Stephen Brusatte FRSE | |
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Born | Ottawa, Illinois, US | 24 April 1984
Other names | Steve Brusatte |
Alma mater | University of Chicago (B.S.) University of Bristol (MSc) Columbia University (MPhil & PhD) |
Known for | Evolution of dinosaurs |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Paleontology |
Institutions | University of Edinburgh |
Doctoral advisor | Mark Norell |
Other academic advisors | Paul Sereno Michael J. Benton |
Author abbrev. (zoology) | Brusatte |
Stephen Louis "Steve" Brusatte FRSE (born April 24, 1984) is an American paleontologist, author, and evolutionary biologist who specializes in the anatomy and evolution of dinosaurs. [1] [2] He was educated at the University of Chicago for his Bachelor's degree, at the University of Bristol for his Master's of Science on a Marshall Scholarship, and finally at the Columbia University for Master's in Philosophy and Doctorate. He is currently Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh. [1] In April 2024, Brusatte was elected to fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [3]
In addition to his scientific papers and technical monographs, his popular book Dinosaurs (2008) and the textbook Dinosaur Paleobiology (2012) earned him accolades, and he became the resident palaeontologist and scientific consultant for the BBC Earth and 20th Century Fox's 2013 film Walking With Dinosaurs , which was followed by his popular book Walking with Dinosaurs Encyclopedia. [4] His book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World (2018), written for the adult lay person, won widespread acclaim and was a New York Times bestseller. [5] In June 2022, he published The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us. [6]
Brusatte was born in Ottawa, Illinois to Jim and Roxanne Brusatte. He was educated at the Ottawa Township High School. [7] From 2002, he attended the University of Chicago from where he earned his Bachelor's in geophysical sciences in 2006. He studied under Paul Sereno. He was elected a Student Marshal, the highest academic honor the university bestows to undergraduates. He was also the winner of the John Crerar Foundation Science Writing Prize and the Howard Hughes Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowship. In 2006, he was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study in the United Kingdom. [8] He entered the University of Bristol and obtained a Master's in Science in palaeobiology and earth sciences in 2008. His master's thesis was titled Basal Archosaur Phylogeny and Evolution, and was supervised by Michael J. Benton. [9] He returned to the US to join Columbia University, from where he completed his Master's in Philosophy in 2011 and Doctorate in 2013 from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. [1] During this period, he concurrently worked as a researcher at the Division of Paleontology of the American Museum of Natural History. [2] He became a Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the School of GeoSciences in the University of Edinburgh in February 2013. [1] He is a member of the Editorial Board for Current Biology . [10]
Brusatte is the author of the 2002 book Stately Fossils: A Comprehensive Look at the State Fossils and Other Official Fossils and the 2008 book Dinosaurs. Additionally, he authored several scientific papers as well as over 100 popular articles for magazines such as Fossil News, Dino Press, Dinosaur World, and Prehistoric Times. At Chicago, he aided in the creation of two databases, TaxonSearch and CharacterSearch, that organize taxonomic and phylogenetic information.[ citation needed ]
Brusatte has discovered more than a dozen new species of vertebrate fossils. His breakthrough in the study of dinosaur fossils was while at the University of Chicago with Paul Sereno. Having discovered the skull, jaw, and neck fossils of a 95-million-year-old theropod in the Elrhaz Formation of Niger in 1997, Sereno was looking for a competent student to analyse it. Brusatte took the opportunity in 2004, completed the project in 2005, and published his findings in 2007 with Sereno. [11] The animal was found to be a new species of Carcharodontosaurus , which they named C. iguidensis. He estimated that the complete skull would be more than five feet long, one of the biggest skulls of a known carnivorous dinosaur. [7] This was followed by the description of another new theropod from the Elrhaz Formation in January 2008, Kryptops palaios . [12] Another significant discovery was from China in 2014. Alongside Chinese paleontologist Lü Junchang and others, Brusatte described a 66-million-year-old dinosaur, Qianzhousaurus sinensis , which was closely related to the T. rex . [13] Due to its long snout, it was given the nickname "Pinocchio rex". [14]
In January 2015, his team announced the discovery of a marine reptile belonging to the Jurassic Period, around 170 million years ago. The giant, long-nosed, fish-like animal, named Dearcmhara shawcrossi, was found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. [15] He warrants that the species is not ancestral to Nessie, [16] the Scottish legendary marine animal, as popular media liked to hype, [17] but is certainly the first "distinctly Scottish prehistoric marine reptile". [18]
Below is a list of taxa that Brusatte has contributed to naming:
Year | Taxon | Authors |
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2024 | Enalioetes schroederi gen. et sp. nov. | Sachs, Young, Hornung, Cowgill, Schwab, & Brusatte [19] |
2021 | Tamarro insperatus gen. et sp. nov. | Sellés, Villa, Brusatte, Currie, & Galobart [20] |
2015 | Dearcmhara shawcrossi gen. et sp. nov. | Brusatte, Young, Challands, Clark, Fischer, Fraser, Liston, MacFadyen, Ross, Walsh, & Wilkinson [15] |
2014 | Qianzhousaurus sinensis gen. et sp. nov. | Lü, Yi, Brusatte, Yang, Li, & Chen [13] |
2008 | Kryptops palaios gen. et sp. nov. | Sereno & Brusatte [12] |
2007 | Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis sp. nov. | Brusatte & Sereno [11] |
Stephen Brusatte took part in several documentaries. In 2015 , he appeared in T. Rex Autopsy , a documentary produced by National Geographic Channel and aired on 7 June 2015. In 2016, he appeared in T-Rex: An Evolutionary Journey, produced by NHK.
