Stephen M. Gatesy
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island 02912
USA

Stephen Gatesy is an Associate Professor of Biology at Brown University. He received his degrees from Colgate University (BA) and Harvard University (AM, PhD), and was a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University, the University of Montana, and Harvard University.

His research is directed at understanding the evolution of the vertebrate locomotor system, particularly focusing on two questions about carnivorous dinosaurs. First, how has bipedal locomotion, a highly conserved trait, changed over the last 200 million years of theropod evolution? Second, how was the body plan of a terrestrial theropod transformed to acquire an entirely novel capability– powered flight? Gatesy and his students integrate data from structural, functional, historical, and computer modeling approaches. In collaboration with Farish Jenkins and Neil Shubin, he has used fossil footprints from Greenland to reconstruct foot motion in walking theropods.