By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
It’s a long way from the steel and concrete canyons of New York City to the back canyons of Montana, but for the Museum of the Rockies’ Dr. John Scannella, there’s no other place he’d rather be than the fossil-laden wilds of Big Sky country.
Scannella, 37, was born and raised in the New York borough of Queens. His childhood love of dinosaurs ultimately brought him to Montana State University, however, where he did his graduate school work under the tutelage of former MOR Curator of Paleontology Dr. Jack Horner. Now, with Horner’s recent retirement, Scannella finds himself holding the reins once held by his mentor and the world’s most famed paleontologist.
After Horner’s retirement earlier this summer, the MOR named Scannella to his position as the Interim Curator of Paleontology starting July 1. At present, Scannella is in Glendive on his first major dig since being named to the position, excavating a triceratops from Makoshika State Park.
Scannella, who was the MOR’s Paleontology Collections Manager from 2013 up until the time of Horner’s retirement, said he wasn’t expecting to be named interim curator and “had no idea” the museum board would choose him.
At the dig site on Aug. 17, Scannella said he found the opportunity “exciting” and noted that it was somewhat fitting that his first major excavation after being named to the position was a triceratops.
“It’s kind of cool, because my research with Jack (Horner) was a lot about transitions (of how triceratops developed and evolved over time), and interim curator is like a transitional stage at MOR, so that’s kind of neat,” he said.
Like his mentor and predecessor, Scannella is — to borrow a term from the blockbuster film “Jurassic Park,” which helped catapult Horner to international fame — a “digger,” and he makes no bones about why a kid from Queens would want to spend his adult life in the dust and heat of the Montana badlands.
“I came out to dig dinosaurs,” Scannella said.
He first met Horner while he was finishing up his undergraduate degree in earth sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey, which led to him going to MSU to work on his master’s degree and doctorate under Horner’s tutelage. He began school at MSU in 2006 and completed his PhD in 2015, working at the MOR and doing extensive research work with Horner along the way.
Scannella’s love for everything to do with dinosaurs goes back much further, however. He said he’s known he wanted to work with dinosaurs “since I was like 3.”
“I used to dig for dinosaur bones in my backyard in Queens, but all I ever found were earthworms,” Scannella quipped.
Standing over the dig site, Scannella also noted how as a kid he grew up “watching things like this on TV” and could never get enough of it.
Now he finds himself running the paleontology department at one of the world’s foremost museums for paleontology.
“It’s pretty cool to be at the museum and see how everything works, then to be interim curator, that’s pretty cool,” Scannella said.
MOR Executive Director Shelly McKamey said while no one can really fill Horner’s shoes, Scannella is well-situated to make his own name in the field of paleontology, saying he was a logical choice to take over as the paleontology curator while the MOR conducts a national search for a permanent replacement, which she expects to take at least a year to complete.
“He’s been with our program for years and he was a good student,” McKamey said of Scannella. “And he knows the collection, so it seemed like he would be a good fit for the year it’s going to take us to search.”
McKamey added that while Scannella may seem relatively youthful compared to the seasoned Horner, he is actually older than Horner was when he took over the curator position at the MOR and is comparatively no less accomplished.
“John is a self-effacing guy, he doesn’t blow his own horn, but when you look at it, he’s a pretty accomplished guy,” she said.
And while it may be a tall order for anyone to achieve the kind of international fame Horner did, McKamey said the sterling facilities, infrastructure and reputation the MOR has built over the last few decades should work to give the next paleontology curator a leg up towards making a name for themselves in the field.
“The infrastructure that surrounds the curator, all that’s in place, so we’ll find a very talented man or woman and we’ll encircle them with that infrastructure, and you give them some time with that and you’ve got the next Jack Horner,” she said.
Whether or not Scannella will be that person beyond a year from now remains to be seen. McKamey expects the competition for the position to be fierce, given the MOR’s reputation.
Scannella, for his part, said he will “certainly apply” to be named permanently as curator.
Though there are no guarantees, that would please McKamey.
“I certainly hope John applies,” she said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.