Dr Stephanie Pierce
Research area - Evolution and Diversity
My scholarly interests are focused on assessing the link between form and function of the vertebrate skeletal system – especially with respect to muscle/skeletal interactions during feeding and locomotor behaviours in modern and extinct animals.
I am currently working on a NERC funded project entitled “Locomotion in the earliest tetrapods: testing models of terrestriality” with Prof Jenny Clack in the Museum of Zoology and Dr John Hutchinson at the Royal Veterinary College. The main aim of this study is to virtually reconstruct the anatomy and locomotion of early tetrapods (e.g. Acanthostega, Ichthyostega) and modern analogues (e.g. seals, crocodiles) to infer how axial and appendicular musculoskeletal function evolved with the transition from water to land.
Research group - Early Tetrapod Research
Selected publications
Pierce, Stephanie E., Kenneth D. Angielczyk, and Emily J. Rayfield. 2009. Shape and mechanics in thalattosuchian (Crocodylomorpha) skulls: implications for feeding behaviour and niche partitioning. Journal of Anatomy, 215: 555–576.
Pierce, Stephanie E., Kenneth D. Angielczyk, and Emily J. Rayfield. 2009. Morphospace occupation in thalattosuchian crocodylomorphs: skull shape variation, species delineation, and temporal patterns. Palaeontology, 52: 1057–1097.
Pierce, Stephanie E., Kenneth D. Angielczyk, and Emily J. Rayfield. 2008. Patterns of morphospace occupation and mechanical performance in extant crocodilian skulls: a combined geometric morphometric and finite element modeling approach. Journal of Morphology, 269:840–864.
Pierce, Stephanie E., and Michael J. Benton. 2006. Pelagosaurus typus Bronn, 1841 (Mesoeucrocodylia: Thalattosuchia) from the Upper Lias (Toarcian, Lower Jurassic) of Somerset, England. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 26:621–635.
Pierce, Stephanie E., and Michael W. Caldwell. 2004. Redescription and phylogenetic position of the Adriatic (Upper Cretaceous; Cenomanian) dolichosaur Pontosaurus lesinensis (Kornhuber, 1873). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 24:373–386.