Specific responsibility: Leading the research project 'The Birth of Mammals: Uncovering the Origins of Viviparity'.

Research interests/expertise: The origin and evolution of mammals, particularly in the Mesozoic. Current research focuses on the emergence of live birth in mammals, from their egg-laying ancestors.

Dr Panciroli is a palaeobiologist from the Scottish Highlands who completed her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at the University of the Highlands and Islands, her Masters in Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol, and her PhD joint between the University of Edinburgh and National Museums Scotland. Her thesis examined fossil mammals from the Jurassic rocks of the Isle of Skye in Scotland. After working as a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford, she continued her work on Scottish mammal fossils for her Research Fellowship at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, before taking up her position at National Museums Scotland in 2025.

Dr Panciroli co-leads a team carrying out annual fieldwork on the Isle of Skye since 2016. She has described multiple fossils from the island and the neighbouring Isle of Eigg, including early mammals and their close relatives, salamanders, small reptiles and dinosaurs. This work is providing new insights into the evolution of these animal groups in the Middle Jurassic, a time period which is poorly known globally. It is also a pivotal time for the birth of modern ecosystems.

Alongside her research, Dr Panciroli is an award-winning science writer and author, and has featured on various television, radio and podcasts. She has received both the T. N. George Memorial Medal and the Halstead Award for her research and science communication to public audiences.

Selected publications

Panciroli E., Funston, G., Maidment, S.C.R., Butler, R.J., Benson, R.J.B., Crawford, B.L., Fair, M., Fraser, N.C., Walsh, S. 2025. The first and most complete dinosaur skeleton from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 116: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691024000148

Panciroli, E. and Manias, C. 2025. Mammals, the measure of success? The legacy of ‘progress’ in natural sciences. In: Manias, C. ed. Palaeontology in Public: Popular science, lost creatures and deep time. UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800085824

Panciroli, E., Benson, R.B., Fernandez, V., Fraser, N.C., Humpage, M., Luo, Z.X. and Walsh, S. 2024. Jurassic fossil juvenile reveals prolonged life history in early mammals. Nature 632: 815–812. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07733-1

Tałanda, M., Fernandez, V., Panciroli, E., Evans, S.E. and Benson, R.J. 2022. Synchrotron tomography of a stem lizard elucidates early squamate anatomy. Nature 611: 99–104. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05332-6

Panciroli, E., Benson, R.B.J., Fernandez, V., Butler, R.J., Fraser, N.C., Luo, Z.-X. and Walsh, S. 2021. New species of mammaliaform and the cranium of Borealestes (Mammaliformes: Docodonta) from the Middle Jurassic of the British Isles. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 192: 1323–1362. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa144

Romaniuk, A.A., Panciroli, E., Buckley, M., Chowdhury, M.P., Willars, C., Herman, J.S., Troalen, L.G., Shepherd, A.N., Clarke, D.V., Sheridan, A., van Dongen, B.E., Butler, I.B., and Bendrey R. 2020. Combined visual and biochemical analyses confirm depositor and diet for Neolithic coprolites from Skara Brae. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 12: 274. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01225-9

Panciroli, E., Funston, G.F., Holwerda, F., Maidment, S.C.R., Foffa, D., Larkin, N., Challands, T., dePolo, P., Goldberg, D., Humpage, M., Ross, D., Wilkinson, M., Brusatte, S.L. 2020. First dinosaur from the Isle of Eigg (Valtos Sandstone Formation, Middle Jurassic), Scotland. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 111: 157–172. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691020000080

Panciroli, E., Benson, R.B.J., Walsh, S. Butler, R.J., Castro, T.A., Jones, M.E.H. and Evans, S. 2020. Diverse vertebrate assemblage of the Kilmaluag Formation (Bathonian, Middle Jurassic) of Skye, Scotland. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 111: 135–156. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691020000055

Panciroli E., Benson, R.B.J. and Butler R.J. 2018. New partial dentaries of Palaeoxonodon ooliticus (Mammalia, Amphitheriidae) from Scotland, and posterior dentary morphology in stem cladotherians. Acta Paleontologica Polonica 63: 197–206. https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00434.2017

Panciroli, E., Walsh, S., Fraser, N., Brusatte, S.L. and Corfe, I. 2017. A reassessment of the postcanine dentition and systematics of the tritylodontid Stereognathus (Cynodontia, Tritylodontidae, Mammaliamorpha), from the Middle Jurassic of the UK. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 37: e1351448. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2017.1351448

For further publications see the National Museums Scotland Research Repository.