Dr. Erin Maxwell

Profilbild Erin Maxwell

Curator

Fossil aquatic vertebrates

Contact

Tel.:
+49 (0) 711 / 8936-145
Fax:
+49 (0) 711 / 8936-100

Research Interests

My research interests focus on addressing the following questions: Is there a relationship between intraspecific variation and directionality of morphological evolution over geological time? What can we learn from studying fossil ontogenies? How do abiotic factors influence the two previous questions – especially the amount and type of meristic (count) variation observed? I am currently studying these sources of variation in marine vertebrates from the Early Jurassic of southwestern Germany.

Projects

Publications (last 5 years)

2025 / In Press

  • Johnson, M.M., Scheyer, T.M., Canoville, A. and Maxwell, E.E. In Press. Palaeohistology of Macrospondylus bollensis (Crocodylomorpha: Thalattosuchia: Teleosauroidea) from the Posidonienschiefer Formation (Toarcian) of Germany, with insights into life history and ecology. The Anatomical Record. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.25577
  • 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. In Press. 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.

2024

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

2023

  • 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.

2022

2021

  • 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.

2020

  • López-Arbarello, A., Maxwell, E.E., & Schweigert, G. 2020. New Halecomorph (Actinopterygii, Neopterygii) from the Nusplingen Lithographic Limestone (Upper Jurassic, Late Kimmeridgian), Germany. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 40(2):e1771348. 
  • Maxwell, E.E., & Cortés, D. 2020. A revision of the Early Jurassic ichthyosaur Hauffiopteryx (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria), and description of a new species from southwestern Germany. Paleontologia Electronica 23(2):a31.
  • Maxwell, E.E., Lambers, P. H., López-Arbarello, A., & Schweigert, G. 2020. Re-evaluation of pachycormid fishes from the Late Jurassic of Southwestern Germany. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 65(3):429-453.
  • Pardo-Pérez, J.M., Kear, B.P. & Maxwell, E.E. 2020. Skeletal pathologies track body plan evolution in ichthyosaurs. Scientific Reports 10:4206.
  • Serafini, G., Amalfitano, J., Cobianchi, M., Fornaciari, B., Maxwell, E.E., Papazzoni, C.A., Roghi, G. & Giusberti, L. 2020. Evidence of opportunistic feeding between ichthyosaurs and the oldest occurrence of the hexanchid shark Notidanodon from the Upper Jurassic of northern Italy. Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia 126(3):629-655.

Exhibitions

2016-2017

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.

CV

since 2014

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

2012-2014

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

2010-2012

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

2008-2010

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

2003-2008

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

1999-2003

  • BSc program, University of Alberta (Evolutionary Biology)