Biography
As the Strickland Curator of Ornithology I am responsible for overseeing the museum's impressive collection of bird skins, skeletons, taxidermy, nests, and eggs. I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the early origin and diversification of the modern groups of birds. My research group explores the avian fossil record and studies modern bird biology in a phylogenetic framework to understand how and when modern bird diversity has arisen. I am originally from Calgary, Alberta, studied Zoology at the University of British Columbia, and received a PhD in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University in 2017. I joined the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge as a University Lecturer in 2018, became a Fellow of Christ's College in 2019, and joined the University Museum of Zoology in 2021. Since 2019 I have held a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship, which funds our group's research.
Publications
Full publication list on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=oxSZWaEAAAAJ&hl=en
Benito, J., Kuo, P-C., Widrig, K.E., Jagt, J.W.M., Field, D.J. 2022. Cretaceous ornithurine supports a neognathous crown bird ancestor. Nature 612: 100–105. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05445-y
Brocklehurst, N. & Field, D.J. 2021. Macroevolutionary dynamics of dentition in Mesozoic birds reveal no long-term selection towards tooth loss. iScience 24: 102243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102243
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.
Teaching and Supervisions
I contribute to undergraduate teaching in palaeontology and evolution in the Department of Earth Sciences (School of Physical Sciences) and the Department of Zoology (School of Biological Sciences).
