Paleontologist Evan Jevnikar, MS, founder of Daily Dino Guy.
About

Evan Jevnikar, MS, Paleontologist

Master's in Biological Sciences from NC State. Fieldwork on Nanotyrannus and Fona herzogae. Author of Surviving Climate and Chaos (#1 New Release on Amazon). Organic campaign for Steve Brusatte's The Story of Birds reached hundreds of thousands of readers. Founder of Daily Dino Guy, where 300,000+ readers learn dinosaur science from a paleontologist.

Evan Jevnikar is a paleontologist, science storyteller, and author, known online as the “Dinosaur Guy”, based in Greensboro, North Carolina. He earned his Master's in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University, where he studied tyrannosaur growth and histology in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab, and is available for speaking engagements throughout the Triangle, the Triad, the Charlotte metro, and nationally.
The short version

The short version

I'm Evan Jevnikar, a paleontologist, author, and the person behind Daily Dino Guy.

I have a Bachelor's in Geology from the University of Kansas and a Master's in Biological Sciences from NC State University, where I studied tyrannosaur growth and histology in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab. I've spent more than a decade in the field across the western United States, working on excavations of Nanotyrannus, Fona herzogae, and other Cretaceous-era dinosaurs.

I'm the author of Surviving Climate and Chaos: What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Climate Change and Resilience, and my organic campaign for Steve Brusatte's The Story of Birds reached hundreds of thousands of readers, with one post reshared by Slash of Guns N' Roses. I speak at natural history museums, universities, and conferences, including the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Online, I share dinosaur science with more than 300,000 readers across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Threads.

The longer version

The longer version

Growing up curious

Like a lot of paleontologists, I started this whole thing as a four-year-old who would not put the dinosaur toys down. Most kids grow out of it. I didn't.

Somewhere around age twelve I figured out that "paleontologist" was an actual job a person could have, and that was more or less the end of any other career consideration. The dinosaur toys stayed on the desk. The books stacked up. The plan never wavered.

A young Evan Jevnikar at a dinosaur museum exhibit. Then
Evan Jevnikar as an adult paleontologist at the same dinosaur museum exhibit. Now

Same kid. Same exhibit. The plan never wavered.

Kansas, where it became real

I did my undergrad at the University of Kansas, earning a Bachelor's in Geology. KU is one of those quiet powerhouse schools for paleo work, its Natural History Museum has an enormous fossil collection and an active research culture. That's where I learned how to read a rock face, how to identify a bone fragment, and how to think like a scientist instead of like a kid who'd just memorized every dinosaur in Walking with Dinosaurs.

NC State and the Zanno Lab

For my Master's, I went to North Carolina State University to work in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab. Dr. Zanno is one of the leading vertebrate paleontologists working today, she discovered Siats, she works on Nanotyrannus and theropod evolution, and her lab is housed at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Working there meant I wasn't just studying paleontology in the abstract. I was in the lab with the fossils.

My Master's research focused on tyrannosaur growth and histology, measuring the geometry of theropod teeth and using bone histology to reconstruct how tyrannosaurs grew, how fast, and what that means for understanding their biology more broadly. It was the kind of work that requires you to slice into a dinosaur bone with a precision saw, look at the cross-section under a microscope, and read the rings inside like a tree.

Evan Jevnikar working with a fossil specimen.
NC State · Zanno Lab
Evan Jevnikar at a Cretaceous-era dig site in the western United States.
Field season · Western United States

Field seasons

I've spent more than a decade doing fieldwork across Montana, Utah, and other parts of the western United States. Most of that has been on Cretaceous-era dinosaurs: Nanotyrannus, Fona herzogae, hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs, and the assemblage of animals that lived right before the asteroid hit. Field work is mostly heat, sunscreen, dust, and rock, but every once in a while you uncover something nobody has seen in 66 million years, and that never stops being the reason you do this.

How Daily Dino Guy started

Around the time I was wrapping up my Master's, I started posting short videos about paleontology online. The original plan wasn't really a brand, it was more "if I'm going to spend hours each week explaining dinosaur science to my non-paleontologist friends and family, I might as well put it somewhere other people can see it."

Within a year, that turned into Daily Dino Guy. Five years later, the audience is more than 300,000 readers across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Threads. They came for the dinosaurs. They stayed because nobody else was treating them like adults who could handle the real science.

The book

Surviving Climate and Chaos: What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Climate Change and Resilience came out of a question I kept getting from readers: if dinosaurs went extinct, what's the actual point of learning about them in 2026?

The answer is in the book. Earth has gone through five mass extinctions, and the species that survived each one survived for specific reasons, not random luck. Reading that history forward gives us something the climate conversation usually doesn't: a 250-million-year track record of what works and what doesn't when the world changes faster than the species living on it.

Speaking and the bigger stages

I've spoken at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences on the climate-and-extinction work. K–12 schools, libraries, universities, corporate sustainability events, different audiences, same conversation: what 66 million years of dinosaur science can teach us about today.

Evan Jevnikar delivering a keynote at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
Featured speaker · North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Credentials

The credentials

Education

Research focus

  • Tyrannosaur growth and histology
    Master's thesis work · Zanno Lab, NC State
  • Theropod evolution
    The late Cretaceous fauna
  • Mass extinction biology
    Climate resilience and deep-time survival

Fieldwork

  • Nanotyrannus
    Cretaceous theropod, Hell Creek Formation
  • Fona herzogae
    Cretaceous ornithopod
  • Multiple field seasons
    Montana, Utah, and other western US sites
Books & publications

Books and publications

Surviving Climate and Chaos book cover by paleontologist Evan Jevnikar.
The book

Surviving Climate and Chaos

What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Climate Change and Resilience

Format
Paperback

Earth has gone through five mass extinctions. The species that came out the other side did so for specific reasons. Surviving Climate and Chaos walks through 250 million years of dinosaur and prehistoric history to ask what their survival, and extinction, can teach us about the climate moment we're in now.

Get the book at dailydinoguy.shop → Also available at Barnes & Noble →

Also at Amazon, your local bookseller, and audiobook platforms.

Philosophy

What I believe about science communication

A few things I'm pretty confident about, after a decade of doing this:

Science doesn't have to be dumbed down to be accessible.

The audience for paleontology is curious adults who can handle actual science, they just need it explained without the academic register. The number of people I've met who say "I wish I'd been a paleontologist" is a sign that the field has historically been worse at letting people in than at being interesting.

Dinosaurs are a gateway, not a destination.

Dinosaur content gets clicks, but the real work is in what dinosaurs help people understand, deep time, climate change, evolution, extinction, scientific method, the way we know what we know about the past. Daily Dino Guy is a Trojan horse for the bigger conversation.

Wonder is a serious thing.

Adults need it as much as kids do. A lot of science communication treats wonder as a children's emotion. I don't.

The science has to come first.

I disclose every brand partnership. I correct myself in public when I get something wrong. I won't post about something just because it's trending if the science doesn't hold up. The audience trusts me because they know the science is the constraint, not the optional ingredient.

For press, podcasts & programs

Pre-written bios

50 words

Evan Jevnikar, MS, is a paleontologist, science storyteller, and the founder of Daily Dino Guy, known online as the “Dinosaur Guy.” Based in Greensboro, NC, he earned his Master's in Biological Sciences at NC State in the Zanno paleontology lab, studying tyrannosaur growth and histology. He is the author of Surviving Climate and Chaos, a #1 New Release on Amazon in four paleontology categories.

100 words

Evan Jevnikar, MS, is a paleontologist, science storyteller, and the founder of Daily Dino Guy, known online as the “Dinosaur Guy.” Based in Greensboro, NC, he earned his Bachelor's in Geology from the University of Kansas and his Master's in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University, where he studied tyrannosaur growth and histology in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab. He has spent more than a decade doing fieldwork across the western United States, including excavations of Nanotyrannus and Fona herzogae. He is the author of Surviving Climate and Chaos, a #1 New Release on Amazon in Biology of Fossils, Biology of Dinosaurs, Evolution, and Paleontology, and his organic campaign for Steve Brusatte's The Story of Birds reached hundreds of thousands of readers, with one post reshared by Slash of Guns N' Roses. He reaches more than 300,000 readers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Threads.

