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Research Associate

Professor Stephen Brusatte

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  2. Professor Stephen Brusatte

Research interests/expertise: Specialises in the anatomy, systematics, and macroevolution of fossil vertebrates, particularly dinosaurs and Triassic archosaurs.

Steve is a vertebrate palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist who specialises in the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of dinosaurs, mammals, and other fossil organisms. He has written over 150 scientific papers, published six books (including the adult pop science books The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, the textbook Dinosaur Paleobiology, and the coffee table book Dinosaurs), and has described over 20 new species of fossil animals. He has done fieldwork in Brazil, Britain, China, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and the United States. He was the paleontology consultant for the film Jurassic World: Dominion, and he was “resident palaeontologist” and scientific consultant for the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs team.

Steve is broadly interested in the anatomy, genealogy, and evolution of fossil vertebrates. Particular research interests are the origin and early evolution of dinosaurs in the Triassic, the anatomy and genealogy of the carnivorous theropod dinosaurs (T. rex and kin), the evolution of birds from theropod dinosaurs, the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, the recovery and radiation of mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction, the evolution of brains and senses in extinct species, and the evolution of marine crocodylomorphs during the Mesozoic. He currently undertakes fieldwork in the Jurassic of Scotland, the Cretaceous of Romania, and the Cretaceous-Paleogene of New Mexico. 

Selected publications

García-Girón, J., Alessandro Chiarenza, A., Alahuhta, J., DeMar Jr., D.G., Heino, J., Mannion, P.D., Williamson, T.E., Wilson Mantilla, G.P. & Brusatte, S.L. 2022. Shifts in food webs and niche stability shaped survivorship and extinction at the end-Cretaceous. Science Advances  8 (49). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add5040 

Foffa, D., Dunne, E.M., Nesbitt, S.J., Butler, R.J, Fraser, N.C., Brusatte, S.L., Farnsworth, A., Lunt, D.J., Valdes, P.J., Walsh, S. & Barrett, P.M. 2022. Scleromochlus and the early evolution of Pterosauromorpha. Nature 610: 313-318.. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05284-x 

Funston, G.F., dePolo, P.E., Sliwinski, J.T., Dumont, M., Shelley, S.L., Pichevin, L.E., Cayzer, N.J., Wible, J.R., Williamson, T.E., Rae, J.W.B. & Stephen L. Brusatte.2022. The origin of placental mammal life histories. Nature  610: 107–111. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05150-w

Bertrand, O., Shelley, S., Williamson, T.E., Wible, J.R., Chester, S.G.B., Flynn, J.J., Holbrook, L.T., Lyson, T.R., Meng, J., Miller, I.M., Puschel Rouliez, H., Smith, T., Spaulding, M., Tseng, Z.J. & Brusatte, S.L. 2022. Brawn before brains in placental mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction. Science  376: 80-85. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abl5584 

Jagielska, N., O’Sullivan, M., Funston, G.F., Butler, I.B., Challands, T.J., Clark, N.D.L., Fraser, N.C., Penny, A., Ross, D.A., Wilkinson, M. Brusatte, S.L. 2022. A skeleton from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland illuminates an earlier origin of large pterosaurs. Current Biology 32: 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.01.073 

dePolo, P.E., Brusatte, S.L., Challands, T.J., Foffa, D., Wilkinson, M., Clark, N.D.L., Hoad, J., Gomes da Costa Pereira, P.V.L, Ross, D.A., Wade, T.J. 2020. Novel track morphotypes from new tracksites indicate increased Middle Jurassic dinosaur diversity on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. PLoS ONE 15 (3): e0229640. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229640 

Brusatte, S.L., T.J. Challands, D.A. Ross, and M. Wilkinson. 2016. Sauropod dinosaur trackways in a Middle Jurassic lagoon on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology 52: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1144/sjg2015-005 

Brusatte, S.L., A. Averianov, H.-D. Sues, A. Muir, and I.B. Butler. 2016. New tyrannosaur from the mid-Cretaceous of Uzbekistan clarifies evolution of giant body sizes and advanced senses in tyrant dinosaurs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113: 3447-3452. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1600140113 

Brusatte, S.L., G.T. Lloyd, S.C. Wang, and M.A. Norell. 2014. Gradual assembly of avian body plan culminated in rapid rates of evolution across dinosaur-bird transition. Current Biology 24: 2386-2392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.08.034 

Brusatte, S.L., M.J. Benton, M. Ruta, and G.T. Lloyd. 2008. Superiority, competition, and opportunism in the evolutionary radiation of dinosaurs. Science 321: 1485-1488. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1161833 
 

 

For further publications see the National Museums Scotland Research Repository.

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