Research Interests

My primary interests are in the origination and evolution of major vertebrate groups that invaded distinctly different niches or environments (e.g., evolving flight or becoming secondarily aquatic), and in how evolutionary and physical constraints affect their evolution. I work primarily on the Pterosauria, the flying reptiles of the Mesozoic Era, because they are an ideal group for this sort of study. Pterosaurs colonized an empty flying-vertebrate niche in the Triassic, radiated throughout the Mesozoic, and underwent two major reorganizations of Bauplan, which produced in turn two dominant clades: the Pterodactyloidea and Dsungaripteroidea.

My research has been aimed at understanding pterosaurs first, their phylogeny second, and lastly those bursts of evolution that saw them evolve flight and reinvent themselves twice. Recent work looked at the evolution of the pectoral girdle and its musculature across the pterodactyloid-dsungaripteroid transition. Current research funded by the DAAD is aimed at clarifying the taxonomy and relationships of basal pterodactyloids in order to better understand the origination of the pterodactyloids.

I also have minor interests in:

• Trackways—I have published a number of papers on trackways.
• Fluid dynamic and thermodynamic interactions between animals and their environment—My 1996 paper on the dorsal sails of pelycosaurs examined their aerodynamics and thermodynamics.
• Extracting temporal information about animals from the fossil record—My 1995 and 1996 papers on year-classes of Solnhofen pterosaurs looked at temporal information in the fossil record, and I have ideas for a number of other such papers.