Julia Allison Clarke is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

paleontologist 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 ...

and

evolutionary biologist 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 for ...

who studies the evolution of birds and the dinosaurs most closely related to living birds. She is the John A. Wilson Professor in Vertebrate Paleontology in the Jackson School of Geosciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Education

Clarke graduated with a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Geobiology from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1995. She went on to study at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, earning a Ph.D. from the Department of Geology and Geophysics in 2002.

Career

In 2005, Clarke led a research team that reexamined a fossil discovered within the rocks of

Vega Island Vega Island is a small island to the northwest of James Ross Island, on the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from James Ross Island by Herbert Sound. The island was named by Otto Nordenskjold, leader of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (190 ...

in the Antarctic in 1992. The use of computer tomography (CT) scans allowed for a new and more detailed analysis of the partial skeleton and it was determined to be ''

Vegavis iaai ''Vegavis'' is a genus of extinct bird that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage) of Antarctica, some 68 to 66 mya (unit), mya. Among modern birds, most studies show that ''Vegavis'' is most closely related to ducks and goose, g ...

,'' an extinct Antarctic bird and early relative of ducks and geese and thought to be the only species of modern bird to have lived at the time of the dinosaurs. Clarke also studied the voice organ (

syrinx In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx (Greek Σύριγξ) was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous god Pan, she ran to a river's edge and asked for assistance from the river nymphs. In answer, sh ...

) of a fossil originally found in 1992. The findings by Clarke and other researchers were published in the science journal

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

. Fossils of the ancient bird '' Inkayacu'' were first discovered in 2008, on the Pacific coast of Ica, Peru. A nearly complete skeleton was uncovered ''Inkayacu''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks is a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals ...

.org in the

Paracas National Reserve Paracas National Reserve is a protected area located in the region of Ica, Peru and protects desert and marine ecosystems for their conservation and sustainable use. There are also archaeological remains of the Paracas culture inside the reserve ...

by a team led by

Rodolfo Salas Rodolfo Fernando Salas Crespo (25 May 1928 – 18 August 2010) was a Peruvian basketball player. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and al ...

and studied by a team led by Clarke. This was the first recovered fossil with feathers attached to it. The feathers were preserved enough such that Liliana D'Alba and Ali J. Altamirano were able to perform analysis of the

melanosomes A melanosome is an organelle found in animal cells and is the site for synthesis, storage and transport of melanin, the most common light-absorbing pigment found in the animal kingdom. Melanosomes are responsible for color and photoprotection ...

, which are responsible for pigment. Until now, without the addition of feathers, there has not been any research conducted on the nanostructure of ancient feathers. Large penguins, including the species ''

Perudyptes devriesi ''Perudyptes'' is a basal penguin from the Middle Eocene Paracas Formation of Peru.Icadyptes salasi ''Icadyptes'' is an extinct genus of giant penguins from the Late Eocene tropics of South America. Etymology The genus name is a combination of "''Ica''" for the Peruvian region where the type species was found and "dyptes" from the Greek w ...

'', had been described from the area the previous year. In 2014, Clarke and collaborators published findings that the reconstruction of colors of featherless dinosaurs may not be possible because they lack diversity in melanosomes, organelles that hold melanin. In 2016, Clarke speculated that, based on her research, it was unlikely that dinosaurs roared. She proposed that it was much more likely that they made noises similar to those made by a modern pigeon. left, Julia Clarke's slides included this tongue in cheek guide to dinosaur color Caihong's color restoration In 2018, she was reporting on a small chicken sized dinosaur that was found in China by a farmer. The dinosaur was relatively well preserved and analysis indicated that it had multi-feathers. The creature is not thought to have been able to fly, but appears to have been a small carnivore. The feather's purpose may have been insulation whilst the variation in color is thought to have made the dinosaur attractive to a potential mate. The creature is thought to have a multi colored crest and this translates to its scientific name, which is '' Caihong juji''. Several of Clarke's technical papers have been published in ''Nature'' and ''Science''.

Works include

* ''The Morphology and Systematic Position of Ichthyornis Marsh and the Phylogenetic Relationships of Basal Ornithurae'', 2002 * ''Fossil Evidence for Evolution of the Shape and Color of Penguin Feathers'', 2010 * ''Reconstruction of Microraptor and the Evolution of Iridescent Plumage'', 2012 * ''Melanosome evolution indicates a key physiological shift within feathered dinosaurs'', 2014 * ''Convergent evolution in dippers (Aves, Cinclidae): The only wing‐propelled diving songbirds'', 2022 * ''Precise and nonscalar timing of intervals in a bird vocalization'', 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Julia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American paleontologists Women paleontologists 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists Brown University alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Texas faculty Scientists from San Francisco Scientists from California American women academics