News about my research activities

Here I would like to provide some information about my research activities from 2017 (when I released the first version of this website) until today. Please visit Research for an overview of my current and past research projects, Publications to see my publication record and New taxa to see those that I established as lead or co-author. For more updates about my reserach activities you can also follow me on my Social Media accounts that are listed below. Selected media coverage of some of my studies is available in the Media section.

2025

Invited speaker at Charles University in Prague [more on Instagram]
We describe a new specimen of the plesiosaur Plesiopterys wildi in PeerJ and discuss possible endemism in plesiosaurs [more on Bluesky].
Our revision of the microcleidid plesiosaur Seeleyosaurus guilelmiimperatoris is published in The Anatomical Record [more on Facebook and Bluesky].
An important study co-authored by me on the first evidence for pigment cells (melanophores) in a plesiosaur is published in Current Biology. We also provide the first detailed analysis of plesiosaur scales [more on Bluesky]
Studying a new Pliensbachian plesiosaur from Blockley collected by Sönke Simonsen

Research visits and specimens studied as part of the Grant 2023/51/B/NZ8/00899

Urweltmuseum Hauff in Holzmaden (Germany): Microcleidid from Holzmaden, Hauffiosaurus zanoni
Palaeontological collection, University of Tübingen (Germany): Microcleidus brachypterygius, ‘Plesiosaurus’ posidoniae
Whitby Museum in Whitby (UK): Microcleidus homalospondylus [more on Instagram]
Museu Geológico in Lisbon (Portugal): Lusonectes sauvagei [more information]
Yorkshire Museum in York (UK): Microcleidus homalospondylus
Manchester Museum in Manchester (UK): Microcleidus homalospondylus [more on Instagram]

2024

Visit of the Science Museum in Hong Kong to see their dinosaur material [more on Instagram].
Our paper on the Cretaceous metriorhynchid Enalioetes schroederi n. gen. et sp. was published in Journal of Systematic Palaeontology and received some media attention.
Approval of a National Science Centre Grant – Global drivers of plesiosaur evolution during intervals of intense change in Mesozoic marine ecosystems (2023/51/B/NZ8/00899).
A paper I co-authored on an articulated elasmosaurid skeleton from Syria has been published in Cretaceous Research.
Visit to the National Museum in Prague to study plesiosaur material from the Czech Republic with Daniel Madzia.
Our study on the transitional plesiosaur Franconiasaurus brevispinus n. gen. et sp. has been published in the journal Frontiers in Earth Sciences.
Publication of a major paper on the history, systematics and nomenclature of Thalattosuchia, co-authored by myself, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Research visits and specimens studied as part of the Grant 2023/51/B/NZ8/00899

Sedgwick Museum in Cambrige (UK): ‘Microcleidus‘ macropterus [more on Bluesky and Instagram]
Natural History Museum London (UK): Microcleidus homalospondylus and Eretmosaurus rugosus
LWL Museum für Naturkunde Münster (Germany): Westphaliasaurus simonsensii [more on Instagram]
Muséum des sciences naturelles de Belgique in Brussels (Belgium): Plesiosaur from the lowermost Jurassic of Belgium previously described as Plesiosaurus latispinus
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart (Germany): Holzmaden plesiosauroids
Musée national d’histoire naturelle (Luxembourg): Microcleidus melusinae

2023

Visit to the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Karlsruhe to study the Manemergus anguirostris holotype.
Visit to the Institut für Geowissenschaften in Tübingen to study pliosaurid material from Germany.
Our paper on the early thalassophonean pliosaurid Lorrainosaurus nov. gen. was published in Scientific Reports and received some media attention.
Research visit to the Senckenberg Naturmuseum (Frankfurt am Main) to study pliosaurid and thalattosuchian specimens.
Visit to the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin to study Holzmaden plesiosaur specimens together with Miguel Marx.
A paper I co-authored on the first record of sauropod dinosaurs in an upland environment was published in Geologie und Paläontologie in Westfalen. Our study describing sauropod material from Balve, Germany, includes a vertebra that we tentatively assigned to Ornithopsis.
Study of plesiosaur specimens (elasmosaurids and pliosaurids) in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. [more on Instagram].
Paper on the ‘forgotten’ large-bodied rhomaleosaurid Trematospondylus macrocephalus published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Study of plesiosaur material from Mistelgau (Germany) at the Urweltmuseum Oberfranken in Bayreuth [more on Instagram].
Election as a member of the Akademie für ökologische Landeskunde (Academy for Ecological Geography).

2022

I attended the SVP conference in Toronto and presented a poster on ornithopod dinosaur finds from Balve (Germany).
Studying plesiosaurs from Manitoba (Canada) at the Manitoba Museum together with Daniel Madzia.
Visiting the collections in Bayreuth, Bamberg, and Banz (Germany) to study ichthyosaurs together with Dean Lomax.
A paper I co-authored on a composite ichthyosaur containing material from different geological stages has been published in Paludicola.
Our paper on the historical pliosaurid taxon Ischyrodon meriani was published in PeerJ. I studied the holotype specimen in Basel (Switzerland) in 2021.
Attending the EAVP meeting in Benevento (Italy)

