Dr. Erin Maxwell

• Cooper, S.L. and Maxwell, E.E. In Press. First hypsocormine pachycormid in the Early Jurassic and its evolutionary implications for Pachycormidae (Actinopterygii: Teleosteomorpha). PalZ. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12542-025-00749-6
• Martinez-Motta, M.F., Cortés, D., Maxwell, E.E., Noè, L.F., Alfonso-Rojas, A., Parra-Ruge, F.H. and Cadena, E.A. In Press. Soft-tissue preservation in an ichthyosaur from the lower Cretaceous (Barremian-Aptian) of Colombia. Cretaceous Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2025.106305

• Johnson, M.M., Mujal, E., Cooper, S.L. and Maxwell, E.E. 2025. Criteria for inferring seafloor arrival position in teleosauroid carcasses (Crocodylomorpha: Thalattosuchia) and comparison with other marine vertebrates. Geological Magazine, 162:e19.
• Johnson, M.M., Scheyer, T.M., Canoville, A. and Maxwell, E.E. 2025. Palaeohistology of Macrospondylus bollensis (Crocodylomorpha: Thalattosuchia: Teleosauroidea) from the Posidonienschiefer Formation (Toarcian) of Germany, with insights into life history and ecology. The Anatomical Record 308(2):342-368. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25577
• Lomax, D.R., Massare, J.A. and Maxwell, E.E., 2025. A new long and narrow‐snouted ichthyosaur illuminates a complex faunal turnover during an undersampled Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian) interval. Papers in Palaeontology 11(5):e70038.
• Serafini, G., Miedema, F., Schweigert, G. and Maxwell, E.E., 2025. Temnodontosaurus bromalites from the Lower Jurassic of Germany: hunting, digestive taphonomy and prey preferences in a macropredatory ichthyosaur. Papers in Palaeontology, 11(3):e70018.
• Villalobos-Segura E., Amadori M., Stumpf S., Jambura P.L., Begat A., Lopez-Romero F.A., Schweigert G., Maxwell E.E., and Kriwet J. 2025. Articulated specimens provide new insights into the iconic Mesozoic shark genus Sphenodus. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 23(1):2507014.

• Bennion, R,F., Maxwell, E.E., Lambert, O., & Fischer, V. 2024. Craniodental ecomorphology of the large Jurassic ichthyosaurian Temnodontosaurus. Journal of Anatomy, 244(1):22-41.
• Cooper, S.L.A., López-Arbarello, A., & Maxwell, E.E. 2024. First occurrence of a †coccolepidid fish (?Chondrostei: †Coccolepididae) from the Upper Lias (Toarcian, Early Jurassic) of southern Germany. Palaeontologia Electronica, 27(1):a23.
• Cooper, S.L.A., Maxwell, E.E. & Martill, D.M. 2024. An unusually large ‘suspension-feeding’ fish from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset: the first true record of Asthenocormus (Pachycormiformes: Asthenocorminae) in the UK. PalZ 98:469–490.
• Höltke, O., Maxwell, E.E. & Rasser, M.W. 2024. A review of the paleobiology of some Neogene sharks and the fossil records of extant shark species. Diversity, 16(3):147.
• Höltke, O., Maxwell, E.E., Bracher, H., & Rasser, M.W. 2024. The shark and ray teeth of the Lower Miocene (Upper Marine Molasse) from Ballendorf, Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 104:153-180.
• Klug, C., Sivgin, T., Miedema, F., Scheffold, B., Reisdorf, A.G., Stössel, I., Maxwell, E.E. and Scheyer, T.M. 2024. Swiss ichthyosaurs: a review. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 143:31.
• Maxwell, E.E. and Cooper, S.L., 2024. Scale histology in the Early Jurassic fish Pachycormus (Actinopterygii, Pachycormidae). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 44(6):e2493164.
• Maxwell, E.E., Cooper, S.L., Serafini, G. and Schweigert, G., 2024. A new hypsocormine pachycormid from the Upper Jurassic Nusplingen Plattenkalk (Kimmeridgian, Germany) provides new insights into body plan evolution and scale reduction in Pachycormidae (Actinopterygii). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 44(5):e2490123.
• Miedema, F., Bastiaans, D., Scheyer, T.M., Klug, C., Maxwell, E.E. 2024. A large new Middle Jurassic ichthyosaur shows the importance of body size evolution in the origin of the Ophthalmosauria. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 24:34 (2024).
• Pardo-Pérez, J., Zambrano, P., Malkowski, M., Lomax, D., Villa-Martínez, R., Stinnesbeck, W., Frey, E., Scapini, F., Gascó, C. and Maxwell, E.E. 2024. Validity of Myobradypterygius hauthali von Huene, 1927 (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauria) from the Early Cretaceous of Chile and Argentina. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 202(2):zlae106.
• Pardo-Pérez, J.M., Malkowski, M., Zambrano, P., Lomax, D., Gascó Martín, C., Kaluza, J., Ortíz, H., Marín, A.P., Villa-Martínez, R., Yurac, M., Cáceres, M., Zegers, A., Delgado, J., Scapini, F., Astete, C., Maxwell, E.E. 2024. The first gravid ichthyosaur from the Hauterivian (Early Cretaceous): A complete Myobradypterygius hauthali von Huene, 1927 excavated from the border of the Tyndall Glacier, Torres del Paine National Park, southernmost Chile. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 44(4):e2445705.
• Scheyer, T.M., Johnson, M.M., Bastiaans, D., Miedema, F., Maxwell, E.E., & Klug, C. 2024. Oldest record of Machimosaurini (Thalattosuchia, Teleosauroidea): teeth and scavenging traces from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) of Switzerland. Royal Society Open Science, 11(4):240071.
• Serafini, G., Danise, S., Maxwell, E.E., Martire, L., Amalfitano, J., Miriam, C., Hohenstein, U.T. and Giusberti, L. 2024. Of his bones are crinoid made: taphonomy and deadfall ecology of marine reptiles from a pelagic setting (Middle-Upper Jurassic of Northeastern Italy). Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia, 130(1):97-128.

