Mark Norell

February 27, 2015

New Yorker Spotlight: Paleontologist Mark Norell Spends His Days with Dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History

While the closest to dinosaurs most of us come is plastic toys and the occasional viewing of Jurassic Park, Mark Norell gets up close and personal with these prehistoric creatures on a daily basis, and it's fair to say he has one of the most interesting jobs in New York. As the division chair and curator-in-charge of the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Paleontology and professor at Richard Gilder Graduate School, Mark's work is very exciting. He studies not just dinosaurs, but a wide range of fossils from various time periods, and conducts research that benefits our understanding of both the prehistoric and modern world. And an extra perk of the job is surely his office–he occupies the entire top floor of the museum's historic turret on the corner of 77th Street and Central Park West (we don't recall Ross Geller getting an office like that!). We recently spoke with Mark to learn more about paleontology and what it's like to work at the museum.
Read the full interview here