Contributions To Palaeontology
Over the last 25 years he has worked on fossil discovery in Mongolia, Argentina, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, and many other locations.
His contributions to paleontology include synonymizing the genera Troödon and Stenonychosaurus in 1987 (with the former name taking precedence). The similarities between the troödonts and birds made him a major proponent of the theory that birds are descended from dinosaurs.
As part of the joint China-Canadian Dinosaur Project he helped describe two of the first dinosaur specimens from the lagerstätten of the Liaoning province in China that clearly showed the impression of feathers: Protarchaeopteryx and Caudipteryx. In contrast with the 1996 discovery of Sinosauropteryx, which only showed the impression of downy filaments, these were indisputably feathers. This not only helped cement the theory that birds are descended from dinosaurs, but indicated that many dromaeosaurids were feathered. This discovery made him a celebrity, featured in numerous popular articles and documentaries.
In 1997, Currie teamed up with Microsoft's Chief Technical Officer Nathan Myhrvold to create a computer model demonstrating that diplodocids could snap their tails like whips, and create small sonic booms. He was involved in the 1999 National Geographic "Archeoraptor" scandal.
Currie became increasingly skeptical of the orthodox belief that large carnivorous dinosaurs were solitary animals, but there was no evidence for his hypothesis that they may have hunted in packs. However, circumstantial evidence came when he tracked down a site mentioned by Barnum Brown that featured 12 specimens of Albertosaurus from various age groups.
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