Mark Norell

Mark Allen Norell (July 26, 1957 – September 9, 2025) was an American vertebrate paleontologist. He was the chairman of paleontology and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History up until his death in 2025. He is best known as the discoverer of the first theropod embryo and for the description of feathered dinosaurs. Norell is credited with the naming of the genera Apsaravis, Byronosaurus, Citipati, Tsaagan, and Achillobator. His work regularly appeared in major scientific journals (including cover stories in Science and Nature) and was listed by Time magazine as one of the ten most significant science stories of 1993, 1994 and 1996. Norell was both a fellow of the Explorer's Club and the Willi Hennig Society. He has appeared in several science documentaries, including The Dinosaurs (PBS, 1992), "Dinosaurs of the Gobi" on the PBS series Nova (PBS, 1994), and Miracle Planet (NHK / NFB Canada, 2005).