Gastwissenschaftler Dr. Jeff Liston
Jeff Liston studied Evolutionary Zoology, Invertebrate Palaeontology, Geology and Oceanography (after a brief bout of Medicine) at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. While curating the palaeobotanical and vertebrate palaeontology collections of the Hunterian Museum, he did a PhD on the first giant planktivore, the Middle Jurassic pachycormid Leedsichthys, at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. During this time, he led the record-breaking longest European vertebrate palaeontological excavation for one specimen, on the most complete specimen of Leedsichthys, a residential excavation outside Peterborough, England. After leaving Glasgow, he worked for two and a half years at Yunnan University in Kunming, China, to set up and lead the vertebrate palaeontology section of the Yunnan Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology, working on Early Jurassic dinosaurs and their eggs. He then worked for Peterborough Museum, England, for 9 months, to curate the Leedsichthys specimen he had led the excavation for some 12 years earlier (see www.bigjurassicfish.com for the results of the Leviathan Project). Although he has ventured many times into dinosaur and marine reptile research, as well as history of science and palaeontology policy and ethics, his first love remains Leedsichthys and its kindred pachycormids, whether suspension-feeding or otherwise.