Robert Rafael Reisz is a Canadian

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and specialist in the study of early

amniote Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are dis ...

and

tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids ( pelycosaurs, extinct t ...

evolution.

Research career

Reisz received his B.Sc. (1969), M.Sc. (1971) and Ph.D. (1975) from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

as Robert L. Carroll's first doctoral graduate. After teaching as visiting lecturer at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the Californ ...

for a year, he accepted an appointment in the Biology Department at the University of Toronto's Mississauga Campus in 1975 where he still maintains his research lab. His research has been funded continuously by the

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada, CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering rese ...

of Canada (NSERC). He conducted field work in North America, Africa, and Europe, where he excavated fossils from the late

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ...

and early

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

eras. These excavations were frequently funded by the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...

. Reisz has broad interests in vertebrate paleontology. He has published more than 100 scientific articles on subjects as diverse as

lungfish Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the order Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, i ...

and

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s, but is best known for his work on early amniotes. His research includes discovering the oldest known dinosaur embryos, the oldest known bipedal reptile, and the oldest known diapsid reptile. Reisz is a research associate at the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, Toronto (since 1975), the

Carnegie Museum of Natural History The Carnegie Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as CMNH) is a natural history museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Pittsburgh-based industrialist Andrew Carnegie in 1896. Housing some 22 million ...

, Pittsburgh (since 1980), and the

Field Museum of Natural History The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...

, Chicago (since 1998). He was a Senior Visiting Scientist at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, Moscow (1989–2003) and Invited Professor at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (2000–2003). Among others he received the Bass Fellowship of the Field Museum of Natural History (1998–2000), the Visiting Wilson Fellowship of the University of London, King's College (2000–2001), and a Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2006–2008). In 2007, Reisz was honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was recognized as a Fellow. He was Senior Editor (2006-2010) of the

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology The ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1980 by Jiri Zidek (University of Oklahoma). It covers all aspects of vertebrate paleontology, including vertebrate origins, evolu ...

, published by the

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and Activities SVP has about 2,300 members inte ...

. A special issue of the '' Comptes Rendus Palevol'' of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at ...

that was devoted to him.

Selected publications

*Reisz, R. R., Scott, D., Sues, H.-D., Evans, D. C. and Raath, M. A. (2005) Embryos of an Early Jurassic prosauropod dinosaur and their evolutionary significance. Science 309: 761-764. *Reisz, R. R. and Smith, M.M. (2001) Lungfish dental pattern conserved for 360 million years. Nature 411: 548-550. *Rybczynski, N and Reisz, R.R. (2001) Earliest evidence for efficient oral processing in a terrestrial herbivore. Nature 411: 684-687. *Reisz, R.R., and Sues, H-D. (2000) The 'feathers' of ''Longisquama''. Nature 408: 428. *Berman, D. S, Reisz, R.R., Henrici, A.C., Sumida, S.S. and Martens, T. (2000)

Early Permian 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawan ...

Bipedal Reptile. Science 290: 969-972. *Reisz, R.R. and H.D. Sues. (2000). Herbivory in Late Paleozoic and Triassic Terrestrial Vertebrates. pp 9–41. in: Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates, Cambridge Univ. Press., H.D. Sues, ed. *Sues, H.D. and R.R. Reisz. (1998). Origins and early evolution of herbivory in tetrapods. TREE vol. 13.4, pp. 141–145. *Reisz, R.R. (1997). The origin and early evolutionary history of amniotes. TREE. vol. 2 (6): 218-222. *Laurin, M. and Reisz, R.R. (1995) A reevaluation of early amniote phylogeny. Zool. Jour. Linn. Soc. 113: 165-223. *Laurin, M. and R. R. Reisz. (1997). A new perspective on tetrapod phylogeny. pp. 8–58. in:
The Origin of Amniotes: Completing the Transition to Land
, Sumida, S. S.and K. L. M. Martin *Reisz, R.R. and Laurin, M. (1991). ''Owenetta'' and the origin of turtles. Nature 349(6307): 324-326. *Laurin, M. and R.R. Reisz. (1990). ''Tetraceratops'' is the oldest known therapsid. Nature: 345(6272): 249-250. *Reisz, R.R. (1986). Pelycosauria. Handbuch der Palaeoherpetologie. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart (P. Wellenhofer ed.) 102 pp., 43 figs. *Reisz, R.R. (1977). ''Petrolacosaurus'', the oldest known diapsid reptile. Science 196: 1091-1093.

References

External links

Robert Reisz's web site at the University of Toronto, Mississauga

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reisz, Robert R. Living people Canadian paleontologists People associated with the Field Museum of Natural History People from Oradea University of Toronto faculty Year of birth missing (living people)