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.