Spencer G. Lucas
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
1801 Mountain Rd. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87104
USA

Spencer Lucas received a B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 1976, and M. S. (1989) and Ph.D. (1984) degrees from Yale University. His research interests have primarily focused on vertebrate biostratigraphy, particularly of the Mesozoic. Lucas is particularly interested in the application of vertebrate fossils to problems of the geologic timescale. He has conducted field research primarily in the western United States, but also in China, Kazakstan, Georgia, Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Lucas began fieldwork in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico in 1976, studying the Eocene San Jose Formation and its mammal fossils. In 1977, he expanded that work into the Cretaceous and Paleocene strata and fossils. Currently, most of his research in the San Juan Basin is on problems of Upper Cretaceous biostratigraphy in collaboration with Robert Sullivan.

Since 1988, Lucas has been Curator of Geology and Paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

Photo: Spencer Lucas with the cast of tyrannosaur footprint.