Prof Paul Barrett

Prof Paul Barrett

Merit Researcher

ORCID: 0000-0003-0412-3000
Department: Earth Sciences
Division: ES Vertebrates and Anthropology Palaeobiology
Specialisms: Dinosaurs, macroevolution, systematics, taxonomy
Email: p.barrett@nhm.ac.uk

Summary

My major research interests are centred on the evolutionary palaeobiology of dinosaurs and other extinct amniotes. In addition, I am involved in projects to investigate macroevolutionary mechanisms, the evolution of Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems and potential biases in the fossil record. Research is concentrated in three main areas:

1. Pattern and process in macroevolution. Controls on dinosaur diversity through time; testing of plant–dinosaur co-evolutionary scenarios; clade-clade interactions; correlated progression; influence of the rock record, collection bias and climate on fossil reptile diversity.

2. Functional morphology, palaeobiology and palaeoecology of herbivorous amniotes, principally sauropodomorph and ornithischian dinosaurs.

3. Taxonomic, systematic and faunal revisions of dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles (including lizards, plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs).

Qualifications

Degrees

  • PhD, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1993 - 1998
  • BA, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1990 - 1993

Employment history

Academic

  • Merit Researcher, Natural History Museum, Earth Sciences, United Kingdom, 2012 - ongoing
  • Researcher, Natural History Museum, Palaeontology, United Kingdom, 2003 - 2012
  • Departmental Lecturer in Animal Diversity, University of Oxford, Department of Zoology, United Kingdom, 1999 - 2003
  • Junior Research Fellow, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK, 1996 - 1999

Highlighted publications

  • Barrett PM, Sciscio L, Viglietti PA, Broderick TJ, Suarez CA, Sharman GR, Jones AS, Munyikwa D, Edwards SF, Chapelle KEJ, Dollman KN, Zondo M, Choiniere JN (2020) The age of the Tashinga Formation (Karoo Supergroup) in the Mid-Zambezi Basin, Zimbabwe and the first phytosaur from mainland sub-Saharan Africa. Gondwana Research, Elsevier BV : 445 - 460. doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2019.12.008
  • Maidment SCR, Raven TJ, Ouarhache D, Barrett PM (2020) North Africa's first stegosaur: Implications for Gondwanan thyreophoran dinosaur diversity. Gondwana Research, Elsevier BV : 82 - 97. doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2019.07.007
  • Baron MG, Norman DB, Barrett PM (2017) A new hypothesis of dinosaur relationships and early dinosaur evolution. Nature, (7646) Springer Science and Business Media LLC : 501 - 506. doi: 10.1038/nature21700
  • Nesbitt SJ, Butler RJ, Ezcurra MD, Barrett PM, Stocker MR, Angielczyk KD, Smith RMH, Sidor CA, Niedźwiedzki G, Sennikov AG, Charig AJ (2017) The earliest bird-line archosaurs and the assembly of the dinosaur body plan. Nature, (7651) Springer Science and Business Media LLC : 484 - 487. doi: 10.1038/nature22037
  • Waterson AM, Schmidt DN, Valdes PJ, Holroyd PA, Nicholson DB, Farnsworth A, Barrett PM (2016) Modelling the climatic niche of turtles: a deep-time perspective. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, (1839) The Royal Society : 20161408 - 20161408. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2016.1408
  • Barrett PM, Evans DC, Campione NE (2015) Evolution of dinosaur epidermal structures. Biology Letters, (6) The Royal Society : 20150229 - 20150229. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0229
  • Barrett PM, Butler RJ, Mundil R, Scheyer TM, Irmis RB, Sánchez-Villagra MR (2014) A palaeoequatorial ornithischian and new constraints on early dinosaur diversification. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, (1791) The Royal Society : 20141147 - 20141147. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1147
  • Nesbitt SJ, Barrett PM, Werning S, Sidor CA, Charig AJ (2013) The oldest dinosaur? A Middle Triassic dinosauriform from Tanzania. Biology Letters, (1) The Royal Society : 20120949 - 20120949. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0949
  • Maidment SCR, Barrett PM (2012) Does morphological convergence imply functional similarity? A test using the evolution of quadrupedalism in ornithischian dinosaurs. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, (1743) The Royal Society : 3765 - 3771. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1040
  • BUTLER RJ, BARRETT PM, PENN MG, KENRICK P Testing coevolutionary hypotheses over geological timescales: interactions between Cretaceous dinosaurs and plants. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, (1) Oxford University Press (OUP) : 1 - 15. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01401.x
  • Lautenschlager S, Brassey CA, Button DJ, Barrett PM Decoupled form and function in disparate herbivorous dinosaur clades. Scientific Reports, (1) Springer Science and Business Media LLCdoi: 10.1038/srep26495
  • Maidment SCR, Brassey C, Barrett PM The Postcranial Skeleton of an Exceptionally Complete Individual of the Plated Dinosaur Stegosaurus stenops (Dinosauria: Thyreophora) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A.. Farke AA (Eds).PLOS ONE, (10) Public Library of Science (PLoS) : e0138352 - e0138352. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138352
  • Maidment SCR, Strachan SJ, Ouarhache D, Scheyer TM, Brown EE, Fernandez V, Johanson Z, Raven TJ, Barrett PM Bizarre dermal armour suggests the first African ankylosaur. Nature Ecology & Evolution, (12) Springer Science and Business Media LLC : 1576 - 1581. doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01553-6
  • Nicholson DB, Holroyd PA, Benson RBJ, Barrett PM Climate-mediated diversification of turtles in the Cretaceous. Nature Communications, (1) Springer Science and Business Media LLCdoi: 10.1038/ncomms8848
  • O’Connor RE, Romanov MN, Kiazim LG, Barrett PM, Farré M, Damas J, Ferguson-Smith M, Valenzuela N, Larkin DM, Griffin DK Reconstruction of the diapsid ancestral genome permits chromosome evolution tracing in avian and non-avian dinosaurs. Nature Communications, (1) Springer Science and Business Media LLCdoi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04267-9
  • Xu X, Upchurch P, Mannion PD, Barrett PM, Regalado-Fernandez OR, Mo J, Ma J, Liu H A new Middle Jurassic diplodocoid suggests an earlier dispersal and diversification of sauropod dinosaurs. Nature Communications, (1) Springer Science and Business Media LLCdoi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05128-1

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