Sam W. Heads (born 22 April 1983 in

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

, UK) is a British

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 ...

, a Fellow of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, as well as a former Officer and Editor-in-Chief at the

Orthopterists' Society The Orthopterists' Society (formerly the Pan American Acridological Society) is an international scientific organization devoted to facilitating communication and research among persons interested in Orthoptera and related organisms. (The Orthopter ...

. He received his training at the

University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth, England. It is one of only four universities in the South East England, South East of England rated as Gold in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. With approximately 28 ...

where he was awarded a B.Sc. (Hons) in Palaeobiology and Evolution in 2004 and a Ph.D. in Entomology in 2009. Dr. Heads is an authority on the taxonomy, systematics and palaeontology of

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grassho ...

. He is based at the

Illinois Natural History Survey The Illinois Natural History Survey (abbreviated as INHS), located on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, is an active research institution with over 200 staff members, and it maintains one of the ...

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

Select publications

* Heads, S.W. & Wang, Y. 2013. First fossil record of Melanoplus differentialis (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae). Entomological News 123: 33–37. * Heads, S.W., Taylor, S.J. & Krejca, J.K. 2013. First record of Scapteriscus abbreviatus from Belize (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae). Entomological News 123: 241–244. * Hollier, J. & Heads, S.W. 2014. The type specimens of Orthoptera described by American entomologists in the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève. Revue suisse de Zoology 121: 63–76. * Barling, N., Heads, S.W. & Martill, D.M. 2013. A new parasitoid wasp (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil: the first Mesozoic Pteromalidae. Cretaceous Research 45: 258–264, * Hollier, J., Bruckner, H. & Heads, S.W. 2013. An annotated list of the Orthoptera (Insecta) species described by Henri de Saussure, with an account of the primary type material housed in the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève, Part 5: Grylloidea. Revue suisse de Zoology 120: 445–535. * Jepson, J.E., Heads, S.W., Makarkin, V.N. & Ren, D. 2013. New fossil mantidflies (Insecta, Neuroptera, Mantispidae) from the Mesozoic of northeastern China. Palaeontology 56: 603–613. * Heads, S.W., Penney, D. & Green, D.I. 2012. A new species of the cricket genus Proanaxipha in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic (Orthoptera, Gryllidae, Pentacentrinae). ZooKeys 229: 111–118. * Pérez-de la Fuente, R., Heads, S.W., Hinojosa-Díaz, I.A. & Engel, M.S. 2012. The first record of Protogryllinae from the Jurassic of India (Orthoptera: Grylloidea). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 85: 53–58. * Hollier, J. & Heads, S.W. 2012. An annotated list of the Orthoptera (Insecta) species described by Henri de Saussure, with an account of the primary type material housed in the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève, Part 1: Tridactyloidea. Revue suisse de Zoology 119: 149–160. * Rodríguez, F. & Heads, S.W. 2012. New mole crickets of the genus Scapteriscus Scudder (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae: Scapteriscinae) from Colombia. Zootaxa 3282: 61–68. * Heads, S.W. & Taylor, S.J. 2012. A new species of Ripipteryx from Belize with a key to the species of the Scrofulosa Group (Orthoptera, Ripipterygidae). ZooKeys 169: 1–8. * Heads, S.W. & Leuzinger, L. 2011. On the placement of the Cretaceous orthopteran Brauckmannia groeningae from Brazil, with notes on the relationships of Schizodactylidae (Orthoptera: Ensifera). ZooKeys 77: 17–30. * Heads, S.W. 2010. New Tridactyloidea in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic (Orthoptera: Caelifera). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France 46: 204–210. * Heads, S.W. 2010. A new species of Ripipteryx from the Ecuadorian Andes (Orthoptera: Tridactyloidea: Ripipterygidae). Zootaxa 2476: 23–29. * Heads, S.W. 2010. The first fossil spider cricket (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Phalangopsinae): 20 million years of troglobiomorphosis or exaptation in the dark? Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158: 56–65. * Heads, S.W. & Maehr, M.D. 2009. Proposed conservation of the name Gastrimargus Saussure, 1884 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Oedipodinae) threatened by an unused senior homonym. Zootaxa 2268: 65–68. * Heads, S.W. 2009. A new pygmy mole cricket in Cretaceous amber from Burma (Orthoptera: Tridactylidae). Denisia 26: 75–82. * Heads, S.W. 2009. New pygmy grasshoppers in Miocene amber from the Dominican Republic (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae). Denisia 26: 69–74. * Delclòs, X., Nel, A., Azar, D. Bechly, G., Dunlop, J.A., Engel, M.S. & Heads, S.W. 2008. The enigmatic Mesozoic insect taxon Chresmodidae (Polyneoptera): new palaeobiological and phylogenetic data, with the description of a new species from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 247: 353–381. * Heads, S.W., Martill, D.M. & Loveridge, R.F. 2008. Palaeoentomological paradise: the Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. Antenna 32: 91–98. * Heads, S.W. & Chesmore, D. 2008. New records of the slender ground-hopper Tetrix subulata (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) from Yorkshire. British Journal of Entomology & Natural History 21: 243–246. * Heads, S.W. & Lakin, C. 2008. A new katydid of the genus Phoebolampta from St Maarten (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae). Polskie Pismo Entomologiczne 77: 256–266. * Heads, S.W. 2008. A new species of Yuripopovia (Coleorrhyncha: Progonocimicidae) from the Early Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight. British Journal of Entomology & Natural History 21: 247–254 . * Heads, S.W. 2008. The first fossil Proscopiidae (Insecta, Orthoptera, Eumastacoidea) with comments on the historical biogeography and evolution of the family. Palaeontology 51: 499–507. * Heads, S.W. 2006 or 2005 A new caddisfly larval case (Insecta, Trichoptera) from the Lower Cretaceous Vectis Formation (Wealden Group) of the Isle of Wight, southern England. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 117: 307–310. * Menon, F., Heads, S.W. & Martill, D.M. 2005. New Palaeontinidae (Insecta: Cicadomorpha) from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. Cretaceous Research 26: 837–844. * Menon, F. & Heads, S.W. 2005. New species of Palaeontinidae (Insecta: Cicadomorpha) from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie) 357: 1–11. * Heads, S.W., Martill, D.M. & Loveridge, R.F. 2005. An exceptionally preserved antlion (Insecta, Neuroptera) with colour pattern preservation from the Cretaceous of Brazil. Palaeontology 48: 1409–1417.

References

External links

Heads Lab website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heads, Sam W 1983 births British entomologists British palaeontologists British evolutionary biologists 21st-century British zoologists Alumni of the University of Portsmouth Scientists from Northumberland Fellows of the Linnean Society of London Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society Living people University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty