Spencer G. Lucas

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Spencer George Lucas (* before 1976) is an American paleontologist and curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS).

life and work

Lucas graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor's degree in 1976 and Yale University , where he received his PhD in 1984. His dissertation was entitled Systematics, biostratigraphy and evolution of early Cenozoic Coryphodon (Mammalia, Pantodonta) . He began his field work in 1976 in the Eocene (San Jose Formation) of the San Juan Basin in New Mexico with mammalian fossils, which he extended to Cretaceous and Paleocene in the following year . Since 1988 he has been the curator of geology and paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque .

He is concerned with stratigraphy and vertebrate paleontology of terrestrial vertebrates of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic Era, particularly in the American Southwest. He also excavated in northern Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the People's Republic of China.

In 2008 an article appeared in Nature accusing him (and his colleagues Adrian Hunt and Justin Spielman from the NMMNHS) of scientific misconduct (evaluation of research results from younger colleagues before publication). It was about ancestors of the dinosaurs from the Aetosauria group and a suggestion for a name for a species of the group (Rioarribasuchus), although a colleague (William Parker, Petrified Forest National Park) also wanted to submit a proposal (Lucas denied having known about it). He was also accused of describing aetosaur fossils from the Paleontological Institute of the University of Warsaw after his visit, although colleagues there were working on a publication about them (a misunderstanding according to Lucas) and there were also allegations regarding a reinterpretation of the skeleton of Redondasuchus, where he should not have adequately cited a master's thesis (Jeff Martz, Texas Tech). Lucas benefited from the fact that he mainly published in his museum's in-house journal (New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin) and thus avoided time-consuming peer reviews. Lucas is the editor of the magazine. He published well over 500 scientific papers. In 2007, the allegations led to an official letter of complaint to the New Mexico education authorities and the Ethics Committee of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

He published on Seismosaurus , Pentaceratops , Chasmosaurus , Ankylosaurier and Deinosuchus , on fossil tracks (track sandstone ) and on the origin of the turtle shell (find by Chinlechelys , see Osteoderm ).

In 2007 he presented 300-million-year-old impressions of the bodies of amphibians (boneless remains) that a student had previously found in the collections of a museum in Pennsylvania.

1973/74 he was chess master of New Mexico. He is a member of the New Mexico Academy of Sciences.

Fonts

  • Dinosaurs of New Mexico, New Mexico Academy of Science 1993
  • Publisher: The triassic timescale, London: Geological Society special publication 334, 2010
    • therein by Lucas: Introduction, The triassic chronostratigraphic scale: history and status, Tetrapod footprints - their use in biostratigraphy and biochronology of the Triassic (with H. Klein), The Triassic timescale based on nonmarine tetrapod biostratigraphy and biochronology
  • Editor with Robert M. Sullivan: Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from the Western Interior (= New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Bulletin. 35). New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque NM 2006
  • Dinosaurs: the textbook, 5th edition, McGraw Hill 2007
  • Chinese fossil vertebrates, Columbia University Press 2001
  • Editor with Michael Morales: The nonmarine Triassic: transactions of the international symposium and field trip on the nonmarine Triassic, October 17-24, 1993, Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • Editor with Giuseppe Cassinis, Joerg W. Schneider: Late Paleocene-early Eocene climatic and biotic events in the marine and terrestrial records, London, Geological Society Special Publ. 256, 2006

Some essays:

  • Article Biostratigraphy, Land-Mammal Ages, in: Philip J. Currie, Kevin Padian: Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs 1997
  • Contributions to Christine M. Janis (ed.), Evolution of tertiary mammals of North America, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press 1998 (Taeniodonta (with Robert Schoch, Thomas E. Williamson), Tillodontia, Pantodontia, Dinocerata (with Schoch), Archaic ungulates and ungulate-like mammals (with Janis, Archibald, Cifelli, Schoch, Schaff, Williamson), Eutheria incertae sedis (with Schoch)).
  • with WG Joyce, TM, Scheyer, AB Heckert, AP Hunt: A thin-shelled reptile from the Late Triassic of North America and the origin of the turtle shell: Proc. R. Soc. B., volume. 276, 2009, pp. 507-513
  • Global Jurassic tetrapod biochronology; in: Volumina Jurassica, Volume 6, 2009, pp. 99-108.
  • with SC Renesto, JA Spielman: The oldest record of drepanosaurids (Reptilia, Diapsida) from the Late Triassic (Adamanian Placerias Quarry, Arizona, USA) and the stratigraphic range of the Drepanosauridae, N. Jb. Geol. Paläont. Abh., Volume 252, 2009, pp. 315-325
  • with AB Heckert, LF Rinehart, AP Hunt: A new genus and species of sphenodontian from the Ghost Ranch Coelophysis Quarry (Upper Triassic: Apachean), Rock Point Formation, New Mexico, USA, Palaeontology, Volume 51, 2008, p. 827– 845
  • with NJ Minter, AJ Lerner, SJ Braddy: Augerinoichnus helicoidalis, a new helical trace fossil from the nonmarine Permian of New Mexico, Journal of Paleontology, Volume 82, 2008, pp. 1201-1206
  • Tetrapod Footprint Biostratigraphy and Biochronology, Ichnos, Volume 14, No. 1–2, 2007, pp. 5-38,
  • with Matt Stimson, Gloria Melanson: The Smallest Known Tetrapod Footprints: Batrachichnus salamandroides from the Carboniferous of Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada, Ichnos: An International Journal for Plant and Animal Traces, Volume 19, 2013, Issue 3, pp. 127-140

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biography, Palaeo-electronica 2009
  2. ↑ fossil reptiles mired in controversy , Nature, Vol 451, 2008 510
  3. ^ Photo in the News: Pre-Dino Amphibian Body Casts Found, National Geographic, October 30, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Lucas, Spencer G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lucas, Spencer George (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH before 1976