Robert Rafael Reisz is a Canadian paleontologist and specialist in the study of early amniote

Amniote

The amniotes are a group of tetrapods that have a terrestrially adapted egg. They include synapsids and sauropsids , as well as their fossil ancestors. Amniote embryos, whether laid as eggs or carried by the female, are protected and aided by several extensive membranes...

 and tetrapod

Tetrapod

Tetrapods are vertebrate animals having four limbs. Amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are all tetrapods; even snakes and other limbless reptiles and amphibians are tetrapods by descent. The earliest tetrapods evolved from the lobe-finned fishes in the Devonian...

 evolution.

Robert Reisz was born August 27, 1947, in Oradea

Oradea

Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...

, Romania. He received his B.Sc. (1969), M.Sc. (1971) and Ph.D. (1975) from McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 as Robert L. Carroll

Robert L. Carroll

Robert Lynn Carroll is a vertebrate paleontologist who specialises in Paleozoic and Mesozoic amphibians and reptiles.Carroll was an only child and grew up on a farm near Lansing, Michigan...

’s first doctoral graduate. After teaching as visiting lecturer at University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, Los Angeles for a year, he accepted an appointment in the Biology Department at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Campus in 1975 where he still maintains his research lab. His research has been funded continuously by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada is a Canadian government agency that provides grants for research in the natural sciences and in engineering. Its mandate is to promote and assist research....

 of Canada (NSERC). He conducted field work in North America, Africa, and Europe, where he excavated fossils from the late Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon, spanning from roughly...

 and early Mesozoic

Mesozoic

The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

 eras. These excavations were frequently funded by the National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...

.

Dr. Reisz has broad interests in vertebrate paleontology. He has published more than 100 scientific articles on subjects as diverse as lungfish

Lungfish

Lungfish are freshwater fish belonging to the Subclass Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining characteristics primitive within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and structures primitive within Sarcopterygii, including the presence of lobed fins with a well-developed...

 and dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s, but is best known for his work on early amniotes. His research includes a number of groundbreaking discoveries, including the oldest known dinosaur embryos

Massospondylus

Massospondylus and ) is a genus of prosauropod dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period . It was described by Sir Richard Owen in 1854 from remains found in South Africa, and is thus one of the first dinosaurs to have been named...

, the oldest known bipedal reptile, and the oldest known diapsid reptile

Petrolacosaurus

Petrolacosaurus was a small, long, reptile, and the earliest diapsid known. It lived during the late Carboniferous period, the Joggins strata where it was found are dated to 302 million years old....

.

His achievements have been recognized by the scientific community and various professional societies and institutions. Dr. Reisz is Research Associate at the Royal Ontario Museum

Royal Ontario Museum

The Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...

, Toronto (since 1975), the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh are four museums that are operated by the Carnegie Institute headquartered in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

, Pittsburgh (since 1980), and the Field Museum of Natural History

Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...

, Chicago (since 1998). He was Senior Visiting Scientist at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, Moscow (1989–2003) and Invited Professor at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (2000–2003). Among others he received the Bass Fellowship of the Field Museum of Natural History (1998–2000), the Visiting Wilson Fellowship of the University of London, King’s College (2000–2001), and a Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2006–2008). In 2007, Dr. Reisz was honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was recognized as Fellow. He was Senior Editor (2006-2010) of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology was founded in 1980 at the University of Oklahoma by Dr. Jiri Zidek. It is a scientific journal that publishes original contributions on all aspects of the vertebrate paleontology, including vertebrate origins, evolution, functional morphology, taxonomy,...

, published by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology was founded in 1940 for individuals with an interest in vertebrate paleontology. SVP now has almost 2,000 members. The society's website states that SVP "is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes...

.

Selected publications

• Reisz, R. R., Scott, D., Sues, H.-D., Evans, D. C. and Raath, M. A. (2005) Embryos of an Early Jurassic prosauropod dinosaur and their evolutionary significance. Science 309: 761-764.
• Reisz, R. R. and Smith, M.M. (2001) Lungfish dental pattern conserved for 360 million years. Nature 411: 548-550.
• Rybczynski, N and Reisz, R.R. (2001) Earliest evidence for efficient oral processing in a terrestrial herbivore. Nature 411: 684-687.
• Reisz, R.R., and Sues, H-D. (2000) The 'feathers' of Longisquama. Nature 408: 428.
• Berman, D. S, Reisz, R.R., Henrici, A.C., Sumida, S.S. and Martens, T. (2000) Early Permian Bipedal Reptile. Science 290: 969-972.
• Reisz, R.R. and H.D. Sues. (2000). Herbivory in Late Paleozoic and Triassic Terrestrial Vertebrates. pp 9–41. in: Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates, Cambridge Univ. Press., H.D. Sues, ed.
• Sues, H.D. and R.R. Reisz. (1998). Origins and early evolution of herbivory in tetrapods. TREE vol. 13.4, pp. 141–145.
• Reisz, R.R. (1997). The origin and early evolutionary history of amniotes. TREE. vol. 2 (6): 218-222.
• Laurin, M. and R. R. Reisz. (1997). A new perspective on tetrapod phylogeny. pp. 8–58. in: "The Origin of Amniotes: Completing the Transition to Land", Sumida, S. S.and K. L. M. Martin
• Laurin, M. and Reisz, R.R. (1995) A reevaluation of early amniote phylogeny. Zool. Jour. Linn. Soc. 113: 165-223.
• Reisz, R.R. and Laurin, M. (1991). Owenetta and the origin of turtles. Nature 349(6307): 324-326.
• Laurin, M. and R.R. Reisz. (1990). Tetraceratops is the oldest known therapsid. Nature: 345(6272): 249-250.
• Reisz, R.R. (1986). Pelycosauria. Handbuch der Palaeoherpetologie. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart (Dr. P. Wellenhofer ed.) 102 pp., 43 figs.
• Reisz, R.R. (1977). Petrolacosaurus, the oldest known diapsid reptile. Science 196: 1091-1093.

External links

• http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/%7Ew3reisz/ Robert Reisz's web site at the University of Toronto, Mississauga
• http://www.vertpaleo.org/ Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: