Best Taphonomy
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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...
Mary Higby Schweitzer is an American paleontologist and a professor at North Carolina State University, recognized for her work in the field of molecular paleontology. She is best known for her 2005 reports detailing the discovery of pliable soft tissues and proteins, including blood vessel-like str...
Susan Kidwell is an American paleontologist and taphonomist recognized for her foundational work in understanding how biological remains become fossilized. As a professor at the University of Chicago, her research analyzes marine death assemblages—the accumulated shells and bones on the ocean floor—...
Michal Kowalewski is a Polish-American paleontologist and academic who serves as a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History. His scientific research is distinguished by its reliance on quantitative methods, computational modeling, and statistical analysis to understand the fossil record. He...
Roger M. H. Smith is a South African paleontologist known for Karoo Basin research on therapsid taphonomy and the end-Permian mass extinction.
Ivan Yefremov was a Soviet paleontologist and science-fiction writer who introduced the term taphonomy in 1940 for the study of fossilization.
Derek Briggs is a prominent paleontologist specializing in the study of invertebrates from the Burgess Shale formation in Britain. His work focuses on taphonomy – the processes affecting fossilization – and provides crucial insights into early animal evolution. Briggs’ research significantly advance...
Stephanie Drumheller is an American paleontologist who studies fossil bite marks, crocodilian feeding behavior, taphonomy, and evidence of ancient scavenging.
A. Kay Behrensmeyer is an American paleontologist and taphonomist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She is recognized for her pioneering research in vertebrate taphonomy, particularly her long-term bone weathering and ecological studies in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, initiate...
Maria McNamara is a paleontologist and professor at University College Cork in Ireland whose research focuses on fossil preservation, particularly the preservation of soft tissues and original color pigments. Her work uses experimental taphonomy and analytical techniques to reconstruct the coloratio...
Patrick J. Orr is an Irish paleontologist at University College Dublin, known for taphonomy work including a 1998 Science study of Burgess Shale preservation.
