معرفی
Lene Liebe Delsett is a Researcher at the Norwegian Center for Paleontology within the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo. Her work focuses on marine reptiles from the Mesozoic era, with particular expertise in ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and whale evolution. She currently leads the ECHO project (2023-2026), funded by the Norwegian Research Council, which investigates evolutionary convergence between whales and ichthyosaurs across different geological periods.
Dr. Delsett earned her PhD in vertebrate paleontology in 2018 from the Natural History Museum in Oslo. She was a US-Norway Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC in 2021. She has also worked as a researcher in the trans-disciplinary Collecting Norden project (2022-2023).
Her research interests span vertebrate paleontology with emphasis on convergent evolution between marine tetrapods across geological eras. She specializes in ichthyosaurs (particularly Late Jurassic Ophthalmosauridae), whales (including their evolution and museum collection history), and plesiosaurs (focusing on Arctic specimens and paleohistology). Her work combines morphological analysis, microstructure examination, and historical collection studies to understand evolutionary pathways, feeding strategies, locomotion, and reproductive adaptations of these ancient marine creatures.
Dr. Delsett's recent publications demonstrate a consistent research trajectory examining evolutionary patterns across marine reptile groups. Her work bridges paleontological analysis with museum collection studies, revealing how historical biases affect our understanding of evolutionary processes. She frequently employs comparative methods across different marine reptile groups to identify convergent evolutionary pathways, with particular attention to Arctic specimens from Svalbard and other northern regions.
Dr. Delsett is currently principal investigator for the ECHO project (Evolutionary Convergence in Historical Oceans), a Young Talents grant from the Norwegian Research Council running from 2023-2026. She has also been involved in the Collecting Norden project studying historical whale collections. Her research often involves international collaborations with institutions in the UK, France, and Denmark, demonstrating her strong network within the paleontological community.
Her laboratory work focuses on the analysis of fossil specimens from Arctic regions, particularly Svalbard, with expertise in both morphological examination and histological analysis. She works closely with the Spitsbergen Mesozoic Research Group and the Norwegian Center for Paleontology (NORPAL), contributing to ongoing fieldwork and specimen analysis from Arctic expeditions. Her research has provided new insights into the distribution of marine reptiles across ancient oceans, particularly how species like Colymbosaurus persisted across geological boundaries.
