Dr Richard P Dearden PhD MSc MA

Dr Richard P Dearden

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
NERC Independent Research Fellow

Richard is a palaeobiologist specialising in vertebrate evolution, especially that of the cartilaginous fishes (sharks, rays, chimaeras). He studies living and fossil vertebrates to understand the origins of living vertebrate diversity, in particular using 3D imaging methods like computed tomography.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Evolutionary Biology, Imperial College London, UK
  • MSc in Palaeobiology, University of Bristol, UK
  • MA in Natural Sciences (Zoology), University of Cambridge, UK

Teaching

Richard lectures on the Evolution of Vertebrates course and supervises fourth-year masters projects in GEES.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Griffin, BW, Keating, JN, Milla Carmona, PS, Johanson, Z, Dearden, RP, Donoghue, PCJ & Rayfield, EJ 2026, 'Evolution of chondrichthyan jaw morphology, from ecological generalists to specialists', Paleobiology, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 131-144. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2025.10077

Stumpf, S, Türtscher, J, López-Romero, FA, Villalobos-Segura, E, Begat, A, Amadori, M, Dearden, RP, Lauer, B, Lauer, R, Hecker, A & Kriwet, J 2026, 'Reappraisal of the extinct barbelthroat shark †Bavariscyllium and the nebulous origin of carcharhiniform galeomorphs', Communications Biology, vol. 9, no. 1, 158. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-09272-5

Schnetz, L, Lanzetti, A, Jones, A, Dearden, R, Lautenschlager, S, Giles, S, Johanson, Z & Sansom, I 2025, 'From head to tail: 3D imaging the whole body morphology of the stem gnathostome Anglaspis heintzi', Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 44, no. 5, e2476441. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2025.2476441

Andreev, PS, Zhu, M, Brakenhoff, L, Li, Q, Zhao, W, Peng, L, Marone, F, Dearden, RP & Rücklin, M 2025, 'The shoulder girdle of early chondrichthyans grew by skeletal remodelling', Biology Letters, vol. 21, no. 9, 20250411. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0411

Yu, D, Ren, Y, Uesaka, M, Beavan, AJS, Muffato, M, Shen, J, Li, Y, Sato, I, Wan, W, Clark, JW, Keating, JN, Carlisle, EM, Dearden, RP, Giles, S, Randle, E, Sansom, RS, Feuda, R, Fleming, JF, Sugahara, F, Cummins, C, Patricio, M, Akanni, W, D’Aniello, S, Bertolucci, C, Irie, N, Alev, C, Sheng, G, de Mendoza, A, Maeso, I, Irimia, M, Fromm, B, Peterson, KJ, Das, S, Hirano, M, Rast, JP, Cooper, MD, Paps, J, Pisani, D, Kuratani, S, Martin, FJ, Wang, W, Donoghue, PCJ, Zhang, YE & Pascual-Anaya, J 2024, 'Hagfish genome elucidates vertebrate whole-genome duplication events and their evolutionary consequences', Nature ecology & evolution, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 519-535. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02299-z

Brownstein, CD, Near, TJ & Dearden, RP 2024, 'The Palaeozoic assembly of the holocephalan body plan far preceded post-Cretaceous radiations into the ocean depths', Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences, vol. 291, no. 2033, 20241824. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1824

Dearden, RP, Jones, AS, Giles, S, Lanzetti, A, Grohganz, M, Johanson, Z, Lautenschlager, S, Randle, E, Donoghue, PCJ & Sansom, I 2024, 'The three-dimensionally articulated oral apparatus of a Devonian heterostracan sheds light on feeding in Palaeozoic jawless fishes', Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 291, no. 2019, 20232258. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2258

Dearden, RP, Herrel, A & Pradel, A 2023, 'Evidence for high-performance suction feeding in the Pennsylvanian stem-group holocephalan Iniopera', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 120, no. 4, e2207854119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2207854119

Dearden, R, Lanzetti, A, Giles, S, Johanson, Z, Jones, A, Lautenschlager, S, Randle, E & Sansom, I 2023, 'The oldest three-dimensionally preserved vertebrate neurocranium', Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06538-y

Dearden, RP, den Blaauwen, JL, Sansom, IJ, Burrow, CJ, Davidson, RG, Newman, MJ, Ko, A & Brazeau, MD 2021, 'A revision of Vernicomacanthus Miles with comments on the characters of stem-group chondrichthyans', Papers in Palaeontology, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 1949-1976. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1369

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