معرفی
Kimberley Chapelle is an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University in the Department of Anatomical Sciences. She is a South African vertebrate palaeobiologist with a focus on the comparative anatomy, systematics, locomotion, ontogeny, and osteohistology of reptiles, particularly early sauropodomorph dinosaurs.
Education:
- PhD, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (2019)
- MSc, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (2016)
- BSc Honours, Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (2013)
- BSc, University of the Witwatersrand (2012)
Her research employs multidisciplinary tools such as micro-computed tomography (μCT) scanning, osteohistology, multivariate statistics, and functional anatomy to investigate how dinosaurs and their relatives grew, moved, and evolved. She also uses comparative living models to interpret the fossil record, with a particular emphasis on the ontogeny, ecology-morphology relationships, diversity, and biostratigraphic distribution of early sauropodomorphs. Her fieldwork spans South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and the USA, targeting poorly known Triassic and Jurassic fossil localities in southern Africa.
Her recent publications address sauropodomorph taxonomy, locomotion, and growth strategies across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Her work on Massospondylus carinatus and related taxa explores interelemental osteohistology, cranial anatomy, and locomotory shifts during ontogeny. She also investigates broader topics like snake feeding ecomorphology, trionychid turtle evolution, and sedimentological frameworks for Karoo Group deposits.