In February 2020, Brusatte was hired as a member of the consulting team of paleontologists to work on Jurassic World Dominion . [21] The film included many feathered dinosaurs for the first time in a Jurassic Park movie. Brusatte reported that he had been extensively involved with the production team and that he made director Colin Trevorrow promise to include feathered dinosaurs in this installment of the franchise. [22]
Theropoda, whose members are known as theropods, is an extant dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved to become herbivores and omnivores. Theropods first appeared during the Carnian age of the late Triassic period 231.4 million years ago (Ma) and included the majority of large terrestrial carnivores from the Early Jurassic until at least the close of the Cretaceous, about 66 Ma. In the Jurassic, birds evolved from small specialized coelurosaurian theropods, and are today represented by about 11,000 living species.
Giganotosaurus is a genus of large theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Argentina, during the early Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 99.6 to 95 million years ago. The holotype specimen was discovered in the Candeleros Formation of Patagonia in 1993 and is almost 70% complete. The animal was named Giganotosaurus carolinii in 1995; the genus name translates to "giant southern lizard", and the specific name honors the discoverer, Ruben Carolini. A dentary bone, a tooth, and some tracks, discovered before the holotype, were later assigned to this animal. The genus attracted much interest and became part of a scientific debate about the maximum sizes of theropod dinosaurs.
Carcharodontosaurus is a genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived in North Africa from about 100 to 94 million years ago during the Cenomanian age of the Cretaceous. Two teeth of the genus, now lost, were first described from Algeria by French paleontologists Charles Depéret and Justin Savornin as Megalosaurus saharicus. A partial skeleton was collected by crews of German paleontologist Ernst Stromer during a 1914 expedition to Egypt. Stromer did not report the Egyptian find until 1931, in which he dubbed the novel genus Carcharodontosaurus, making the type species C. saharicus. Unfortunately, this skeleton was destroyed during the Second World War. In 1995 a nearly complete skull of C. saharicus, the first well-preserved specimen to be found in almost a century, was discovered in the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco; it was designated the neotype in 1996. Fossils unearthed from the Echkar Formation of northern Niger were described and named as another species, C. iguidensis, in 2007.
Sarcosuchus is an extinct genus of crocodyliform and distant relative of living crocodilians that lived during the Early Cretaceous, from the late Hauterivian to the early Albian, 133 to 112 million years ago of what is now Africa and South America. The genus name comes from the Greek σάρξ (sarx) meaning flesh and σοῦχος (souchus) meaning crocodile. It was one of the largest pseudosuchians, with the largest specimen of S. imperator reaching approximately 9–9.5 metres (29.5–31.2 ft) long and weighing up to 3.45–4.3 metric tons. It is known from two species; S. imperator from the early Albian Elrhaz Formation of Niger, and S. hartti from the Late Hauterivian of northeastern Brazil. Other material is known from Morocco and Tunisia and possibly Libya and Mali.
Carnosauria is an extinct group of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
Suchomimus is a genus of spinosaur dinosaur that lived between 125 and 112 million years ago in what is now Niger, North Africa, during the Aptian to early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous Period. It was named and described by paleontologist Paul Sereno and colleagues in 1998, based on a partial skeleton from the Elrhaz Formation. Suchomimus's long and shallow skull, similar to that of a crocodile, earns it its generic name, while the specific name Suchomimus tenerensis alludes to the locality of its first remains, the Ténéré Desert.
Rugops is a monospecific genus of basal abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from Niger that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now the Echkar Formation. The type and only species, Rugops primus, is known only from a partial skull. It was named and described in 2004 by Paul Sereno, Jeffery Wilson and Jack Conrad. Rugops has an estimated length of 4.4–5.3 metres (14–17 ft) and weight of 410 kilograms (900 lb). The top of its skull bears several pits which correlates with overlaying scale and the front of the snout would have had an armour-like dermis.
Tyrannosauroidea is a superfamily of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that includes the family Tyrannosauridae as well as more basal relatives. Tyrannosauroids lived on the Laurasian supercontinent beginning in the Jurassic Period. By the end of the Cretaceous Period, tyrannosauroids were the dominant large predators in the Northern Hemisphere, culminating in the gigantic Tyrannosaurus. Fossils of tyrannosauroids have been recovered on what are now the continents of North America, Europe and Asia, with fragmentary remains possibly attributable to tyrannosaurs also known from South America and Australia.
Cristatusaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period of what is now Niger, 112 million years ago. It was a baryonychine member of the Spinosauridae, a group of large bipedal carnivores with well-built forelimbs and elongated, crocodile-like skulls. The type species Cristatusaurus lapparenti was named in 1998 by scientists Philippe Taquet and Dale Russell, on the basis of jaw bones and some vertebrae. Two claw fossils were also later assigned to Cristatusaurus. The animal's generic name, which means "crested reptile", alludes to a sagittal crest on top of its snout; while the specific name is in honor of the French paleontologist Albert-Félix de Lapparent. Cristatusaurus is known from the Albian to Aptian Elrhaz Formation, where it would have coexisted with sauropod and iguanodontian dinosaurs, other theropods, and various crocodylomorphs.
Spinostropheus is a genus of carnivorous neotheropod theropod dinosaur that lived in the Middle Jurassic period and has been found in the Tiouraren Formation, Niger. The type and only species is S. gautieri.
Kryptops is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Niger. It is known from a partial skeleton found at the Gadoufaoua locality in the western Ténéré Desert, in rocks of the Aptian–Albian-age Elrhaz Formation. This dinosaur was described by paleontologists Paul Sereno and Stephen Brusatte in 2008. The genus name means "covered face", in reference to evidence that the face bore a tightly adhering covering. The type species is K. palaios, which means "old".
Eocarcharia is a genus of carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Elrhaz Formation that lived in the Sahara 112 million years ago, in what today is the country of Niger. It was discovered in 2000 on an expedition led by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno. The type and only species is Eocarcharia dinops. Its teeth were shaped like blades and were used for disabling live prey and ripping apart body parts. Eocarcharia's brow is swollen into a massive band of bone, giving it a menacing glare. It may have reached lengths of 6–8 m (19.7–26.2 ft).
The Elrhaz Formation is a geological formation in Niger, West Africa.
Elrhazosaurus is a genus of basal iguanodontian dinosaur, known from isolated bones found in Early Cretaceous rocks of Niger. These bones were initially thought to belong to a species of the related dryosaurid Valdosaurus, but have since been reclassified.
The Lealt Shale Formation is a Middle Jurassic geologic formation in Scotland. Fossil ornithopod, theropod and stegosaur tracks, a theropod dinosaur tooth and the pterosaur Dearc have been reported from the formation. The lithology consists of silty fissile mudstones with subordinate thin limestones.
The Kilmaluag Formation is a Middle Jurassic geologic formation in Scotland. It was formerly known as the Ostracod Limestone for preserving an abundance of fossil freshwater/low salinity ostracods. Gastropods, bivalves, trace fossil burrows, and vertebrate fossil remains have also been recorded from the formation. Vertebrate fossils include fish, crocodylomorphs, mammals, small reptiles, amphibians, theropod and sauropod dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
Dearcmhara is a genus of marine reptile from the early to mid-Jurassic period around 170 million years ago, known from fossil remains found on the island of Skye in Scotland. The type species is Dearcmhara shawcrossi. Fragmentary fossil remains of the animal were discovered by an amateur fossil hunter in 1959 and were subsequently donated to a museum, but it was not until 2014 that a scientific research project determined that the fossils were of a previously unknown species.
This timeline of tyrannosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the tyrannosaurs, a group of predatory theropod dinosaurs that began as small, long-armed bird-like creatures with elaborate cranial ornamentation but achieved apex predator status during the Late Cretaceous as their arms shrank and body size expanded. Although formally trained scientists did not begin to study tyrannosaur fossils until the mid-19th century, these remains may have been discovered by Native Americans and interpreted through a mythological lens. The Montana Crow tradition about thunder birds with two claws on their feet may have been inspired by isolated tyrannosaurid forelimbs found locally. Other legends possibly inspired by tyrannosaur remains include Cheyenne stories about a mythical creature called the Ahke, and Delaware stories about smoking the bones of ancient monsters to have wishes granted.
This timeline of ceratosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ceratosaurs, a group of relatively primitive, often horned, predatory theropod dinosaurs that became the apex predators of the southern hemisphere during the Late Cretaceous. The nature and taxonomic composition of the Ceratosauria has been controversial since the group was first distinguished in the late 19th century. In 1884 Othniel Charles Marsh described the new genus and species Ceratosaurus nasicornis from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western United States. He felt that it belonged in a new family that he called the Ceratosauridae. He created the new taxon Ceratosauria to include both the Ceratosauridae and the ostrich-like ornithomimids. The idea of the Ceratosauria was soon contested, however. Later that same decade both Lydekker and Marsh's hated rival Edward Drinker Cope argued that the taxon was invalid.
Michael Waldman is a British palaeontologist known for his work on fossil fish, mammals, and reptiles. He also discovered the globally important fossil site of Cladach a'Ghlinne, near Elgol on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. This site exposes the Kilmaluag Formation and provides a valuable record of Middle Jurassic ecosystems. During the 1970s he visited the site several times with fellow palaeontologist Robert Savage. The fossil turtle Eileanchelys waldmani was named after Michael in recognition of his notable contribution to palaeontology.