• Cooper, S.L.A., & Maxwell, E.E. 2023. Death by ammonite: fatal ingestion of an ammonoid shell by an Early Jurassic bony fish. Geological Magazine, 160(7):1254-1261.
• Johnson, M.M., Amson, E., Maxwell, E.E. 2023. Evaluating growth in Macrospondylus bollensis (Crocodylomorpha: Teleosauroidea) in the Toarcian Posidonia Shale, Germany. Papers in Palaeontology, 9(5):e1529.
• Miedema, F., Dal Sasso, C., Scheyer, T.M., & Maxwell, E.E. 2023. Ontogenetic variation in the cranium of Mixosaurus cornalianus, with implications for the evolution of ichthyosaurian cranial development. Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, 142:27.
• Miedema, F., Klein, N., Blackburn, D.G., Sander, P.M., Maxwell, E.E., Griebeler, E.M. & Scheyer, T.M. 2023. Heads or tails first? Evolution of fetal orientation in ichthyosaurs, with a scrutiny of the prevailing hypothesis. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 23:12.
• Muscente, D., Vinnes, O., Sinha, S., Schiffbauer, J., Maxwell, E.E., Schweigert, G. & Martindale, R.C. 2023. What role does anoxia play in exceptional fossil preservation? Lessons from the taphonomy of the Posidonia Shale (Germany). 238(104323):1-35.
• Serafini, G., Amalfitano, J., Danise, S., Maxwell, E.E., Rondelli, R., & Papazzoni, C.A. 2023. Not entirely ichthyosaur: a mysterious lamniform and ichthyopterygian-fall association from the abyssal Upper Cretaceous of the Northern Apennines (Italy). Palaios, 38(8):331-344.
• Serafini, G., Maxwell, E.E., Cobianchi, M., Borghi, L., Papazzoni, C.A., Roghi, G., & Giusberti, L. 2023. Dead, discovered, copied and forgotten: history and description of the first discovered ichthyosaur from the Upper Jurassic of Italy. Italian Journal of Geosciences, 142(1):131-148.

