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 Peter Makovicky, PhD.
Geology Department Curator, Dinosaurs
Dr. Makovicky studies the evolutionary history of dinosaurs. His research is particularly focused on small theropods (carnivorous dinosaurs) and how they evolved into living birds. The theropods closely related to birds had wing feathers, brooded their nests, and were small animals that were virtually indistinguishable from the earliest bird, Archaeopteryx, in all but a few features. Dr. Makovicky also focuses on the evolution of the horned dinosaur group Ceratopsia, which includes animals such as Triceratops and Protoceratops. He has conducted fieldwork in the US, China, India, and Argentina, and has described eight new dinosaur species with colleagues from various parts of the world. Dr. Makovicky was part of the team that curated the exhibition Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries.
 Neil Shubin, PhD.
Field Museum Provost and Associate Dean of the Department of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at the University of ChicagoLong interested in the origin of modern organisms, Dr. Shubin specializes in the early evolution of limbs. His work has changed the way the scientific community thinks about many of the key transitions in evolution: from the reptile-mammal transition, the water-land transformation, and the origin of frogs, salamanders, turtles, flying reptiles. His expeditions to Greenland, China, Africa and South America have led to the discovery of the earliest mammals, salamanders, and frogs. In particular, his work in Arctic Canada led to new insights into the invasion of land by the descendants of primitive fish 370 million years ago. One of his most spectacular discoveries is also one of his most recent. In 2006, Dr. Shubin announced the discovery of a fossil called Tiktaalik roseae, a “missing link” between fish and land animals. Many scientists agree that Tiktaalik shows the ways sea dwellers evolved to become land dwellers.
 Lance Grande, PhD.
Senior Vice President and Head of Collections and Research, and Curator of Fossil Fishes, Department of Geology.
In addition to his present administrative duties, Dr. Grande is an active researcher on fossil and living ray-finned fishes (a group containing half of all vertebrate animals). He is trained as a biologist and a paleontologist. He looks at the comparative anatomy and early growth and development of living and fossil fishes in order to better understand their evolutionary history.
In addition to studying the evolutionary relationships of ray finned fishes, he is also interested in the early development of the modern North American fish fauna. Every year he conducts fieldwork in the famous Green River Formation in Wyoming, which contains a rich fossil bonanza comprised of a beautifully preserved 52-million-year-old tropical lake community. This locality is the world’s most productive fossil fish locality plus it also contains thousands of associated fossil plants, insects and other organisms. It gives us a 52 million year old snapshot of the North American biota. His research helps explain how the geography and climates of North America have changed over the last 50 million years.
 Olivier Rieppel, PhD.
Geology Department Curator, Fossil Amphibians and Reptiles
During the Mesozoic Era, also called the “Age of Reptiles,” a number of reptile groups, who had previously evolved from marine animals, readapted to life in the seas. Over the past few years, Dr. Rieppel has headed an effort to rethink the evolution of the reptile group Sauropterygia, marine reptiles that were the ancestors of the more widely known plesiosaurs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous Eras. This work provided the basis for the ongoing collaborative research program with faculty and students of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, focusing on new collections of Triassic marine reptiles from southern China. More recently, Dr. Rieppel became involved with research on the origin of snakes. The origin of snakes is a longstanding problem in the evolution of reptiles that still awaits a satisfactory resolution. It is now embedded in a broad-scale investigation of the evolutionary history and relationships of squamate reptiles (snakes, worm lizards and other lizards) as part of the Tree of Life program sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
John R. Bolt, PhD.
Geology Department Curator, Fossil Amphibians and Reptiles
The origin and early evolution of tetrapods is one of Dr. Bolt’s main research interests. Tetrapods are vertebrates that have four legs with digits, or are descended from animals that did. Thus humans are tetrapods. The earliest known tetrapods are from the Late Devonian Period, about 380 million years ago. Devonian tetrapods are found in fewer than a dozen localities worldwide. Tetrapod localities from the Mississippian Period (359 to 318 million years ago) are also rare, with only about two dozen localities worldwide. Dr. Bolt is currently studying Mississippian tetrapods that he collected in southeastern Iowa. Preservation of many of these specimens is very good, and in some cases exceptional. These specimens show many unexpected features which would have been difficult to interpret from poorly preserved material. Taken together, the increasing numbers of specimens from the Devonian and Mississippian are finally beginning to give scientists a look at the first tetrapods.
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