Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology
Fellow in Natural Sciences, Christ's College
UKRI Future Leaders Fellow
Daniel Field is accepting applications for PhD students.
Daniel Field is available for consultancy.
Downing Street
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB2 3EQ
Biography:
I am fascinated by Earth’s modern biodiversity, and my research aims to use the vertebrate fossil record to help answer questions about how, where, and when this biodiversity arose. I’m passionate about natural history, evolution, and science outreach, and enjoy studying and photographing Earth’s vertebrate biodiversity in the field.
Research themes
Research Interests
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.
Research Supervision
Postdocs
2019-21: Dr. Junya Watanabe, Newton International Research Fellow
2020-22: Dr. Simon Ducatez, UKRI Postdoctoral Research Associate
Current PhD students
2020-: Klara Widrig
2020-: Pei-Chen Kuo
2019-: Lizzy Steell
2017-: Albert Chen
2017-: Juan Benito
KeywordsSystematics and Phylogenetics ; Palaeobiology ; Vertebrates ; Comparative morphology ; Anatomy ; Functional Morphology ; Tomography |
Topics
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Key Publications
Full publication list: http://danieljfield.com/Home/Publications.html
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=oxSZWaEAAAAJ&hl=en
Field, D.J., Benito, J., Chen, A., Jagt, J.M.W., Ksepka, D.T. 2020. Late Cretaceous neornithine from Europe illuminates the origins of crown birds. Nature 579 397-401. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2096-0. Includes associated News and Views article.
Saupe, E.E.*, Farnsworth, A., Lunt, D.J., Sagoo, N., Pham, K.V., Field, D.J.* 2019. Climatic shifts drove major contractions in avian latitudinal distributions throughout the Cenozoic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 201903866; 10.1073/pnas.1903866116. *Co-lead authors.
Oliveros, C.H., Field, D.J., Ksepka, D.T., Barker, F.K., Aleixo, A., Andersen, M.J., Alström, P., Benz, B.W., Braun, E.L., Braun, M.J., et al. 2019. Earth history and the passerine superradiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 201813206. [Cover]
Field, D.J.*, Hanson, M.*, Burnham, D., Wilson-Brantley, L., Super, K., Ehret, D., Ebersole, E., Bhullar, B.A-S. 2018. Complete Ichthyornis skull illuminates mosaic assembly of the avian head. Nature 557 (96-100). doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0053-y. *co-first authors; includes associated News and Views article.
Field, D.J., Bercovici, A., Berv, J.S., Dunn, R., Fastovsky, D., Lyson, T.R., Vajda, V., Gauthier, J.A. 2018. Early evolution of modern birds structured by global forest collapse at the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Current Biology 28(11): 1825-1831.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.062. [Cover]
Field, D.J., Hsiang, A.Y. 2018. A North American stem turaco, and the complex biogeographic history of modern birds. BMC Evolutionary Biology 18:102. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1212-3.
Berv, J.S.* & Field, D.J.* 2018. Genomic signature of an avian Lilliput Effect across the K-Pg Extinction. Systematic Biology 67(1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syx064. *co-first authors. [Cover; Winner of the Society of Systematic Biologists Publisher’s Award]
Field, D.J. 2018. Endless skulls most beautiful. (Commentary). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(3): 448-450. doi:10.1073/pnas.1721208115.
Faux, C.* & Field, D.J.* 2017. Distinct developmental pathways underlie independent losses of flight in ratites. Biology Letters 13(7):20170234. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0234. *co-first authors. [Cover]
Field, D.J. 2017. Big-time insights from a tiny bird fossil (Commentary). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(30): 7750-7752. doi:10/1073/pnas.1710941114.
Field, D.J. 2017. Preliminary paleoecological insights from the Pliocene avifauna of Kanapoi, Kenya: implications for the ecology of Australopithecus anamensis. Journal of Human Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.08.007.
Prum, R.O., Berv, J.S., Dornburg, A., Field, D.J., Townsend, J.P, Lemmon, E.M., Lemmon, A.R. 2015. A comprehensive phylogeny of birds (Aves) using targeted next generation DNA sequencing. Nature 526: 569-573. doi:10.1038/nature15697. Includes associated News and Views article.
Bever, G.S., Lyson, T.R., Field, D.J., Bhullar B.-A.S. 2015. Evolutionary origin of the turtle skull. Nature 525: 239-242. doi:10.1038/nature14900.