Kevin Padian

Kevin Padian ( born March 12, 1951 in Morristown, New Jersey) is an American vertebrate paleontologist.

He graduated from Colgate University with a bachelor 's degree in 1972 and a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT ) in 1974. He wanted to be a teacher first and also taught. Later he went to Yale University, where in 1978 he received his master's degree ( MPhil ) in paleontology and in 1980 received his doctorate in biology. His dissertation topic was titled Paleobiology of lower vertebrates. Since 1980 he was a curator at the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley and was a professor of integrative biology.

It dealt with the emergence of the main lines of evolutionary development, such as the flight in dinosaurs that are close to the origin of birds, with pterosaurs, change of land vertebrate fauna on the border Triassic to Jurassic ( emergence of the dinosaurs ), the interpretation of the footprints of dinosaurs ( with inferences about their mode of transportation ), microstructure of dinosaur bone ( with inferences about function, growth, age, diet, etc.).

He is active in initiatives to curb private (often professional -operated ) Fossils in the United States.

In 2007 he became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Padian was for the documentary Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial interviewed.

Writings

• As Publisher: The Beginning of the age of dinosaurs: faunal change across the Triassic - Jurassic boundary, Cambridge University Press 1986
• Editor with Philip J. Currie: Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, Academic Press 1997
• Editor Ellen -Therese Lamm: Bone histology of fossil tetrapods: advancing methods, analysis, and interpretation, University of California Press, 2013 appears