by Permalink.
The author, in the field.

The author, in the field.

Welcome to my site: its primary function is to serve as a repository for my publications (technical papers, book reviews and some popular and semi-popular articles). Please go here for access to these.

Research Interests

I’m a vertebrate palaeontologist currently based at the University of Southampton, UK. I work on dinosaurs (especially theropods and sauropods), pterosaurs, fossil marine reptiles and other vertebrate animals. Current areas (early 2013) of special interest include the diversity of European azhdarchoid pterosaurs, ichthyosaur evolution across the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, the anatomy and phylogeny of Early Cretaceous theropod dinosaurs, the timing of the theropod and avian radiation, sexual selection theory as applied to fossil animals, and the flight behaviour of feathered dinosaurs. See my publication list for relevant published work. See links below for news stories concerning my research.

Research quality

My research has been published in Journal of Zoology, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, PLOS ONE, Biology Letters, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology and Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Google Scholar currently lists my overall h-index at 15 and i10-rating at 19.

Books, popular writing and consultancy

I produce technical research on dinosaurs, marine reptiles and other animals, but I also write popular articles for magazines, including Scientific American and BBC Focus. I have written or contributed to over ten books. Some are written for a technical audience (Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight, co-written with David Martill, and Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Saurians: A Historical Perspective, co-edited with Richard Moody, Eric Buffetaut and David Martill) but most are popular books written for older children and interested adults. They include Walking With Dinosaurs: The Evidence (co-authored with David Martill; BBC Books, 2001), The Great Dinosaur Discoveries (A&C Black/University of California Press, 2009), Dinosaur Record Breakers (Carlton Book, 2011), and All Yesterdays (co-authored with John Conway and C. M. Kosemen, Lulu Books, 2012). Other books are currently underway.

Biographical info

From 1997 to 2006 I worked on the predatory dinosaurs of the Lower Cretaceous of southern England, focusing for my PhD on the tyrannosauroid Eotyrannus. Since completing my PhD I’ve worked in the media (I worked for London-based media company Impossible Pictures during 2007), as a technical editor, a freelance author, and as a lecturer. Our masters course in vertebrate palaeontology at the University of Southampton has been running since October 2012; I’ve been providing lectures on much of vertebrate diversity for this course (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals).

I write extensively about amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals (living and extinct) for my blog, Tetrapod Zoology, currently hosted at Scientific American. Tetrapod Zoology (= Tet Zoo) is one of the most-read zoological blogs in the world. Tet Zoo ver 2 – hosted at ScienceBlogs between 2007 and 2011 – received over 7 million hits during that period.

I spend as much time in the field as possible, looking at live animals. I have conducted palaeontological fieldwork in England (Isle of Wight, East Sussex, Yorkshire coast), north Africa (Morocco and Libya) and Romania.

Lecturing and public speaking

I also have extensive experience lecturing to both technical and popular audiences. I regularly give talks to local groups and societies on zoological and palaeontological topics: talks of recent months have included those on the biology of pterosaurs, sexual selection theory as applied to dinosaurs, the reality or otherwise of sea monsters, the history of European big cats, the British big cat phenomenon, and the evolution of marine reptiles.

I can be contacted at eotyrannus@gmail.com. I tweet: @TetZoo. Recent research and other news is typically reported at Tetrapod Zoology.

Online news articles about my research