Skip to page content

Primary navigation

Dinosaur macroevolution, macroecology and fossil record

A number of Palaeontology Department projects are focusing on the interaction of dinosaurs and plants through time.

Non-avian dinosaurs existed for over 140 million years. During this time they evolved against a backdrop of continual geographical and environmental change.

Documenting interactions between dinosaurs and their environments allows investigation of some major evolutionary and ecological processes over extended timescales unavailable to modern biologists. 

Current projects:

  1. Early evolution of dinosaur herbivory
    Herbivory - the consumption of herbaceous vegetation - is an important adaptation. It frequently fosters the ecological and taxonomic diversification of animal groups that acquire this ability.

    This project aims to investigate the effects of herbivory on the early diversification and ecology of dinosaurs, allowing comparisons between the success of dinosaurs and other herbivorous vertebrates such as mammals.

  2. Plant-dinosaur interactions
    Plant communities underwent a number of major changes during the Mesozoic, most notably the origin and radiation of angiosperms (flowering plants) in the Cretaceous. It has been posited that many of these floral changes were linked to events in the evolution of herbivorous dinosaurs. 

    Our team aims to test these hypotheses by assessing dinosaur and plant distribution through time using Geographical Information System (GIS)-based approaches.

Palaeontology Department staff involved in these projects:

Print version