Susannah Catherine Rose Maidment 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 ...

at the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

. She is internationally recognised for her research on ornithischian

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 ...

evolution, and was awarded the 2016 Hodson Award of the

Palaeontological Association The Palaeontological Association (PalAss for short) is a charitable organisation based in the UK founded in 1957 for the promotion of the study of palaeontology and allied sciences. Publications The Association publishes two main journals: ' ...

and the 2017 Lyell Fund of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. She was featured as a 2019 National Geographic Women of Impact.

Education and career

Maidment studied

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 Ea ...

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, graduating with an MSc in 2003. She completed her PhD at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

in 2007, in which she studied the systematics of the dinosaur group Stegosauria. Her research was supervised by David Norman and

Paul Upchurch Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

. Following time working as an exploration geologist in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, she moved in 2009 to work with

Paul Barrett Paul Franklyn "Legs" Barrett (14 December 1940 – 20 January 2019) was a UK agent and manager of 1950s style Rock and Roll artistes, an author and previously a singer, songwriter and film actor. Barrett is the discoverer, mentor and first ma ...

at the

, as a postdoctoral researcher co-investigator on a NERC-funded project on ornithischian dinosaur locomotion. In 2012 she returned to Imperial College London as a Research Fellow, before moving in 2016 to the

University of Brighton The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achiev ...

as a Senior Lecturer. In 2018 she re-joined the Natural History Museum, where she works as a senior researcher. She is also an honorary Senior Lecturer at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

Research

Maidment has published more than 50 scientific papers, primarily focused on the systematics, evolution and palaeobiology of ornithischian dinosaurs. She has worked extensively on stegosaurs, and is considered the world leader on this group. Her contributions have included overall revisions of the systematics of the group, the description of the Portuguese stegosaur '' Miragaia'', the description of the oldest known stegosaur, '' Adratiklit'', from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco, the oldest known

ankylosauria Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. ...

n '' Spicomellus'', also from Morocco, anatomical and systematic revisions of Chinese stegosaurs, and work on the postcranial skeleton and body mass of ''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...

''. She has also published several papers on locomotion and the evolution of quadrupedality in ornithischian dinosaurs. In 2015, she was part of a team who reported evidence of original collagen fibres and blood cells in

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 ...

dinosaur specimens. Her most recent research has focused on the stratigraphy of the Morrison Formation of the Western

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. She was one of the lead scientists for the "Mission Jurassic" dinosaur excavation project that began in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maidment, Susannah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people English palaeontologists Alumni of the University of Cambridge British geologists Alumni of Imperial College London Women paleontologists