Professor David Bruce Weishampel (born November 16, 1952) is an American

palaeontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

in the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

. Weishampel received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

Geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1981. His research focuses include

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

systematics, European dinosaurs of the Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

, jaw mechanics and

herbivory A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

cladistics Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived char ...

and

heterochrony In evolutionary developmental biology, heterochrony is any genetically controlled difference in the timing, rate, or duration of a developmental process in an organism compared to its ancestors or other organisms. This leads to changes in the si ...

and the history of

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...

. Weishampel's best known published work is ''

The Dinosauria ''The Dinosauria'' is an extensive book on dinosaurs, compiled by David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska. It has been published in 2 editions, with the first edition published in 1990, consisting of material from 23 scientists.B ...

'' University of California Press; 2nd edition (December 1, 2004). He consulted for ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later also referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton and centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when ...

'' and is a good friend of

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...

. He has received an

Academy Scientific and Technical Award The Scientific and Technical Awards are three different Honorary Awards that are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) during the annual Academy Awards season. The Awards have been presented since the 4th Academy Awards ...

Selected publications

*Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). 2004. The Dinosauria. 2nd edition. Univ. California Press, Berkeley. 833 pp. *Weishampel, D. B. & White, N. (eds.). 2003. The Dinosaur Papers: 1676-1906. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D. C. 524 pp. *Weishampel, D.B., C.-M. Jianu, Z. Csiki, and D.B. Norman. 2003. Osteology and phylogeny of Zalmoxes (n.g.), an unusual ornithopod dinosaur from the latest Cretaceous of Romania. J. Syst. Palentol. 1: 123-143. *Jianu, C. M. & Weishampel, D. B. 1999. The smallest of the largest: a new look at possible dwarfing in sauropod dinosaurs. Geol. Mijnbouw 78: 335-343. *Weishampel, D. B. 1996. Fossils, phylogeny, and discovery: a cladistic study of the history of tree topologies and ghost lineage durations. J. Vert. Paleont. 16: 191 197. *Weishampel, D. B. 1995. Fossils, function, and phylogeny. In: Thomason, J. (ed.). Functional Morphology in Vertebrate Paleontology. Cambridge Univ. Press, New York. pp. 34–54. *Weishampel, D. B. & Horner, J. R. 1994. Life history syndromes, heterochrony, and the evolution of Dinosauria. In: Carpenter, K., Horner, J. R., & Hirsch, K. (eds.). Dinosaur Eggs and Babies. Cambridge Univ. Press, New York. pp. 229 243. *Heinrich, R. E., Ruff, C. B., & Weishampel, D. B. 1993. Femoral ontogeny and locomotor biomechanics of Dryosaurus lettowvorbecki (Dinosauria, Iguanodontia). Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 108: 179 196. *Weishampel, D. B., Norman, D. B., & Grigorescu, D. 1993. Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus from the Late Cretaceous of Romania: the most basal hadrosaurid. Palaeontology 36: 361 385. *Weishampel, D. B. 1993. Beams and machines: modeling approaches to analysis of skull form and function. In: Hanken, J. & Hall, B. K. (eds.) The Vertebrate Skull. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago. pp. 303 344. *Weishampel, D. B., Grigorescu, D., & Norman, D. B. 1991. The dinosaurs of Transylvania: island biogeography in the Late Cretaceous. Natl. Geogr. Res. 7: 68 87. *Weishampel, D. B. 1991. A theoretical morphologic approach to tooth replacement in lower vertebrates. In: Vogel, K. & Schmidt Kittler, N. (eds.). Constructional Morphology and Biomechanics: Concepts and Implications. Springer Verlag, Berlin. pp. 295 310.

External links

David B. Weishampel - The Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at JHU
(Archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Weishampel, David B. 1952 births Living people University of Pennsylvania alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty American paleontologists