Best Mammals

Hans Thewissen is a Dutch-American paleontologist whose extensive fieldwork in Pakistan and India fundamentally advanced the understanding of cetacean evolution. He is best known for his discovery and analysis of Ambulocetus natans, an extinct genus of walking whale with functioning limbs, which pro...

Philip Gingerich is an American paleontologist and professor at the University of Michigan known for his research on vertebrate evolution, particularly the transition of whales from land to sea mammals. His fieldwork in Pakistan and Egypt led to the discovery and description of several important ear...

Stephen L. Brusatte is an American paleontologist and professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the anatomy, genealogy, and macroevolution of Mesozoic vertebrates, particularly dinosaurs and the evolutionary transition from non-avian dinosaurs to...

Anna K. Behrensmeyer is an American paleontologist and curator at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. She pioneered research in taphonomy, the study of how organic remains become fossilized and enter the geological record. Her extensive fieldwork, particularly in Pakist...

Leigh Van Valen (1935–2010) was an American evolutionary biologist and paleontologist who spent much of his career at the University of Chicago. He is best known for proposing the Red Queen hypothesis in a 1973 paper, which posits that organisms must constantly adapt and evolve merely to survive aga...

Dorothea Bate was a Welsh paleontologist and a pioneering figure in the field of archaeozoology who joined London's Natural History Museum in 1898. She is distinguished by her extensive fieldwork studying extinct Pleistocene-era mammals isolated on Mediterranean islands, such as Crete and Majorca. H...

William A. Clemens Jr. was an American vertebrate paleontologist who spent much of his career at the University of California, Berkeley. He extensively researched Mesozoic mammals, documenting early mammalian evolution and faunal changes across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Clemens notab...

Anjali Goswami is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who currently serves as a research leader at the Natural History Museum in London. Her scientific research utilizes advanced imaging techniques, such as high-resolution computed tomography, to study the morphological evolution of vertebra...

Blaire Van Valkenburgh is an American paleontologist and paleobiologist who served as a professor at UCLA. Her research focuses on the functional morphology, ecology, and evolution of extinct and living carnivorous mammals, particularly examining how their skeletal structures relate to feeding behav...

Jin Meng is a Chinese-American paleontologist recognized for his extensive research on the evolution of early mammals, particularly those from the Mesozoic era. He has led and contributed to the description of numerous significant fossil discoveries originating from the Liaoning Province in China. H...

Guillermo Rougier is an Argentine-American vertebrate paleontologist specializing in the evolution of mammals during the Mesozoic Era. His research heavily focuses on the discovery and anatomical analysis of early mammal fossils, particularly their highly specialized dental and cranial features. Muc...

Peter Wilhelm Lund was a Danish paleontologist and naturalist who extensively excavated hundreds of limestone caves in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais during the 1830s. He is recognized for reporting extinct Ice Age mammals alongside early human remains, providing crucial early insights into Sou...

John J. Flynn is an American vertebrate paleontologist who serves as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His research focuses primarily on the evolution of mammals, particularly the fossil record of carnivores and the biogeography of extinct South American species. He is...

Maureen O'Leary is an American vertebrate paleontologist whose research focuses on the evolutionary history and phylogenetic relationships of early mammals. She is noted for her work on the origins of placental mammals and her detailed studies of Paleocene and Eocene fossil specimens, including the...

Walking with Beasts is a 2001 six-part nature documentary miniseries examining life during the Cenozoic era following the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. The series primarily focuses on the emergence and dominance of mammals in this period, produced collaboratively by several international broadc...

Lars Werdelin is a Swedish paleontologist affiliated with the Swedish Museum of Natural History. He is recognized for his extensive research on the evolutionary history of fossil carnivorans, with a particular focus on the origins and diversification of African cats and hyenas. His fieldwork and phy...

Felisa Smith is an American paleoecologist and academic whose research focuses on the ecological history of mammals. She specializes in analyzing body size trends and geographic ranges to better understand past extinction events and responses to climate change. Her extensive work frequently examines...

Édouard Lartet was a French paleontologist whose foundational work helped establish the scientific study of prehistoric humans. He discovered the first recognized ape fossil in Europe and demonstrated human coexistence with extinct animals through stratigraphy. From 1863 until his death, he collabor...

Ross D. E. MacPhee is a Canadian American mammalogist and vertebrate paleontologist associated with the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His research examines mammalian evolution, island biogeography, and the extinction of large animals during the late Quaternary. He has investigated...

Thomas Rich is an American-Australian paleontologist recognized for his extensive fieldwork uncovering Cretaceous period fossils in Victoria, Australia. Working alongside his wife Patricia Vickers-Rich, he led the excavations at sites such as Dinosaur Cove and Flat Rocks, which revealed the remains...

Timothy Rowe is an American vertebrate paleontologist recognized for his research on the evolutionary origins of mammals. He is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he helped found the High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility. Rowe has extensively applied CT scanning to...

José Bonaparte was a prominent Argentinian paleontologist specializing in the study of mammals and dinosaurs. His work significantly advanced understanding of South America’s prehistoric fauna. Notably, he led the excavation that unearthed *Carnotaurus*, one of the region's most recognizable dinosau...

Richard Tedford was an American vertebrate paleontologist who spent much of his career at the American Museum of Natural History. His extensive research on fossil carnivorans produced a systematic history of North American canids and mammals. He was a leading authority on the Cenozoic era, helping t...

Larisa DeSantis is an American paleontologist and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on paleoecology, specifically utilizing dental microwear texture analysis and stable isotope geochemistry to reconstruct the diets and habitats of ext...

Bolortsetseg Minjin is a Mongolian paleontologist known for her work on dinosaur fossils from the Gobi Desert. She founded the Institute for the Study of Mongolian Dinosaurs and has been active in efforts to repatriate Mongolian dinosaur specimens that had been removed from the country. Minjin has a...

Mary R. Dawson was an American vertebrate paleontologist renowned for her extensive research on fossil mammals. Working with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, she led significant expeditions in the Canadian Arctic. Her discoveries on Ellesmere Island provided crucial evidence that warm-climate...

Walter W. Granger was an American vertebrate paleontologist who spent his career at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1897, he discovered Wyoming's Bone Cabin Quarry, a highly productive Jurassic fossil site that yielded numerous dinosaur specimens. Later, he served as the chief paleontolog...

Adrian Lister is a prominent British paleontologist and research leader at the Natural History Museum, London, affiliated with University College London. His research focuses primarily on the evolution, ecology, and extinction of Ice Age mammals, with a specific expertise in mammoths and other probo...

Deng Tao is a Chinese vertebrate paleontologist specializing in Cenozoic mammals, particularly Neogene mammalian fossils. His research heavily focuses on the evolution and fossils of rhinoceroses and their relatives. A significant portion of his work involves studying mammalian fossils discovered in...