Dinosaur detective Phil Manning

Imagine getting paid to dig up dinosaurs and make a TV show about it – sounds like fun! We’re so jealous of the career this month’s Big Ask has chosen

Palaeontologist Phil Manning is a dinosaur detective, and his new show – Jurassic CSI – provides a detailed forensic look at dinosaurs, looking at the cranial capacity of ferocious predators and the traces of colour preserved in their feathers.

Laboratory News caught up with Phil to find out a bit more about the show currently airing on Nat Geo Wild, digging up dinosaurs and what he does at the Manchester Museum.

What was your motivation behind Jurassic CSI?

Having worked much with the media before, I realised that TV is a great medium to both entertain and educate folks about science. After I did the Fossil Detective series with the BBC and the Dinomummy show with National Geographic, I thought it might be fun to undertake a series. I wrote a few outlines and was lucky enough to get the opportunity to present them to the head of the National Geographic Channel. I was gob-smacked when they said yes! I then spent a year working with colleagues both from Nat Geo and also the University of Manchester, to help pull together our research program at Manchester into a series of quests…all good fun! The TV folks and science writers then took our work and made it usable for TV as I'm no script writer! Plus, the TV folks can spot a good story a 60 paces…it takes me much longer.

How does it feel to have your work on such a prestigious channel?

The National Geographic Channel, is for me, the BBC of North America. They fact-check every last quote in each show, which keeps everyone their toes. It’s great working with such a professional organisation. It’s fun that the series will be aired via the Nat Geo Channel all over the world as the tendrils of the Channel stretch far and wide.

What was your favourite part of the process?

That's a tough call, but working at the synchrotron at Stanford (SLAC) was possibly the most exciting science we did –it was published in PNAS last summer. As the series has been in production for over a year, the science is hot on the tail of each show. However, just travelling the globe to see amazing sites from deep geological time is always stunning. I wake-up every day and pinch myself, to make sure I'm not dreaming.

Are there any plans for a second series?

That's up to the viewing public. If they vote with their hand-held clickers and switch channel –here endith a chance of series II. However, I do have a couple of fun ideas simmering, that I hope to develop into future shows. The thing with the history of life on Earth, there is plenty to delve into and amazing stories to be told. To be honest, I'm lucky working in a field where there are so many great stories to be literally dug-up.

Tell us more about your position and research at the University of Manchester.

I'm a Senior Lecturer in the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (half my time) and the rest of my time, I am a Research Fellow in the university’s Manchester Museum. In the former I teach and undertake research with my many colleagues across any Faculty who will work with me. In the latter, I work on the collections and do as much public outreach as I can, in terms of talks, lectures, tours, events, etc. I've always loved giving public lectures on science, as I hope that my enthusiasm for long dead things is infectious. I'm simply a very frustrated biologist!

Did you always want to be a palaeontologist?

In a way, yes – I just never thought I could get a job as one and even get paid! I started collecting fossils as a child in Somerset, but luckily graduated into the field (after my first degree) and worked digging up dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight at the island’s Museum. I then went off to Manchester University (now University of Manchester) to do my MSc, and then off to Sheffield University to do my PhD, on tracking dinosaurs…as you do. I have since just been very lucky with jobs – it can be a lot of hard work, but its worth it!