Palaeontology staff directory

Research interests

 My mainstream research interests are in two areas of fossil vertebrates - early tetrapods and dinosaurs, but I have also worked on marine reptiles, pterosaurs and Tertiary herpetofaunas.

Palaeozoic Tetrapods
Interests are currently centred on three Carboniferous groups: aïstopods, nectrideans and baphetids. Material discovered in the 1980's has provided new information and filled significant gaps in our scant knowledge of the early evolution and diversity of land-dwelling vertebrates, including the oldest limbless terrestrial forms, the aïstopods. The first postcranial remains of baphetids (primitive stem tetrapods of uncertain phylogenetic position) permit a cladistic analysis of their relationships.

Cretaceous Dinosaurs, Faunas and Palaeobiogeography
A study of the unique early Cretaceous theropod dinosaur Baryonyx walkeri, from the Barremian of Surrey, England has proved to be a key to the interpretation of new spinosaurid material from the late Cretaceous of Morocco and the recognition of a clade of derived fish-eating theropods. Further work in progress on Cretaceous vertebrates includes material from Niger, and a small ornithopod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of the Antarctic Peninsula which address questions of wider Gondwanan endemism and continental connections in the late Cretaceous. I am currently using CT and 3-D image reconstruction to study the braincase and inner ear of the earliest bird, Archaeopteryx.

Current activities

Collaboration with scientists outside the Museum include Professor M. John Cookson (University of Hertfordshire), Dr Andrew R. Milner (Birkbeck College, London), Dr Patricio Dominguez (Complutense University, Madrid), Professor Timothy Rowe (University of Texas at Austin).

Publications

1. Charig, A. J. and Milner, A. C. 1997. Baryonyx walkeri, a fish-eating dinosaur from the Wealden of Surrey. Bulletin of the Natural History Museum, Geology, 53, 11-70.
   
2. Carroll, R. L., Bossy, K .A., Milner, A. C., Andrews, S. M. and Wellstead, C. F. 1998. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie. Teil 1. Lepospondyli (Microsauria, Nectridea, Lysorophia, Aïstopoda, Acherontiscidae). Verlag Dr F. Pfeil, Munich. 216pp.
   
3. Norman, D. B., Milner, A. R and Milner, A. C. (Eds) 1998. A study of fossil vertebrates. Essays in honour of Alec Panchen.  Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 122, 1-384.
   
4. Milner, A. C. and Lindsay, W. 1998. Postcranial remains of Baphetes and their bearing on the relationships of the Baphetidae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 122, 211-235.
   
5. Milner, A .C. 1998. Timing and causes of vertebrate extinctions across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. 223-233. In: McCall, G. J., Grady, M., Hutchison, R. and Rotherby, D. (Eds) Meteorites: flux with time and impact effects. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 140.
   
6. Milner, A. C., Milner, A. R. and Evans, S. E. 2000. Amphibians, reptiles and birds: a biogeographical review. 316-332. In: Culver, S. J. and Rawson, P. (Eds) Biotic Response to Global Change: the last 145 Million Years, Cambridge University Press, 501p
   
7. Milner, A. C. 2002.  Dino-birds. The Natural History Museum, London, 64 pp.
   
8. Milner, A. C. 2002. Theropod dinosaurs of the Purbeck Limestone Group. 191-201. In: Milner, A. R. and Batten, D. J. (eds) Life and environments in Purbeck times. Special Papers in Palaeontology, 68, 268 pp.
   
9. Embery, G., Milner, A. C., Hall, R. C., Waddington, R. J., Langley, M. and Milan, A. 2003. The identification of proteinaceous material in the bone of the dinosaur Iguanodon.  Connective Tissue Research, 44 (Suppl. 1), 41-46.
   
10. Milner, A. C. 2003. Fish-eating theropods: a short review of the systematics, biology and palaeobiogeography of spinosaurs. Journadas Internacionales sobre paleontologiá de Dinosaurios y su Entoro, 2, 129-138.