Robert Rafael Reisz is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and specialist in the study of early

amniote Amniotes are tetrapod vertebrate animals belonging to the clade Amniota, a large group that comprises the vast majority of living terrestrial animal, terrestrial and semiaquatic vertebrates. Amniotes evolution, evolved from amphibious Stem tet ...

and

tetrapod A tetrapod (; from Ancient Greek :wiktionary:τετρα-#Ancient Greek, τετρα- ''(tetra-)'' 'four' and :wiktionary:πούς#Ancient Greek, πούς ''(poús)'' 'foot') is any four-Limb (anatomy), limbed vertebrate animal of the clade Tetr ...

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

Research career

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

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Robert L. Carroll Robert "Bob" Lynn Carroll (May 5, 1938 – April 7, 2020) was an American–Canadian vertebrate paleontologist who specialised in Paleozoic and Mesozoic amphibians and reptiles. Biography Carroll was an only child and grew up on a farm nea ...

'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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

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; , CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering research in Canada. NSERC directly funds university professors and students as ...

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

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

from the late

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

and early

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

eras. These excavations were frequently funded by the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

. 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 class Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, inc ...

and

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

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 (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by List of people from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Pit ...

, 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 educationa ...

, 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 honoured 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, published by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. A special issue of the '' Comptes Rendus Palevol'' of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of 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 method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

that was devoted to him. Below is a list of

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

that Reisz has contributed to naming:

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), ''01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * 01 (Urban Zakapa album), ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''01011 ...

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 Academic staff of the University of Toronto Year of birth missing (living people) McGill University alumni