Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues

Associate Director for
Research and Collections

Phone: 202-633-0830
Fax: 202-633-9418
E-mail: suesh@si.edu

Mailing Address:
Office of the Associate Director for
Research and Collections
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
MRC 106, P.O. Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012

Education:
Ph.D. 1984 Harvard University
M.A. 1978 Harvard University
M.Sc. 1977 University of Alberta
Cand. geol. 1975 Johannes Gutenberg-Universität
Certificate 2000 Museum Management Institute (J. Paul Getty Trust)

Biography:

Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues is Associate Director for Research and Collections at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, DC. In this capacity, he has overall responsibility for scientific research at the largest and most-visited natural history museum in the world and for its unequalled collections comprising over 126 million objects and specimens.

Dr. Sues did his undergraduate studies in the geological sciences and zoology at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz. He received a Master of Science degree in geology from the University of Alberta and Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees in biology from Harvard University. After postdoctoral research at McGill University and the National Museum of Natural History, Sues joined the staff of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in 1992 as Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, and from 1999 to 2002 served as Vice President for Collections and Research of that institution. Concurrently he taught on the faculty of the University of Toronto, since 1997 as Professor of Zoology. Prior to rejoining the Smithsonian, Sues worked as Associate Director for Science and Collections at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh from 2002 to 2004.

In addition to his administrative responsibilities, Sues continues his own research, which focuses on Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates, especially dinosaurs and their relatives, and changes in continental ecosystems through time. He has collected fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct vertebrates in North America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Dr. Sues has discovered scores of new species of extinct mammal precursors and reptiles, including a number of new dinosaurs. His scientific research as well as his work on innovative museum exhibits have been widely featured by the national and international media.

A Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Sues served on the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society for eight years. A Past President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, he currently is Vice President of the Natural Science Collections Alliance. Dr. Sues has published over 100 scientific publications, including a number of articles in Nature and Science, and several books on vertebrate paleontology and paleoecology. He has also been active as editor or on editorial boards of various professional journals and book series.

Publications (last five years):

~2007~

J. S. Anderson and H.-D. Sues (eds.). Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 432 pp.

H.-D. Sues and J.S. Anderson. Studying evolutionary transitions among vertebrates; pp. 1-12 in J.S. Anderson and H.-D. Sues (eds.), Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis.

H. C. E. Larsson and H.-D. Sues. Cranial osteology and phylogenetic relationships of Hamadasuchus rebouli (Crocodyliformes: Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Cretaceous of Morocco. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 149:533-567.

A.O. Averianov and H.-D. Sues. A new troodontid (Dinosauria:Theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Uzbekistan, with a review of troodontid records from the territories of the former Soviet Union. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27:87-98.

~2006~

H.-D. Sues and F. A. Jenkins, Jr. The postcranial skeleton of Kayentatherium wellesi from the Lower Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona and the phylogenetic significance of postcranial features in tritylodontid cynodonts; pp. 114-152 in M. T. Carrano, T. J. Gaudin, R. W. Blob, and J. R. Wible (eds.), Amniote Paleobiology: Perspectives on the Evolution of Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

J.A. Hopson and H.-D. Sues. A traversodont cynodont from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) of Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Paläontologische Zeitschrift 80: 124-129.

J.F. Bonaparte and H.-D. Sues. A new species of Clevosaurus (Lepidosauria: Rhynchocephalia) from the Late Triassic of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Palaeontology 49: 917-923.

~2005~

D. R. Piperno and H.-D. Sues. Dinosaurs dined on grass. Science 310: 1126-1128.

R. R. Reisz, D. Scott, H.-D. Sues, D. Evans, and M. A. Raath. Embryos of an Early Jurassic prosauropod dinosaur and their evolutionary significance. Science 309: 761-764.

U. B. Göhlich, L. M. Chiappe, J. M. Clark, and H.-D. Sues. The systematic position of the Late Jurassic alleged dinosaur Macelognathus (Crocodylomorpha: Sphenosuchia). Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 42: 307-321.

~2004~

H.-D. Sues, R. R. Reisz, S. Hinic, and M. A. Raath. On the skull of Massospondylus carinatus Owen, 1854 (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) from the Elliot and Clarens formations (Lower Jurassic) of South Africa. Annals of Carnegie Museum 73: 239-257.

D. B. Norman, H.-D. Sues, L. M. Witmer, and R. A. Coria. Basal Ornithopoda; pp. 393-412 in D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria. Second Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley.

I. V. Novikov and H.-D. Sues. Cranial osteology of Kapes (Parareptilia: Procolophonidae) from the Lower Triassic of the Orenburg Region, Russia. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 232: 267-281. 

~2003~

H.-D. Sues, P. E. Olsen, J. G. Carter, and D. M. Scott. A new crocodylomorph reptile from the Upper Triassic of North Carolina. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23: 329-343.

H.-D. Sues. An unusual new archosauromorph reptile from the Upper Triassic Wolfville Formation of Nova Scotia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40: 635-649.

H.-D. Sues, A. M. Murray, and J. S. Anderson (eds.). Studies on the Evolution of Vertebrates – Papers in Honour of Robert Lynn Carroll. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, vol. 40, no. 4.  National Research Council Press, Ottawa, 211 pp.

~2002~

S. P. Modesto, R. J. Damiani, and H.-D. Sues. A reappraisal of Coletta seca, a basal procolophonoid reptile from the Lower Triassic of South Africa. Palaeontology 45: 883-895.

S. P. Modesto and H.-D. Sues. The skull of the Early Triassic archosauromorph reptile Prolacerta broomi and its phylogenetic significance. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 140: 335-351. 

H.-D. Sues, E. Frey, D. M. Martill, and D. M. Scott. Irritator challengeri, a spinosaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22: 535-547.

P. E. Olsen, D.V. Kent, H.-D. Sues, C. Koeberl, H. Huber, A. Montanari, E. C. Rainforth, S. J. Fowell, M. J. Szajna, and B. W. Hartline. Ascent of dinosaurs linked to an iridium anomaly at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Science 296: 1305-1307.

J. M. Clark and H.-D. Sues. Two new basal crocodylomorph archosaurs from the Lower Jurassic and the monophyly of Sphenosuchia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136: 77-95.