2021

A study I co-authored on a Cretaceous pliosaurid tooth from Venezuela has been published in Scientific Reports.
Our paper on metriorhynchid teeth from the Lower Cretaceous of the Czech Republic, which I studied in Vienna in 2020, has been published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
A paper I co-authored on the taxonomy of Metriorhynchus was published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, We established a new genus, Thalattosuchus nov. gen., for the species supercilious which can no longer be referred to Metriorhynchus.
Our paper about Cricosaurus albersdoerferi nov. sp. was published in Palaeontologia Electronica.
A study on a mandible of an anhanguerian pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of northern Germany that I co-authored was published in Acta Palaeotologica Polonica [click here for more information].
Visit to the Naturhistorisches Museum Basel to see the holotype of the pliosaurid Ischyrodon meriani and the Naturmuseum Winterthur to see Holzmaden tetrapod specimens [more on Instagram].
Study of a pathological Pelagosaurus specimen with broken mandible at the Werksforum Dotternhausen.
Visiting the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart to study the Cricosaurus suevicus and Holzmaden plesiosaur specimens together with Pascal Abel.
Our paper on the cranial osteology of the elasmosaurid Thalassomedon haningtoni was published in Cretaceous Research.

2020

A paper on the inner ear sensory system of thalattosuchians that I contributed to was published in PNAS and received some media attention.
A paper I co-authored on unusual large-size metriorhynchid speicmens from the Kimmeridgian of Southern Germany which we called the ‘E-clade’ was published in Alcheringa [click here for more information].
Visit to the Naturhistorische Museum Wien (Vienna, Austria) and the Johanneum Graz (Austria) to study marine reptile specimens.
Our reassessment of the enigmatic metriorhynchid Enaliosuchus macrospondylus was published in Cretaceous Research.
Our paper on unusual plesiosaur vertebrae from the Turonian of Unna (Germany) has been published in Cretaceous Research.
Visit to the Geological Institute of the University Kiel (Germany) to study historical elasmosaurid material from Chile.
A paper I co-authored on the first record of the Lower Jurassic sturgeon Gyrosteus mirabilis from the Baltic region was released in PeerJ.
Visit to the Sauriermuseum Aathal (Switzerland) to study plesiosaur specimens from Morocco.

2019

A study I co-authored on a Cenomanian choristoderan vertebra from the Kassenberg in Mülheim an der Ruhr has been published in Cretaceous Research.
Visit to the Naturkunde-Museum Siegsdorf (Germany) to study hadrosaur and mosasaur specimens from Bavaria.
Attended the EAVP conference in Brussels, presenting a poster on a Cretaceous pterosaur specimen from northern Germany.
Visit of Canadian museums including the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, and the Redpath Museum in Montreal to study plesiosaur specimens.
Visit to the Museum Bünde and the LWL-Museum für Naturkunde in Münster to study Callovian thalattosuchian and pliosaur specimens from Wallücke (Germany).
Our paper on Mystriosaurus, a Toarcian teleosauroid previously referred to Steneosaurus bollensis, was published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica and received some media attention [click here for more information].
Our study of a new species of Cricosaurus, C. bambergensis nov. sp. from Wattendorf, was published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica and received some media attention by the media [click here for more information].
A paper I co-authored on the cranium of the brachauchenine pliosaurid Megacephalosaurus has been published in Geological Magazine.
Visit to the University of Zurich (Switzerland) to give a talk and to study marine reptile specimens in their collections.

2018

My first paper in Nature, led by Johan Lindgren, was published. In our study we showed that ichthyosaurs had blubber and were probably warm-blooded and similar to modern whales [click here for more information].
Visit to the Hessisches Landesmuseum to study the Mystriosaurus laurillardi holotype specimen.
Bringing the Enaliosuchus schroederi skull to the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Berlin for CT scanning.
Visit to the Natural History Museum Luxembourg to study Simolestes keileni [more on Instagram]
Visit to the Geomatikum Hamburg to study Toarcian microcleidid material from northern Germany.
Two popular papers on thalattosuchian have been published, an English one in Fossil Focus and a German one in Fossilien.
Visit to the (Argentina) to study the dinosaurs Aerosteon riocoloradenis and the metriorhynchid Purranisaurus potens (more on Facebook)
Visit to the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago de Chile to study Aristonectes quiriquinensis and other plesiosaurs in their collections

2017

Our paper on the basal elasmosaur Lagenanectes richterae gen. et sp. nov. from the Lower Cretaceous of Germany has been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology [click here for more information].
Visit to the Mindener Museum in Minden (Germany) to study the type material of the metriorhynchid Enaliosuchus schroederi.
A reassessment of the elasmosaurid Libonectes by me and Benjamin Kear was published in Cretaceous research [click here for more information].
Visit to the Urweltmuseum Bayreuth together with Joschua Knüppe to see their plesiosaur material.
Attending the EAVP conference in Munich, presenting a poster on the Dorking pliosaur and Anröchte plesiosaur specimens.
Study of Cricosaurus specimens in Solnhofen and Bamberg, together with Pascal Abel and Joschua Knüppe.
A paper by me and Joachim Ladwig on elasmosaurid material from Kronsmoor in northern Germany was published in Berichte des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins Bielefeld [click here for more information].
The new Pliensbachian pliosaur Arminisaurus schuberti gen. et sp. nov. from Bielefeld (Germany) was described by me and Benjamin Kear in Alcheringa.
Our reassessement of the elasmosaur Styxosaurus snowii has been published in Alcheringa [click here for more information].
A mandible of a macropredatory pliosauromorph from the Lower Cretaceous of northern Germany was published in Alcheringa [click here for more information].
Visit to the Naturkundemuseum Reutlingen (Germany) to study a composite ichthyosaur specimen together with Dean Lomax.
Dean Lomax and I described the largest specimen of Ichthyosaurus that also bears an embryo. The paper was published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica and received some media attention.