Larry Dean Martin (December 8, 1943 – March 9, 2013) was an American vertebrate

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

. Among Martin's work is research on the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

reptile '' Longisquama'' and

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

(or fossil bird) ''

Caudipteryx ''Caudipteryx'' (which means "tail feather") is a genus of peacock-sized theropod dinosaurs that lived in the Barremian age of the early Cretaceous (about 124.6 million years ago). They were feathered and extremely birdlike in their overall appea ...

'' and ''

Dakotaraptor ''Dakotaraptor'' (meaning “thief from Dakota”) is a potentially chimaeric genus of large dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous period. The remains have been found in the Maastrichtian stage of ...

''. According to the University of Kansas, he "has been a leading opponent of the theory that birds are 'living dinosaurs.'" Later he acknowledged a correlation and further contributed. He has also appeared in a few television documentaries about dinosaurs, including ''

Jurassic Fight Club ''Jurassic Fight Club'' (titled ''Dinosaur Secrets'' in Australia/the UK) is a paleontology-based television series on History channel which premiered in the US in July 2008. ''Jurassic Fight Club'' was hosted by George Blasing, a self-taught pa ...

''. He died of cancer at the age of 69 on March 9, 2013, after a long battle with the disease.

References

External links

KU paleontologist to lecture on 4-winged wonder and feathered dinosaurs (Kansas University press release)

Kansas University Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center

University of Kansas Departmental Profile
1943 births 2013 deaths Deaths from cancer American paleontologists American ornithologists {{paleontologist-stub