Jacques Gauthier

From EvoWiki

Jacques Gauthier, of Yale University, has been among the most influential vertebrate paleontologists of the 20th Century. Gauthier studied at the University of California, Berkely, and his graduate thesis (1984) marked the first major cladistic analysis of Diapsida, and argued for dinosaur monophyly. Gauthier's next major contribution was the first wide-scale cladistic analysis of Saurischia in defense of the theropod origin hypothesis (1986). Gauthier's two studies, and particularly the latter, served as the foundation for a revolution in dinosaur phylogenetics, whereby cladistics gained preeminence in phylogenetic reconstruction of Dinosauria. Gauthier's 1984 and 1986 work still serves as the basic reference for any modern cladistic analysis of either Diapsida as a whole, or Dinosauria.

Further work on Gauthier's part has included mapping the phylogeny of Amniota and refining the taxonomy of tetrapods (namely, the limitation of Tetrapoda to a crown clade). Gauthier has also argued for a system of apomorphy + clade nomenclature in dinosaur taxonomy (most recently at the 1999 Ostrom symposium).

JGK