Discoverer of New Dinosaur Species is Conducting Postdoctoral Research at Boise State

In 2004, Celina Suarez and her identical twin sister, Marina, discovered the remains of a dinosaur in Utah no one had ever seen.  Now Suarez is now a geochemical paleontologist conducting her postdoctoral research at Boise State.



The Suarez sisters where investigating the sediment profile above a dinosaur dig site when they spotted dinosaur bones sticking out of the rock.  So far, three species have been recovered from the "Suarez Sisters Quarry" so far, including one that was not officially classified until late in 2010.  Geminiraptor surezarum habitated the Earth about 125 million years ago, and the dinosaur is the oldest known to be present in North America during the Early Cretaceous period.  The newly classified dinosaur is named after the sisters' family name and refers to Gemini, which is Latin for "twins". 

Suarez received a prestigious fellowship from the National Science Foundation to be able to conduct her research at Boise State over the next two years.  Working with Matt Kohn in the Department of Geosciences at the university, Suarez will examine an area of paleontology that is not well understood, the process of fossilization.