Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up

Maia: A Dinosaur Grows Up

Unlock the Secrets of a Lost World Through a Young Dinosaur's Eyes

Step into a prehistoric world through the eyes of Maia, a young duck-billed dinosaur brought vividly to life by groundbreaking fossil discoveries. This captivating narrative, authored by pioneering paleontologist Jack Horner, reveals what growing up was really like during the late Cretaceous period.

Written by Jack Horner, the first scientist to uncover a dinosaur nesting ground

• Combines cutting-edge paleontology with rich storytelling and immersive paleo-art
• Explores dinosaur family life, survival, and the ancient Montana landscape
• Illustrated by acclaimed paleo-artist Doug Henderson, recreating authentic Mesozoic ecosystems
• Co-authored by James Gorman, award-winning science writer, adding accessible clarity and depth

Discover the lost world of dinosaurs in a uniquely intimate and scientifically accurate way.

Jack Horner is a dyslexic dinosaur paleontologist! He attended the University of Montana for 14 semesters without receiving a degree. He has since received four honorary doctorates and a plethora of awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Romer-Simpson Medal, the highest honor granted by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Jack taught Paleontology at Montana State University for 34 years. He has more than 300 publications, including 11 books, and was the technical advisor for the first six Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movies. Jack currently teaches about dinosaurs in the Honors Program at Chapman University in Orange, California, where he lives.

James Gorman is a writer and editor and the author or co-author of seven books on subjects ranging from dinosaurs to penguins to the oddly humorous aspects of science, medicine, and technology. He was on the New York Times staff for 28 years, from 1993–2021, working as an editor, reporter, and host of the video series, Science Take.

His science reporting and humor writing have been published in many newspapers and magazines, including the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Sports Illustrated, Time, Audubon, and most recently The New York Times and The Washington Post. He has taught science journalism at several universities, including Wesleyan University in 2022 and 2017 (Koeppel Fellow, 2022; Kim-Frank Visiting Writer in Science Journalism 2017) and Princeton University in 2011 (McGraw Visiting Professor of Writing).

Doug Henderson, combining an interest in landscape and Earth History, returned to a long-put-away interest in drawing when moving to Gardiner, Montana, in 1977. This evolved into a something of a career in Paleo-art and illustration. His drawing and paintings over the years have appeared in numerous books and publications, been included in national and international touring exhibits—and disappeared into various corporate studio divisions as preliminary and design work for a few movies and animated features.

The Maia illustrations were one of his first efforts to depict a childhood interest in dinosaurs with some sense of pace and place akin to how nature presents itself, representing Mesozoic flora and fauna in a unified way during a single point and place in time—in this case, the Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana.

John Scannella was born in Queens, New York, and became interested in dinosaurs at an early age. While growing up in Queens, he read books and watched documentaries about new dinosaur discoveries made in Montana by Museum of the Rockies. He attended Rutgers University and received a bachelor's degree in geological sciences.

Before coming to Montana, he volunteered at the American Museum of Natural History and Rutgers Geology Museum. John studied under former MOR Curator of Paleontology, Jack Horner, and earned a Doctorate of Philosophy through the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University in 2015. His dissertation research focused on the famous horned dinosaur Triceratops.

In 2017, he became the John R. Horner curator of paleontology at Museum of the Rockies. John has conducted paleontological fieldwork throughout Montana and collaborates with an international team of colleagues and research associates. Current research projects include exploring prehistoric ecosystems, examining modes of fossil preservation, and deciphering the growth and evolution of dinosaurs.