Susannah "Susie" Catherine Rose Maidment is a British

palaeontologist 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 ...

at the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...

. She is also an honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham. She is internationally recognised for her research on

ornithischia Ornithischia () is an extinct clade of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek ...

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 ...

evolution, and was awarded the 2016 Hodson Award of the

Palaeontological Association The Palaeontological Association (PalAss for short) is a charitable organisation based in the UK founded in 1957 for the promotion of the study of palaeontology and its allied sciences. Publications The Association publishes two main journals ...

and the 2017 Lyell Fund of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe, with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. She was featured as a 2019

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Women of Impact.

Education and career

Maidment studied

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, graduating with an MSc in 2003. She completed her PhD at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 2007, in which she studied the systematics of the dinosaur group

Stegosauria Stegosauria is a group of Herbivore, herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous Period (geology), periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe a ...

. Her research was supervised by David Norman and

Paul Upchurch Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

. Following time working as an exploration geologist in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, she moved in 2009 to work with

Paul Barrett Paul Franklyn "Legs" Barrett (14 December 1940 – 20 January 2019) was a UK agent and manager of 1950s style rock and roll artists, an author and previously a singer, songwriter and film actor. Barrett was the discoverer, mentor and first man ...

at the

, as a postdoctoral researcher co-investigator on a NERC-funded project on ornithischian dinosaur locomotion. In 2012 she returned to Imperial College London as a Research Fellow, before moving in 2016 to the

University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992. T ...

as a Senior Lecturer. In 2018 she re-joined the Natural History Museum, where she works as a senior researcher. She is an honorary Professor at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

Research

Maidment has published more than 50 scientific papers, primarily focused on the systematics, evolution and palaeobiology of ornithischian dinosaurs. She has worked extensively on

stegosaurs Stegosauria is a group of Herbivore, herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous Period (geology), periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe a ...

, and is considered the world leader on this group. Her contributions have included overall revisions of the systematics of the group, the description of the Portuguese stegosaur '' Miragaia'', the description of the oldest known stegosaur, ''

Adratiklit ''Adratiklit'' (meaning "mountain lizard") is an extinct genus of herbivorous stegosaurian Dinosaurs, dinosaur that lived on the supercontinent Gondwana during the Middle Jurassic period (168–164 million years ago). The genus contains a single ...

'', from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco, the oldest known

ankylosauria Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs ...

n '' Spicomellus'', also from Morocco, anatomical and systematic revisions of Chinese stegosaurs, and work on the postcranial skeleton and body mass of ''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fo ...

''. She has also published several papers on locomotion and the evolution of quadrupedality in ornithischian dinosaurs. In 2015, she was part of a team who reported evidence of original

collagen Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix of the connective tissues of many animals. It is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up 25% to 35% of protein content. Amino acids are bound together to form a trip ...

fibres and blood cells in

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

dinosaur specimens. Her most recent research has focused on the stratigraphy of the

Morrison Formation The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltston ...

of the Western

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. She was one of the lead scientists for the "Mission Jurassic" dinosaur excavation project that began in 2019. In 2023, she was scientific advisor for the tv series '' Prehistoric Planet''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maidment, Susannah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 1980s births 21st-century British geologists Academics of the University of Brighton Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of the University of Cambridge British women paleontologists English palaeontologists People associated with the Natural History Museum, London People from Royal Tunbridge Wells