Prof. Daniel Field
- Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology
- Strickland Curator of Ornithology, Museum of Zoology
- Fellow, Christ's College
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About
I am a vertebrate palaeontologist interested in the evolutionary history of birds and other amniotes. Our group's research explores the vertebrate fossil record and organismal biology in a phylogenetic framework to explore how and when extant vertebrate diversity has arisen.
I am originally from Calgary, Alberta, studied Zoology at the University of British Columbia, and received a PhD in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University in 2017. I joined the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge in 2018 and joined the University Museum of Zoology in 2021 as the Strickland Curator of Ornithology.
Research
Work in my lab aims to decipher the origins of modern avian biodiversity using fossil, anatomical, and molecular data, although we have deep interests in evolutionary questions across the vertebrate tree of life. Major themes of our research include clarifying how birds survived and diversified following the mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, studying the evolutionary histories of major bird groups, and understanding the evolutionary origins of distinctive biological features such as the modern bird skull.
Postdocs
2023-25: Dr Olivia Plateau, Swiss Mobility Postdoc
2023-25: Dr Carla du Toit, Newton International Research Fellow
2022-25: Dr Albert Chen, Junior Research Fellow, Christ's College
2022-24: Dr Juan Benito, UKRI Postdoctoral Research Associate
2021-24: Dr Guillermo Navalón, UKRI Postdoctoral Research Associate
2019-23: Dr Junya Watanabe, Newton International Research Fellow
Current PhD students
2022-: Annabel Hunt
2022-: Grace Burton
2021-: Katrina van Grouw
2020-: Klara Widrig
2020-: Armin Schmitt
2020-: Oliver Demuth
2020-: Pei-Chen Kuo
2019-: Lizzy Steell
2017-22: Albert Chen
2017-22: Juan Benito
Teaching and supervision
I contribute to undergraduate teaching in palaeontology and evolution in the Department of Earth Sciences (School of Physical Sciences) and the Department of Zoology (School of Biological Sciences).