable way.
"From academic paleontology to what people really want to know, he is very good at explaining.
It's hard to do, "said James Clark, professor of paleontology at George Washington University, a research partner who has known karano for nearly 20 years.
"And he's very creative.
"The renovation of the fossil hall tested karano's research and storytelling skills.
As director of dinosaurs
Unparalleled stars in the exhibition
He worked with paleologist Kay belens Meyer and Scott Winn, and project manager Siobhan Starrs and many others introduced a story from the origin of life on Earth in the recent past.
Their goal is to: share their knowledge of the geological events of the ancient Earth --
Including the cycle of extinction and warming
Link them to today's changing climate.
Carrano said: "The world we live in has been handed over to us from the past, so thinking about the process, from the past to the present, is useful for thinking about the present to the future.
Karano and his brother grew up in New Haven, Connecticut.
Teachers in public schools.
Formal education is important
He remembers his Italian grandfather checking every transcript and giving him cash for good grades --
But he and his brother were encouraged to study alone.
Carrano is not very interested in sports, he spent a lot of time reading.
He has the train stage, the shark stage and the astronomical stage, but the dinosaurs have attracted his attention in a deeper way.
Ryan, who met Carrano in third grade, said they always begged their mother to take them to the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, which Ryan called the second home.
Karano's childhood in the 1970 s was typical in many ways --
He grew up in Star Wars and enjoyed the TV diet of "Happy Days" and "Happy Days"A. S. H.
But he is also interested in organizing and cataloging information.
In high school, he applied for a summer job at a temporary agency that asked for typing and file testing.
Carrano was not happy with the company's inaccurate filing system and tried to fix it. (
The company did not accept his suggestion. )
His first study of paleontology happened by accident.
In a senior biology program in senior high school, Carrano tried to contact a bug specialist at pebodi.
The numbers are wrong. Kirk Johnson, a graduate student of ancient Botany, answered.
Thirty years later, Johnson will be the owner of Carrano, the Museum of Natural History, who agrees to help and then invites him to do field work in North Dakota.
Carrano just turned 17 and the idea of flying alone all over the country made him feel uneasy
The family is described.
But he went.
"Digging up fossil plants is like working in prison.
It turns big stones into small stones all day.
"It's not a clever job," he said . ".
"Of course I find it interesting.
Great on the court, eyes-opening.
In the fall of the following year, karano attended Brown University, where he found a mentor to an ancient biologist, Christine Janis, who immediately became aware of his abilities.
Janis said by phone in Bristol, UK: "You won't have students like Matt every day . " She is teaching there now.
"Some people have talent for certain subjects and talent for understanding complex ideas.
More important than knowledge is the ability to think and connect ideas.
Matt did a very good job in this regard.
Karano admitted that his parents were not sure about his plan to use dinosaur research as a career.
"I am a very strange child and I don't think my parents are ready," he said . ".
"I think my dad would say, 'Are you sure you don't want to be a lawyer or a doctor?
Classic career path, you know.
Karano is for sure.
After Brown, he registered at the University of Chicago and received his doctorate in seven years.
When he finished his degree, he applied for a job at the Chicago Field Museum.
He met his first T there. rex.
Her name is Sue.
The Field Museum cost $8.
5 million acquisition of Sue, one of the largest and bestpreserved T. rex specimens. (
The fossil was named after Sue Hendrickson, who discovered it in 1990. )
Carrano wrote his paper on the biomechanics of dinosaur movement, and he was hired as a consultant to help prepare the bones for presentation.
His work was specific, but he said, "I was in the room when all the discussions were going on.
This is a window showing the exhibits. . .
And everything that comes with it.
When Carrano was studying for a graduate degree, the first popular "Jurassic Park" film was released, capturing the public's imagination of ancient creatures and triggering a renaissance in Museum research.
This is a good time for Carrano, who held a teaching position at Stony Brook University in New York in 1998, where he continued his research and began applying for the post of curator.
The Smithsonian Institution offered him a job in 2001, and he attended his first "deep" meeting on the day he signed the contract.
The "deep time" program has gone beyond every aspect of Carrano's life.
He met his wife Diana Marsh on the project when she was doing graduate research on the exhibition.
Marsh, who is now working in the National Archives of Anthropology (
Part of NMNH)
Karano got married in 2017.
Their son, Max, was born last summer.
"The level of discourse in that house is crazy," said Frank, Carrano's brother . ".
"Their thirst for knowledge is the same as their intensity of interest.
They match well in this regard.
"At the Smithsonian Institution, Carrano contributed to every aspect of the dinosaur display in the fossil Hall --
From the location of the skeleton to the wall text that explains hundreds of specimens.
There are new fossils in people's view, and many others are presented in new ways.
All of this reflects the latest research and trends in museum exhibits.
Carrano hopes that the exhibition of these ancient animals and ecosystems will help to shed light on the problems we face today, such as climate change.
He will find in June 8 that the longest and most complex project of his career has finally begun.
"After so long, part of you, you just want to see how people react," he said . ".
"Have we succeeded?
I 'd love to know.