{"id":509,"date":"2021-01-30T16:24:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T23:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/?page_id=509"},"modified":"2022-04-12T11:08:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T18:08:45","slug":"scott-persons","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/members\/scott-persons\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Persons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201911 MSc, \u201916 PhD, PDF<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Scott\u2019s research focused on the tail anatomy of non-avian theropod dinosaurs, which includes the big carnivores like Tyrannosaurus<\/em> and Albertosaurus<\/em>. He performed dissections on modern animals to examine relationships between tail bone structure (which would be preserved in the fossil record) and tail musculature and flexibility. Some dinosaur tail muscles were connected to their leg bones, as well as to their hips, so his work has direct implications for assessments of dinosaur speed. Scott was also concerned with charting evolutionary trends and specializations in tail morphology across the theropod lineage. Beyond research, he was involved in the design and curation of several exhibits at the University of Alberta and various institutions in the United States, partook in multiple years of fieldwork in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Grande Prairie, Mongolia, and other places, and helped develop and deliver the Massive Open Online Course Dino 101<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scott is originally from North Carolina and completed an undergraduate degree at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. His undergrad research included palaeoecology assessments of Triceratops<\/em>-tooth-rich microsites in the Lance Formation of Wyoming, an evaluation of the relationship between foot size (relative to body mass) and habitat preference based on footprints of present African megafauna measured on the Serengeti Plain of Tanzania, and a senior honors project on the Ediacaran (Precambrian) fauna of the Boston Basin. Scott completed a MSc and then PhD with Specialization in Systematics and Evolution in 2011 and 2016, respectively, at the University of Alberta. He stayed on as a Postdoctoral Fellow until becoming an assistant professor at the College of Charleston and head curator of its Mace Brown Museum of Natural History in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LAB-RELATED PUBLICATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Holmes, R.B., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, Rupal, B.S., Qureshi, A.J., and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02020. Morphological variation and asymmetrical development in the skull of\u00a0Styracosaurus albertensis<\/em>.\u00a0Cretaceous Research<\/em>\u00a0107: 104308. DOI:\u00a010.1016\/j.cretres.2019.104308<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong>,\u00a0Currie, P.J., and Erickson, G.M. 2020. An older and exceptionally large adult specimen of\u00a0Tyrannosaurus rex<\/em>.\u00a0Anatomical Record<\/em>\u00a0303(4): 656\u2013672. DOI:\u00a010.1002\/ar.24118<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02020. The anatomical and functional evolution of the femoral fourth trochanter in ornithischian dinosaurs.\u00a0Anatomical Record<\/em>\u00a0303(4): 1146\u20131157. DOI:\u00a010.1002\/ar.24094<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02019. Feather evolution exemplifies sexually selected bridges across the adaptive landscape.\u00a0Evolution<\/em>\u00a073: 1686\u20131694. DOI:\u00a010.1111\/evo.13795<\/a><\/p>\n

Stettner, B., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02018. A giant sauropod footprint from the Nemegt Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Mongolia.\u00a0Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology<\/em>\u00a0494: 168\u2013172. DOI:\u00a010.1016\/j.palaeo.2017.10.027<\/a><\/p>\n

Bell, P.R., Campione, N.E., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>,\u00a0Currie, P.J., Larson, P.L., Tanke, D.H., and Bakker, R.T. 2017. Tyrannosauroid integument reveals conflicting patterns of gigantism and feather evolution.\u00a0Biology Letters<\/em>\u00a013: 20170092. DOI:\u00a010.1098\/rsbl.2017.0092<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02017. The functional origin of dinosaur bipedalism: Cumulative evidence from bipedally inclined reptiles and disinclined mammals.\u00a0Journal of Theoretical Biology<\/em>\u00a0420: 1\u20137. DOI:\u00a010.1016\/j.jtbi.2017.02.032<\/a><\/p>\n

Ruxton, G., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, and Currie, P.J. 2017. A continued role for signaling functions in the early evolution of feathers. Evolution<\/em> 71: 797\u2013799. DOI: 10.1111\/evo.13178<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and Currie, P.J. 2016. An approach to scoring cursorial limb proportions in carnivorous dinosaurs and an attempt to account for allometry. Scientific Reports<\/em> 6: 19828. DOI: 10.1038\/srep19828<\/a><\/p>\n

