Stephen Louis Brusatte (born April 24, 1984) is an American

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

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life for ...

, who specializes in the anatomy and evolution of

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. He was educated at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

for his BS degree, at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

for his MSc on a

Marshall Scholarship The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is widely considered one of the most prestigious sc ...

, and finally at the

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for MPhil and PhD. He is currently a Reader in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. 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 BBC Earth is a brand used by BBC Studios since 2009 to market and distribute the BBC's natural history content to countries other than the United Kingdom. BBC Studios is the commercial arm of the public service broadcaster. BBC Earth commercia ...

and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

's 2013 film ''

Walking With Dinosaurs ''Walking with Dinosaurs'' is a 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Tim Haines and produced by the BBC Science Unit the Discovery Channel and BBC Worldwide, in association with TV Asahi, ProSieben and France 3. Envi ...

'', which is followed by his popular book ''Walking with Dinosaurs Encyclopedia''. 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. In June 2022 he published ''The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us''.Amazon 2022, The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, Brusatte
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Biography

Brusatte was born in

Ottawa, Illinois Ottawa is a city located at the confluence of the navigable Illinois River and Fox River in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. The Illinois River is a conduit for river barges and connects Lake Michigan at Chicago, to the Mississippi Ri ...

to Jim and Roxanne Brusatte. He was educated at the Ottawa Township High School. From 2002, he attended the

from where he earned his BS in geophysical sciences in 2006. He studied under

Paul Sereno Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic "explorer-in-residence" who has discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents, including at sites ...

. 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 the

to study in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. He entered the

and obtained an MSc in both palaeobiology and earth sciences in 2008. His master's thesis was about the origin of a group of dinosaurs and was titled ''Basal Archosaur Phylogeny and Evolution'', on which he was supervised by Michael J. Benton. He returned to the US to join the

, from where he completed his MPhil in 2011 and PhD in 2013 from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. During this period he concurrently worked as a researcher at the Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History. He became a Chancellor's Fellow in Vertebrate Palaentology at the School of GeoSciences in the

in February 2013. He is a member of the Editorial Board for ''

Current Biology ''Current Biology'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers all areas of biology, especially molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, neurobiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. The journal includes research articles, ...

''.

Contributions

He 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''. Brusatte has additionally 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.

Discovery of fossils

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 The Elrhaz Formation is a geological formation in Niger, central Africa. Its strata date back to the Early Cretaceous, about 125 to 112 million years ago. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation, alongsi ...

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesCarcharodontosaurus ''Carcharodontosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of large carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous in Northern Africa. The genus ''Carcharodontosaurus'' is named after the shark genus '' Carc ...

'', 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. This was followed by the description of another new theropod from the Elrhaz Formation in January 2008, '' Kryptops palaios''. Another significant discovery was from China in 2014. Alongside Chinese paleontologist

Lü Junchang Lü Junchang (; 1965 – 9 October 2018) was a Chinese palaeontologist and professor at the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences. An expert on Mesozoic reptiles, he described and named dozens of dinosaur and pterosaur taxa ...

and others, Brusatte described a 66-million-year-old dinosaur, ''

Qianzhousaurus sinensis ''Qianzhousaurus'' (meaning "Qianzhou lizard") is a genus of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs that lived in Asia during the Late Cretaceous period. There is currently only one species named, the type species ''Qianzhousaurus sinensis'' which is a member ...

'', which was closely related to the famous '' T. rex''. Due to its long snout, it was given the nickname "Pinocchio rex". In January 2015 his team announced the discovery of a marine reptile belonging to the

Jurassic Period The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

, around 170 million years ago. The giant, long-nosed, fish-like animal, named '' Dearcmhara shawcrossi'', was found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. He warrants that the species is not ancestral to

Nessie NESSIE (New European Schemes for Signatures, Integrity and Encryption) was a European research project funded from 2000 to 2003 to identify secure cryptographic primitives. The project was comparable to the NIST AES process and the Japanese Gov ...

, the Scottish legendary marine animal, as popular media liked to hype, but is certainly the first "distinctly Scottish prehistoric marine reptile".

Documentary Appearances

Stephen Brusatte took part in several documentaries. In 2015 '' 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 , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

Movies

In February 2020 Brusatte was hired as a member of the consulting team of paleontologists to work on '' Jurassic World Dominion''. 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 Colin Trevorrow (;) is an American filmmaker. He made his feature directorial debut with the science fiction comedy '' Safety Not Guaranteed'' (2012) to critical and commercial success. Trevorrow achieved mainstream recognition for his work on th ...

promise to include feathered dinosaurs in this installment of the franchise.

Works

*''Stately Fossils: A Comprehensive Look at the State Fossils and Other Official Fossils'' (2002) *''Dinosaurs'' (2008) *''Field Guide to Dinosaurs'' (2009) *''Dinosaur Paleobiology'' (2012) *''Were Stegosaurs Carnivores?'' (2012) *''Walking with Dinosaurs Encyclopedia (Walking With Dinosaurs the 3d Movie)'' (2013) *''Day of the Dinosaurs: Step into a spectacular prehistoric world (Science X 10)'' (2016) *''Pinocchio Rex and Other Tyrannosaurs'' (2017) *''The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World'' (2018) *''The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us'' (2022)

References

External links

Web pageProfile at The Conversation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brusatte, Stephen L. 1984 births Living people American paleontologists Marshall Scholars University of Chicago alumni People from Ottawa, Illinois Columbia University alumni Alumni of the University of Bristol Academics of the University of Edinburgh