• Cooper, S.L.A., & Maxwell, E.E. 2022. Revision of the pachycormid fish Saurostomus esocinus Agassiz from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) of Europe, with new insight into the origins of suspension‐feeding in Pachycormidae. Papers in Palaeontology, 8(6):e1467.
• Cooper, S.L.A., Giles, S., Young, H., & Maxwell, E.E. 2022. A new large †pachycormiform (Teleosteomorpha:†Pachycormiformes) from the Lower Jurassic of Germany, with affinities to the suspension-feeding clade, and comments on the gastrointestinal anatomy of pachycormid fishes. Diversity, 14(12):1026.
• Höltke, O., Maxwell, E.E., Pollerspöck, J., & Rasser, M.W. 2022. The shark and ray fauna of the Upper Marine Molasse (Lower Miocene) of Rengetsweiler (Baden-Württemberg, SW Germany). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen, 303(1):89-122.
• Höltke, O., Maxwell, E.E., Pollerspöck, J., & Rasser, M.W. 2022. The shark and ray teeth of the Lower Miocene (Upper Marine Molasse) from Äpfingen, Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen, 305(3):323-342.
• Maxwell, E.E., Cooper, S.L.A., Mujal, E., Miedema, F., Serafini, G., & Schweigert, G. 2022. Evaluating the existence of vertebrate deadfall communities from the Early Jurassic Posidonienschiefer Formation. Geosciences, 12(4):158.
• Miedema, F., & Maxwell, E.E. 2022. Ontogenetic variation in the skull of Stenopterygius quadriscissus with an emphasis on prenatal development. Scientific Reports, 12(1):1-18.
• Mujal, E., Foth, C., Maxwell, E.E., Seegis, D., & Schoch, R.R. 2022. Feeding habits of the Middle Triassic pseudosuchian Batrachotomus kupferzellensis from Germany and palaeoecological implications for archosaurs. Palaeontology, 65(3):e12597.
• Serafini, G., Maxwell, E.E., Fornaciari, E., & Papazzoni, C.A. 2022. Revision of platypterygiine rostral material from the Northern Apennines (Italy): New insights on distal neurovascular anatomy and tooth replacement in Cretaceous ichthyosaurs. Cretaceous Research, 135:105167.

• Cortés, D., Maxwell, E. E., & Larsson, H. C. 2021. Re-appearance of hypercarnivore ichthyosaurs in the Cretaceous with differentiated dentition: revision of ‘Platypterygius’ sachicarum (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria, Ophthalmosauridae) from Colombia. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 19(14):969-1002.
• Fernández, M.S., Campos, L., Maxwell, E.E., & Garrido, A.C. 2021. Catutosaurus gaspariniae, gen. et sp. nov.(Ichthyosauria, Thunnosauria) of the Upper Jurassic of Patagonia and the evolution of the ophthalmosaurids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 41(1):e1922427.
• Martin, J.E., Suan, G., Suchéras-Marx, B., Rulleau, L., Schlögl, J., Janneau, K., Williams, M., Léna, A., Grosjean, A.-S., Sarroca, E., Perrier, V., Fernandez, V., Charruault, A.-L., Maxwell, E.E., & Vincent, P. 2021. Stenopterygiids from the lower Toarcian of Beaujolais and a chemostratigraphic context for ichthyosaur preservation during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 514(1):153-172.
• Maxwell, E.E., Romano, C., & Wu, F.-X. 2021. Regional disparity in the axial skeleton of Saurichthyidae and implications for axial regionalization in non‐teleostean actinopterygians. Journal of Zoology, 315(1):29-41.

• Museum Spezial: Patient Fischsaurier – restoring damages fossils

The SMNS has one of the largest collections worldwide of fossils from the Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden. However, the depositional conditions resulting in the preservation of these spectacular finds also lead to an abundance of iron sulfide minerals deposited in and around the fossil. When exposed to the atmosphere following excavation, chemical changes begin that can damage and even eventually destroy the fossil. This exhibition focused on both the mineralogy and formation of iron sulfide minerals such as pyrite and marcasite in sedimentary environments, and also the process of fossil conservation and restoration.

• Curator for fossil aquatic vertebrates, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart

• Postdoctoral researcher, Evolutionary Morphology Group (Prof. Sánchez), Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich, Schweiz

•  Humboldt postdoctoral fellow, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart (Host: Rainer Schoch) und Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin (Host:Johannes Müller)

• Killam Forschungstipendiatin, Dept. of Biology, University of Alberta (Arbeitsgruppe: Michael Caldwell)

• PhD program, McGill University (Dissertation: Evolution of Avian Ossification Sequences)

• BSc program, University of Alberta (Evolutionary Biology)