Randall Irmis

Randall Irmis is a Professor in Geology & Geophysics at the University of Utah and Curator of Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Utah since 2009. He was Chief Curator at the museum until 2023. His work integrates

• high-precision geochronology
• paleoclimatology
• vertebrate evolution
• sedimentary systems analysis

to study Earth-life interactions during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic.

His research focuses on

• Triassic non-marine ecosystem transitions
• dinosaur origins and diversification
• Gondwana paleobiogeography
• geochemical fingerprinting of fossils
• Carnian Pluvial Episode impacts
• synapsid-crocodylomorph evolution

using fieldwork, core analysis, and multi-proxy datasets.

Recent publications analyze

• Triassic tetrapod community evolution
• ankylothecodonty in Silesauridae
• Carnian paleoclimate in Argentina
• U-Pb zircon geochronology
• ochrostratigraphic uncertainties
• early pterosaur-dinosaur precursor relationships

across North and South America, Japan, and China.

Teaching activities include

• PhD/MSc thesis supervision
• Paleontology special topics courses
• Field geology instruction

. Major grants from the National Science Foundation and Bureau of Land Management fund his work on

• Grand Staircase-escalante fossil protection
• Colorado Plateau coring projects
• Triassic impact event analysis
• Paleotropical climate calibration

.