Xing, L.D., McKellar, R.C., Xu, X., Li, G., Bai, M., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, Miyashita, T., Benton, M.J., Zhang, J.P., Wolfe, A.P., Yi, Q.-R., Tseng, K.-W., Ran, H., and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02016. A feathered dinosaur tail with primitive plumage trapped in mid-Cretaceous amber and its implications for the evolution of feathers.\u00a0Current Biology<\/em>\u00a026(24): 3352\u20133360. DOI:\u00a010.1016\/j.cub.2016.10.008<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02015. Bristles before down: a new perspective on the functional origin of feathers.\u00a0Evolution<\/em>\u00a069(4): 857\u2013862. DOI:\u00a010.1111\/evo.12634<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, Funston, G.F.,\u00a0Currie, P.J., and Norell, M.A. 2015. A possible instance of sexual dimorphism in the tails of two oviraptorosaur dinosaurs.\u00a0Scientific Reports<\/em>\u00a05: 9472: DOI:\u00a010.1038\/srep09472<\/a><\/p>\n

Funston, G.F., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, Bradley, G.J., and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02015. New material of the large-bodied caenagnathid\u00a0Caenagnathus collinsi<\/em>\u00a0from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada.\u00a0Cretaceous Research<\/em>\u00a054: 179\u2013187. DOI:\u00a010.1016\/j.cretres.2014.12.002<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02014. Duckbills on the Run: The Cursorial Abilities of Hadrosaurs and Implications for Tyrannosaur-Avoidance Strategies. In Eberth, D.A. and Evans, D.C. (editors),\u00a0Hadrosaurs<\/em>\u00a0(pp. 449\u2013458). Indiana University Press.<\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong>,\u00a0Currie, P.J., and Norell, M.A. 2014. Oviraptorosaur tail forms and functions.\u00a0Acta Palaeontologica Polonica<\/em>\u00a059: 553\u2013567 DOI:\u00a010.4202\/app.2012.0093<\/a><\/p>\n

Xing, L.D., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, Bell, P.R., Xu, X., Zhang, J.-P., Miyashita, T., Wang, F.-P., and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02013. Piscivory in the feathered dinosaur\u00a0Microraptor<\/em>.\u00a0Evolution<\/em>\u00a067(8): 2441\u20132445. DOI:\u00a010.1111\/evo.12119<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02013. Dragon tails: Convergent caudal morphology in winged archosaurs.\u00a0Acta Geologica Sinica<\/em>\u00a086: 1402\u20131412. DOI:\u00a010.1111\/1755-6724.12009<\/a><\/p>\n

Xing, L.D., Bell, P.R., Ji, S., Ji, Q., Miyashita, T., Persons, W.S.<\/strong>, Burns, M.E., and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02012. Abdominal contents from two large Early Cretaceous compsognathids (Dinosauria: Theropoda) demonstrate feeding on confuciusornithids and dromaeosaurids.\u00a0PLOS ONE<\/em>\u00a07(8): e44012. DOI:\u00a010.1371\/journal.pone.0044012<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02011. Dinosaur speed demon: the caudal musculature of\u00a0Carnotaurus sastrei<\/em>\u00a0and implications for the evolution of South American abelisaurids.\u00a0PLOS ONE<\/em>\u00a06(10): e25763. DOI:\u00a010.1371\/journal.pone.0025763<\/a><\/p>\n

Persons, W.S.<\/strong> and\u00a0Currie, P.J.\u00a02011. The tail of\u00a0Tyrannosaurus<\/em>: reassessing size and locomotive importance of the\u00a0M. caudofemoralis<\/em>\u00a0in non-avian theropods.\u00a0Anatomical Record<\/em>\u00a0294: 119\u2013131. DOI:\u00a010.1002\/ar.21290<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

OTHER LINKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Website: http:\/\/scottpersons.org\/<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201911 MSc, \u201916 PhD, PDF Scott\u2019s research focused on the tail anatomy of non-avian theropod dinosaurs, which includes the big carnivores like Tyrannosaurus and Albertosaurus. He performed dissections on modern animals to examine relationships between tail bone structure (which would be preserved in the fossil record) and tail musculature and flexibility. Some dinosaur tail muscles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":30,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-509","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/509\/revisions\/850"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/currie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}