Robert R. Reisz

Who is Robert R. Reisz?

Robert Rafael Reisz is a Canadian paleontologist and specialist in the study of early amniote and tetrapod evolution.

Robert Reisz was born August 27, 1947, in Oradea, Romania. He received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. from McGill University as Robert L. Carroll’s first doctoral graduate. After teaching as visiting lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles for a year, he accepted an appointment in the Biology Department at the University of Toronto’s Mississauga Campus in 1975 where he still maintains his research lab. His research has been funded continuously by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. He conducted field work in North America, Africa, and Europe, where he excavated fossils from the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. These excavations were frequently funded by the National Geographic Society.

Dr. Reisz has broad interests in vertebrate paleontology. He has published more than 100 scientific articles on subjects as diverse as lungfish and dinosaurs, but is best known for his work on early amniotes.