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Denver Fowler
Museum of the Rockies
600 W Kagy Blvd
Bozeman MT, 59717
Phone: (406) 994-3170
Fax: (406) 994-2682
df9465@yahoo.co.uk
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Dec 14th 2011: Our new paper on predatory behaviour and flapping in little carnivorous dinosaurs is out! Click [here] for details!
FOWLER, D.W. , FREEDMAN, E.A., SCANNELLA, J.B., & KAMBIC, R.E. (2011) The predatory ecology of Deinonychus and the origin of flapping in birds. PLoS One 6(12)
Introduction:
Welcome to Denverfowler.com. I'm a British Palaeontologist (and adventurer!) working towards my PhD under Prof. Jack Horner at the Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, Montana USA. I specialise in field palaeontology (especially dinosaurs, see my field photos), and research on dinosaur paleobiology. Another of my interests is public access and awareness of scientific knowledge, encouraging wide-appeal museum displays or media projects, and making time for non-professionals with interests in the sciences. I try to write my articles with minimal amounts of jargon.
*This site is an ongoing project, so please forgive any empty links. Scroll to the bottom of this page for a history of new pages added. Sometimes photos don't load first time, reloading the page usually works.*
Academics:
[Click the image to go to the Horner Paleo Lab facebook page]
Professional Affiliations:
Research interests:
A list of my publications & presentations, with abstracts, pdf downloads, and enlarged figures, can be found here.
FOCUS
My research focuses in two areas: palaeontology and stratigraphy. I would like to think that most of my research takes a novel perspective, or approach in solving problems. Part of this is taking a "total approach" to the study of dinosaurs, taking into account all metadata, including the often ignored effects of stratigraphy and ontogeny. Much of the morphologic variation that we see in dinosaurs can be better understood by careful study of high-resolution stratigraphy and change through ontogeny (growth), rather than assuming taxonomic diversity.
PALEONTOLOGY
Ultimately, my main research focus is dinosaur palaeobiology: gleaning information from the fossil record that can reveal how dinosaurs lived. Some of my most recent research has investigated claw use in living birds of prey. This research led to our proposal of a new predatory behaviour model for dromaeosaurid dinosaurs, including a new hypothesis for the origin of flight. I have also recently completed a project that investigated nest excavation behaviour in sauropod dinosaurs by comparison to claw morphology and nest excavating behaviour in modern tortoises. Another article, just published, describes new material of the sauropod Alamosaurus, revealing it to be the biggest dinosaur from North America, and as large as some of the giants found in Argentina!
STRATIGRAPHY
My stratigraphic research aims to utilise chronostratigraphic frameworks in order to study dinosaur paleobiology. To this end, since 2005 I have been working on a comprehensive stratigraphic chart of all fossiliferous North American Late Cretaceous (Santonian-Maastrichtian) terrestrial units (an expansion of my New Mexico work with Dr. Robert Sullivan). The chart encompasses all published radiometric dates, up-to-date high-resolution magnetostratigraphy, and biostratigraphic ranges of ammonites, mammals, and dinosaurs (I intend to add all taxa eventually). I presented a preliminary version of this chart at SVP2006 (see publications). This project will eventually be published, and become a chapter of my PhD thesis.
Another large component of my PhD concerns the stratigraphy of the Hell Creek Formation, Montana, and equivalent units, using sequence and biostratigraphy to interpret their relative ages (see NAPC 2009 abstract). With a high resolution chronostratigraphic framework in place we are better able to place fossil specimens stratigraphically, which has already helped explain some of the morphologic patterns we see in Hell Creek dinosaurs. Specifically, I have been working with on the stratigraphic distribution of Triceratops with John Scannella (and others), and we have a couple manuscripts submitted covering this research.
Research partners include: University of California Museum of Paleontology (Berkeley CA, USA); State Museum of Pennslyvania (Harrisburg PA, USA); New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (Albuquerque NM, USA); New Mexico Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources (Socorro NM, USA); Appalachian State University (Boone NC, USA); Black Hills Institute of Geological Research (Hill City SD, USA); United States Geologial Survey (Denver CO, USA); University of Oregon (Eugene OR, USA); Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Drumheller AB, Canada); Universität Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany); Universität Bonn (Bonn, Germany); Humboldt-Universität (Berlin, Germany); Johannes Gutenberg-Universität (Mainz, Germany); Jilin University (Changchun, China).
Reviews conducted for: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology; Palaios; Journal of Ornithology; Ibis; Ornithological Science; Bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
Fieldwork:
For me, fieldwork is the most important and enjoyable part of being a palaeontologist (see here for photos and locality details). An appreciation of true diversity and completeness of the fossil record cannot be attained without spending a lot of time on outcrop. I have over 20 years experience in field palaeontology, and specialise in prospecting and field identification of terrestrial vertebrates, especially dinosaurs, which I have been digging up since about 1993. A lot of my research has its origins in field observations.
Media:
I co-manage the Horner Paleo Lab facebook page, and also help prepare materials for our various press releases. I dabble in scientific illustration, with a couple of drawings published (you can see some of my drawings here). I've worked freelance as a scientific editor on a new series of children's books on dinosaurs. I have also been significantly involved in a couple of TV projects on dinosaurs, and have given scientific consultation on other upcoming programmes:
Museum work:
EXHIBITS
From 2008-2009 I helped renovate and redesign the geology & fossil exhibits at Makoshika State Park visitor center (Glendive, eastern Montana; Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks), for which I recieved this awesome thank you letter from Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. The new exhibit opened summer 2009 and includes lots of new fossils from the park (mainly Hell Creek Formation, hence my involvement).
COLLECTIONS
During my time at the Museum of the Rockies (2007-) I have performed various duties in collections, including curation, proper storage & preservation, and the design and implementation of a new SQL database. I also have main responsibility for collection and arrangement of field data for the Hell Creek Formation crew.
PREPARATION
I trained as a preparator at the Dept. Earth Sciences, University of Bristol (2000-2001). Aside from my work at Bristol, I have prepared specimens for Dinosaur Farm Museum, Isle of Wight (1996-2006), Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman MT; Sandown Museum (now Dinosaur Isle), Isle of Wight; the Sino-German expedition to China; and the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg PA.
See 'Fossil Preparation' for more details.
Pages added & updated recently:
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