Auditorium Theatre 2021-2022, Issue 2, National Geographic Spinosaurus

2 | AUDITORIUM THEATRE :: SPINOSAURUS Nizar Ibrahim — Paleontologist German/Moroccan paleontologist, anatomist, and National Geographic Explorer Nizar Ibrahim scours the vast deserts of North Africa for clues to life in the Cretaceous period, when the area was a large river system teeming with a profusion of diverse life. One of the youngest explorers ever to lead expeditions to the Sahara, he has unearthed spectacular dinosaur bones, rare fossil footprints, giant prehistoric fish, crocodile-like hunters, and a new species of giant flying reptile with a 20-foot wingspan that lived 95 million years ago. For many years, Ibrahim has been obsessed with one of the great mysteries in paleontology— the giant predatory dinosaur Spinosaurus. In a tale for the ages, Ibrahim managed to find “a needle in a desert,” as he puts it, uncovering one of the most bizarre animals ever to evolve. Ibrahim’s remarkable story and the findings of an international team of scientists were published in the journal Science and as a cover story for National Geographic magazine. What has been unveiled appears to be the first truly semiaquatic dinosaur, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus . In 2014, Ibrahim was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. In 2015, he was the first paleontologist to be named a TED fellow and he was also recognized as one of Chicago’s 40 under 40 by Crain’s Chicago Business. Ibrahim is an Assistant Professor of Biology and currently teaches anatomy and evolutionary biology at the University of Detroit Mercy in Detroit, Michigan. His work has been featured in several major documentary films (National Geographic, NOVA, BBC, ZDF) and high-impact publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Nature, Discover Magazine, and The New York Times. Photo by Nizar Ibrahim.