thesis was titled "The pectoral girdle and forelimb of a primitive therizinosauroid (Theropoda, Maniraptora) with phylogenetic and functional implications," which addressed the anatomy of Falcarius utahensis.
[3] Her Ph.D. dissertation was titled "A taxonomic and phylogenetic reevaluation of Therizinosauria (Dinosauria: Theropoda): implications for the evolution of Maniraptora," which broadly addressed the relationships of therizinosaurs.
Her primary focus is on the paleobiology of theropods from the Cretaceous of North America,[6][7][8][9][10][11] but she has also published on ornithischian dinosaurs,[12][13][14][15] crocodylomorphs,[16][17][18] avians,[19] aetosaur pseudosuchians,[20][21] temnospondyls,[22] and trace fossils.
[23][24] Zanno has contributed to naming many new species of theropods, including the therizinosaur Falcarius,[6] the troodontid Talos sampsoni,[25] the hadrosaur Velafrons coahuilensis,[26] the oviraptorosaur Hagryphus giganteus,[27] the iguanodontian Choyrodon barsboldi,[14] the allosauroid Siats meekerorum,[10] and the tyrannosauroid Moros intrepidus.
[47][48] The specimen had previously failed to sell at the seller's minimum price in 2013 and was subsequently the center of a lengthy legal battle over the ownership of the fossil.