Congratulations Phil Bell!

Some congratulations are in order for my fellow grad student Phil Bell, who successfully defended his PhD thesis today!

Phil's thesis is titled "Systematics and palaeobiology of the crested hadrosaurine Saurolophus, from Canada and Mongolia." He's been working for the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum (previously the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Museum) since last fall.

You can read more about his work on Saurolophus in these papers; I'm sure there will be several more to come:

Bell PR, Evans DC. 2010. Revision of the status of Saurolophus (Hadrosauridae) from California, USA. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 47:1417-1426.

Bell PR. 2011. Redescription of the skull of Saurolophus osborni Brown 1912 (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae). Cretaceous Research 32:30-44.

Bell PR. In press. Cranial osteology and ontogeny of Saurolophus angustirostris from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia with comments on Saurolophus osborni from Canada. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Phil Currie receives Alberta Order of Excellence

Earlier this week my supervisor Phil Currie received the Alberta Order of Excellence, the province's highest order for public service. Hooray Phil!

News covereage of the event, and interviews with Phil can be found via the Edmonton Journal, The Gateway, and CBC News. (Excellent photo of Phil in The Gateway's article.)


The picture above shows Phil this summer in Mongolia, marking the location of a particularly nice sauropod footprint.

Another chapter finished.

Congratulations, Pete.

The coffee is well earned.