200 words

Evan Jevnikar, MS, is a paleontologist, science storyteller, author, and public speaker, the founder of Daily Dino Guy, known online as the “Dinosaur Guy.” Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, Evan earned his Bachelor's in Geology from the University of Kansas and his Master's in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University, where he studied tyrannosaur growth and histology in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab. He has spent more than a decade doing fieldwork across the western United States, working on excavations of Nanotyrannus, Fona herzogae, and other Cretaceous-era dinosaurs. Evan is the author of Surviving Climate and Chaos: What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Climate Change and Resilience, a #1 New Release on Amazon in Biology of Fossils, Biology of Dinosaurs, Evolution, and Paleontology, and his organic campaign for Steve Brusatte's The Story of Birds reached hundreds of thousands of readers, with one post reshared by Slash of Guns N' Roses. He speaks at museums, universities, schools, and corporate events, including the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Evan reaches more than 300,000 readers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Threads through Daily Dino Guy, making cutting-edge paleontology accessible to the curious adults who never grew out of dinosaurs.

Download headshots & press materials →
Connect

Get in touch

Booking & speaking

For speaking engagements, brand partnerships, and event appearances.

See speaking options → Start a partnership conversation →

Press & media

For press inquiries, podcast bookings, and media requests.

Visit the press page →

Or email press (at) dailydinoguy.com
(or hello (at) dailydinoguy.com if the press inbox isn't live yet)

Reader questions & everything else

For reader questions, collaboration ideas, or anything that doesn't fit above.

Get the Monthly Dino Digest →

Email hello (at) dailydinoguy.com

FAQ

About Evan

Who is Evan Jevnikar?

Evan Jevnikar is a paleontologist, science storyteller, author, and the founder of Daily Dino Guy, based in Greensboro, North Carolina. He holds a Master's in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor's in Geology from the University of Kansas. His Master's research, conducted in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab, focused on tyrannosaur growth and histology. He is the author of Surviving Climate and Chaos, a #1 New Release on Amazon in Biology of Fossils, Biology of Dinosaurs, Evolution, and Paleontology, and his organic campaign for Steve Brusatte's The Story of Birds reached hundreds of thousands of readers, with one post reshared by Slash of Guns N' Roses. He has spoken at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Where did Evan Jevnikar go to school?

Evan earned his Bachelor's in Geology from the University of Kansas and his Master's in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University, where he studied tyrannosaur growth and histology in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab.

What dinosaurs has Evan Jevnikar worked on?

Evan's fieldwork has included excavations of Nanotyrannus, Fona herzogae, and other Cretaceous-era dinosaurs across the western United States. His Master's research focused on tyrannosaur growth and histology, measuring the geometry of theropod teeth and using bone histology to reconstruct growth patterns across tyrannosaurs.

What is Surviving Climate and Chaos about?

Surviving Climate and Chaos: What Dinosaurs Teach Us About Climate Change and Resilience is Evan Jevnikar's book about Earth's five mass extinctions and what they reveal about resilience. It uses 250 million years of paleontological evidence to examine which species survive radical environmental change and why, with implications for the current climate moment. The book is available at Barnes & Noble and through Evan's own store at dailydinoguy.shop.

Is Evan Jevnikar a real paleontologist?

Yes. Evan holds a Master's in Biological Sciences from North Carolina State University, where he studied tyrannosaur growth and histology in Dr. Lindsay Zanno's paleontology lab. He has more than a decade of fieldwork experience across the western United States, has been featured on excavations of named species including Nanotyrannus and Fona herzogae, and is the author of Surviving Climate and Chaos, a #1 New Release on Amazon in Biology of Fossils, Biology of Dinosaurs, Evolution, and Paleontology. His organic campaign for Steve Brusatte's The Story of Birds reached hundreds of thousands of readers, with one post reshared by Slash of Guns N' Roses.

How do I contact Evan Jevnikar?

For speaking engagements, visit the speaking page. For brand partnerships, visit the work-with-me page. For press inquiries, visit the press page or email press (at) dailydinoguy.com. For everything else, email hello (at) dailydinoguy.com.

Where can I follow Evan Jevnikar online?

Evan is most active on Instagram (@dailydinoguy), YouTube (@dailydinoguy), TikTok (@thedailydinoguy), and Threads (@dailydinoguy), with a combined audience of more than 300,000 followers. The Monthly Dino Digest newsletter sends one email a month with the latest paleontology research and reader Q&A.

Where is Evan Jevnikar based?

Evan is based in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is available for speaking engagements throughout the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point), the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), the Charlotte metro area, and nationally, with virtual engagements available worldwide.