Dr Andrew Ross
Specific responsibility: Curation and development of the fossil collections.
Research interests/expertise: Fossil arthropods, particularly the taxonomy, biodiversity and palaeoecology of insects.
Dr Ross studied geology (BSc) at Kingston Polytechnic and a PhD on fossil cockroaches at the University of Brighton. He worked at the Palaeontology Department of the Natural History Museum in London for 15 years, where he progressed from part-time Curator of Fossil Insects, through Curator of Fossil Arthropods to a Collections Manager within the Invertebrate & Plants Division.
He joined National Museums Scotland in 2008, initially as the Principal Curator of Invertebrate Palaeobiology, then in the present position of Principal Curator of Palaeobiology when the fossil invertebrate and vertebrate sections were merged in 2010.
His main research interest is in fossil terrestrial arthropods, particularly insects, though he also studies fossil Crustacea, Chelicerata and Myriapoda. He is fascinated by changes (origination and extinction) to their family-level diversity through time and also what they can infer about palaeoecology, palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate. He is also very interested in the exquisite preservation of insects in amber.
He recently completed 4-year’s service as the Editor-in-Chief of the Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Selected publications
Swaby, E.J., Coe, A.L. & Ross, A.J. 2024. A new cockroach (Blattodea: Rhipidoblattinidae) from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of Alderton Hill, Gloucestershire, UK, and the earliest likely occurrence of aposematic colouration in cockroaches. Papers in Palaeontology10 (5): e1598, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1598
Ross, A.J., Zhou, J., Hoffeins, C. & Crighton, B. 2024. The first fossil chylizine fly (Diptera: Psilidae) with a discussion on the ages of related fossil Acalyptratae. Insect Systematics & Diversity8 (6): 4, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixae036
Ross, A.J. 2024. Complete checklist of Burmese (Myanmar) amber taxa 2023. Mesozoic, 1 (1), 21-57. https://doi.org/10.11646/Mesozoic.1.1.4
Clark, N.D.L. & Ross, A.J. 2024. Caridoid crustaceans from the Ballagan Formation (Tournaisian, Lower Carboniferous) of Willie’s Hole, Chirnside, Scottish Borders, UK. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FirstView. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691024000045
Ross, A.J. & Taylor, M.A. 2023. Appendix Five, The fossil specimens in the First Edition of The Old Red Sandstone. In: O’Connor, R. & Taylor, M.A. A critical study of Hugh Miller’s The Old Red Sandstone, 1838-1920. The Old Red Sandstone, Volume 1. National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. A219-A228.
Ross, A. 2022. Evolution: The origin of insect wings revisited. Current Biology 32: R851-R852. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.087
Fedotova, Z.A., Perkovsky, E.E., Ross, A.J. & Zhang, Q.Q. 2022. A new genus and species of gall midge belonging to the tribe Winnertziini (Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, Porricondylinae) from the lower Eocene Fushun amber from China. Palaeoentomology 5 (1): 90-98. https://doi.org/10.11646/palaeoentomology.5.1.11
Schneider, J.W., Scholze, F., Ross, A.J., Blake, B.M. & Lucas, S.G. 2021. Improved blattoid insect and conchostracan zonation for the Late Carboniferous, Pennsylvanian, of Euramerica. In: Lucas, S.G., Schneider, J.W., Wang, X. & Nikolaeva (eds). The Carboniferous Timescale. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 512.
Collins, J.S.H., Mellish, C.J.T., Ross, A.J. & Crabb, P.R. 2020. A guide to the fossil Decapoda (Crustacea: Axiidea, Anomura, Brachyura) of the British Isles. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 131 (1): 19-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2019.10.001
Ross, A.J., Edgecombe, G.D., Clark, N.D.L., Bennett, C.E., Carrió, V., Contreras-Izquierdo, R. and Crighton, B. 2018. A new terrestrial millipede fauna of earliest Carboniferous (Tournaisian) age from southeastern Scotland helps fill ‘Romer’s Gap’. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 108: 99-110. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691018000142