Lawrence Witmer

Lawrence M. Witmer, called Larry, ( born October 10, 1959 in Rochester (New York)) is an American vertebrate paleontologist who is particularly concerned with birds and dinosaurs.

Witmer studied biology at Cornell University with a bachelor's degree in 1982 and at the University of Kansas in Lawrence with a Master 's degree in 1987 (The cranial air sac system of mesozoic birds ). He was at Johns Hopkins University PhD ( Ontogeny, Phylogeny, and Air Sacs: The Importance of Soft - tissue inferences in the interpretation of Facial evolution in Archosauria ) 1992. He is since 1995 Assistant Professor, Associate Professor since 2001 and since 2005 professor of biology at Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. Since 2007 he has been there also Chang Ying - Chien Professor of Paleontology.

In addition to the research focus origin of birds he is concerned with metabolism and soft tissue reconstruction of dinosaurs.

Writings

• Published by Luis Chiappe with Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs, Berkeley: University of California Press 2002
• The search for the origin of birds, New York: Franklin Watts, 1995
• Basal Ornithischia ( with David B. Weishampel, David B. Norman ), Basal Thyreophora ( with Weishampel, Norman ), basal ornithopods ( with Norman, Rodolfo Coria, Hans -Dieter Sues ) in Weishampel, Osmolska, Dodson The Dinosauria, University of California Press, 2nd Edition 2004