Egyptian Dinosaur Expedition with Dino Dig Team Member Patti Kane-Vanni, Attorney-Paleontologist, Featured in an A&E TV Documentary on Oct. 8th, 2002.
This documentary was filmed by MPH Entertainment and Cosmos Studios and covered the trek of the Bahariya Dinosaur Project, a dinosaur-hunting expedition to the Western Desert of Egypt in early 2000. Led by some enterprising grad students and Penn dinosaur paleontologist Dr. Peter Dodson, Patricia Kane-Vanni, Esq. was also part of the team and participated in the dinosaur discoveries.
When you hear the name of attorney Patti Kane-Vanni, do the terms paleontology” and dinosaurs” immediately leap to mind? Not normally, but this time its different. Patricia Kane-Vanni, Esquire, (Grew up in Philly, lives in Bala Cynwyd, PA) was also a part of a team of paleontologists who traveled to Egypt in 2000 and participated in the excavation and recovery of one of the second-largest dinosaurs ever to have walked the earth, a long-necked, brontosaurus-like critter, the “Paralititan stromeri”. This dinosaurs recent discovery, announced by a scientific paper in the magazine “Science” in June of 2001, received front-page coverage throughout the world and has been cited as one of the top scientific discoveries of 2001, the number one paleontological story of the year and it will be featured in an upcoming Oct 8th feature on the A&E Network as The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt”.
Discovered in the Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert over 200 miles southwest of Cairo, and based on the discovery and excavation of a five-foot, seven-inch humerus (upper arm bone) and other fossilized remains of the enormous animal’s skeleton, the new dino is estimated to have been about 100 feet long and about 80 tons.
How did Patti become a part of this? Its more than just being in the right place at the right time. For the past several years along with her lawyering, she has been a dinosaur volunteer and part-time paleo-educator in center city Philadelphias own dinosaur museum, The Academy of Natural Sciences on Logan Circle at 19th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It was through her work and interest there and her studies with University of Pennsylvania Dinosaur Paleontologist Dr. Peter Dodson that she became a part of several successful dinosaur expeditions to Montana as a paleontological field worker (one of the oldest participants since shes in her 40s and all the other students are 20-somethings) and was tapped to participate in the Egyptian dig. Although not one of the principals, Patti was one of the most interesting, hardest-working and productive members of the team, excavating at least four sites during the 6-week dig.
This African expedition was the brainchild of several of Dr. Dodsons graduate students. The team, supervised by Dr. Dodson, a professor of Veterinary Anatomy and Geology, and Penn geology department head, Dr. Robert Giegengack, consisted of a number of Penn graduate students, Academy volunteers, a Drexel University geologist and was partially funded and documented by a film crew from California-based video company, MPH Entertainment. Cosmos Studios also picked up the production of the story and put together the television documentary and Random House has published a book of the same name by William Nothdurft on the expedition.
For additional information, bio and photographs, contact Patti at the number below, website or email. Additional info at: http://groups.msn.com/DinosaurandFossilDigs, http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~lamanna/bdpgallery.html & www.EgyptDinos.org .
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