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Mathew Wedel

0000-0001-6082-3103

Assistant Professor (Animal structure and function)

Pomona, CA

I am a vertebrate paleontologist, and my main areas of interest are sauropod dinosaurs and the evolution of pneumatic (air-filled) bones in dinosaurs and birds. I study the evolutionary origin of pneumatic bones in archosaurs, the respiratory systems of sauropods and other dinosaurs, and the evolution of large size and long necks in sauropods. I conducted my undergraduate and Masters research under Rich Cifelli at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, and my PhD work under Kevin Padian and Bill Clemens at UC Berkeley. I am currently an Assistant Professor at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, where I teach gross anatomy.

Publications

  • Taylor, M.P., and Wedel, M.J. 2013. Why sauropods had long necks; and why giraffes have short necks. PeerJ 1:e36
  • Wedel, M.J. 2012. A monument of inefficiency: the presumed course of the recurrent laryngeal nerve in sauropod dinosaurs. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 57(2):251-256.
  • Yates, A.M., Wedel, M.J., and Bonnan, M.F. 2012. The early evolution of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in sauropodomorph dinosaurs. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 57(1):85-100.
  • Taylor, M.P., Hone, D.W.E., Wedel, M.J., and Naish, D. 2011. The long necks of sauropods did not evolve primarily through sexual selection. Journal of Zoology.
  • Taylor, M.P., Wedel, M.J., and Cifelli, R.L. 2011. A new sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, USA. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56(1):75-98.
  • Taylor, M.P., Wedel, M.J., and Naish, D. 2009. Head and neck posture in sauropod dinosaurs inferred from extant animals. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 54:213-220.
  • Wedel, M.J. 2009. Evidence for bird-like air sacs in saurischian dinosaurs. Journal of Experimental Zoology 311A(8):611-628.
  • Wedel, M.J. 2007. What pneumaticity tells us about ‘prosauropods’, and vice versa. Special Papers in Palaeontology 77:207-222.
  • Wedel, M.J. 2006. Origin of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in dinosaurs. Integrative Zoology 2:80-85.
  • Wedel, M.J. 2005. Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in sauropods and its implications for mass estimates; pp. 201-228 in Wilson, J.A., and Curry-Rogers, K. (eds.), The Sauropods: Evolution and Paleobiology. University of California Press, Berkeley.
  • Bonnan, M.F., and Wedel, M.J. 2004. First occurrence of Brachiosaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Oklahoma. PaleoBios 24(2):13-21.
  • Wedel, M.J. 2003b. The evolution of vertebral pneumaticity in sauropod dinosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23:344-357.
  • Wedel, M.J. 2003a. Vertebral pneumaticity, air sacs, and the physiology of sauropod dinosaurs. Paleobiology 29:243-255.
  • Wedel, M.J., and Sanders, R.K. 2002. Osteological correlates of cervical musculature in Aves and Sauropoda (Dinosauria: Saurischia), with comments on the cervical ribs of Apatosaurus. PaleoBios 22(3):1-6.
  • Wedel, M.J., Cifelli, R.L., and Sanders, R.K. 2000b. Osteology, paleobiology, and relationships of the sauropod dinosaur Sauroposeidon. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 45:343-388.
  • Wedel, M.J., Cifelli, R.L., and Sanders, R.K. 2000a. Sauroposeidon proteles, a new sauropod from the Early Cretaceous of Oklahoma. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20:109-114.

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