Professor Richard Butler PhD

Richard is a vertebrate palaeontologist with expertise in the systematics, evolution and biogeography of late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic reptiles. His current research programme aims to establish major patterns and drivers of terrestrial biodiversity change, as exemplified by four-limbed vertebrates (tetrapods), over the last 375 million years. He is also interested in the origin and dramatic evolutionary radiation of dinosaurs and closely related fossil groups in the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction, the largest extinction event in the history of life on Earth.

• 2017–. Professor of Palaeobiology (personal chair), University of Birmingham.
• 2015–2017. Senior Birmingham Fellow and Academic Keeper of the Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham.
• 2013–2015. Birmingham Fellow, University of Birmingham
• 2011–2013. Junior Research Group Leader, Emmy Noether Programme (DFG), GeoBio-Center, LMU, Munich, Germany. 
• 2009–2011. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship. Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany
• 2008–2009. NERC Researcher Co-Investigator. Natural History Museum London. 
• 2006–2008. NERC Postdoctoral Research Assistant. Natural History Museum, London. 

Recent publications

Article

Ezcurra, M, Butler, R, Maidment, S, Sansom, I, Meade, L & Radley, J 2020, 'A revision of the early neotheropod genus Sarcosaurus from the Early Jurassic (Hettangian–Sinemurian) of central England', Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa054

Montefeitro, F, Lautenschlager, S, Godoy, P, Ferreira, G & Butler, R 2020, 'A unique predator in a unique ecosystem: modelling the apex predator within a Late Cretaceous crocodyliform-dominated fauna from Brazil', Journal of Anatomy. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13192

Scheyer, TM, Spiekman, S, Sues, H-D, Ezcurra, M, Butler, R & Jones, M 2020, 'Colobops: a juvenile rhynchocephalian reptile (Lepidosauromorpha), not a diminutive archosauromorph with an unusually strong bite', Royal Society Open Science.

Brown, E, Butler, R, Ezcurra, M, Bhullar, B-A & Lautenschlager, S 2020, 'Endocranial anatomy and life habits of the Early Triassic archosauriform Proterosuchus fergusi', Palaeontology, vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 255-282. https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12454

Cashmore, D, Mannion, P, Upchurch, P & Butler, R 2020, 'Ten more years of discovery: revisiting the quality of the sauropodomorph dinosaur fossil record', Palaeontology.

Close, R, Benson, RBJ, Alroy, J, Carrano, MT, Cleary, T, Dunne, E, Mannion, P, Uhen, M & Butler, R 2020, 'The apparent exponential radiation of Phanerozoic land vertebrates is an artefact of spatial sampling biases', Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences, vol. 287, no. 1924, 20200372. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.0372

Close, R, Benson, RBJ, Saupe, E, Clapham, M & Butler, R 2020, 'The spatial structure of Phanerozoic marine animal diversity', Science, vol. 368, no. 6489, pp. 420–424. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay8309

Tolchard, F, Nesbitt, S, Desojo, J, Viglietti, P, Butler, R & Choiniere, J 2019, ''Rauisuchian' material from the lower Elliot Formation of South Africa and Lesotho: implications for Late Triassic biogeography and biostratigraphy', Journal of African Earth Sciences, vol. 160, 103610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2019.103610

Bird, H, Milner, A, Shillito, A & Butler, R 2019, 'A lower Carboniferous (Visean) tetrapod trackway represents the earliest record of an edopoid amphibian from the UK', Geological Society. Journal. https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2019-149

Marsola, J, Bittencourt, J, Butler, R, Da Rosa, A, Sayao, J & Langer, M 2019, 'A new dinosaur with theropod affinities from the Late Triassic Santa Maria Formation, South Brazil', Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 38, no. 5, e1531878. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2018.1531878

Kammerer, C, Viglietti, P, Hancox, J, Butler, R & Choiniere, J 2019, 'A new kannemeyeriiform dicynodont (Ufudocyclops mukanelai gen. et sp. nov.) from Subzone C of the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone (Triassic of South Africa) with implications for biostratigraphic correlation with other African Triassic faunas', Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 39, no. 2, e1596921. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2019.1596921

Lehmann, O, Ezcurra, M, Butler, R & Lloyd, G 2019, 'Biases with the Generalized Euclidean Distance measure in disparity analyses with high levels of missing data', Palaeontology, vol. 62, no. 5, pp. 837-849. https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12430

Butler, R, Sennikov, AG, Dunne, E, Ezcurra, M, Hedrick, B, Maidment, S, Meade, L, Raven, T & Gower, D 2019, 'Cranial anatomy and taxonomy of the erythrosuchid archosauriform ‘Vjushkovia triplicostata’ Huene, 1960 from the Early Triassic of European Russia', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 6, no. 11, 191289. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191289

Butler, R, Jones, A, Buffetaut, E, Mandl, G, Scheyer, T & Schultz, O 2019, 'Description and phylogenetic placement of a new marine species of phytosaur (Archosauriformes: Phytosauria) from the Late Triassic of Austria', Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 187, no. 1, pp. 198-228. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz014

Close, R, Benson, RBJ, Alroy, J, Behrensmeyer, A, Benito Moreno, J, Carrano, MT, Cleary, T, Dunne, E, Mannion, PD, Uhen, M & Butler, R 2019, 'Diversity dynamics of Phanerozoic terrestrial tetrapods at the local community scale', Nature Ecology and Evolution, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 590-597. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0811-8

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