February 1, 2006

Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist
the subject of a Science Channel Special
"Rise of the Feathered Dragons" to premier on February 6 at 9 p.m.

Pittsburgh … The fieldwork of Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist Dr. Matt Lamanna will be featured on "Rise of the Feathered Dragons" premiering on the Science Channel on Monday, February 6 at 9 p.m.

"Rise of the Feathered Dragons" follows the work of paleontologists Dr. Lamanna, You Hailu and Jerry Harris in the Changma Basin in remote northwestern China as they search for fossil evidence to the origins of modern birds.

Perhaps the most significant paleontological discovery of the last 25 years hails from the famed "feathered dinosaur" quarries of Liaoning, China. This site has produced and abundance of specimens that link the evolution of dinosaurs and birds.

However, most of the primitive birds from Liaoning belong to an unusual group of so-called "opposite birds" (the Enantiornithes) that vanished completely at the end of the "Age of Dinosaurs." As yet, the origins and early evolutionary history of the modern bird lineage (the Ornithuromorpha) remain poorly understood - no one knows how, when, or why this critical group rose to dominance.

"Rise of the Feathered Dragons" is a first person, scientific chronicle as Dr. Lamanna and his companions continue their excavation of a "new frontier" in a different site called Changma - a site whose scientific significance may eventually come to equal that of Liaoning.

In addition to filming on location in China, production crews also filmed Dr. Lamanna at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and at the National Aviary, located on Pittsburgh's North Shore.

Additional air times:
FEB 07 2006 @ 12:00 AM

FEB 07 2006 @ 04:00 AM

FEB 07 2006 @ 10:00 AM

FEB 07 2006 @ 02:00 PM

FEB 11 2006 @ 05:00 PM

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