By studying the palaeoecology of extinct animals, François Therrien aims to determine how animals behaved when they were alive, and what the world they lived in looked like. For the palaeoecology of extinct animals, François uses two different approaches. The shapes of animals’ bones help him determine the behaviours of extinct animals (e.g., how they hunted, walked, laid their eggs). He also studies the features and chemical composition of ancient soils (called paleosols) to reconstruct the environments and climatic conditions the animals lived in.
Research Interests
- The lifestyle and behaviours of extinct animals.
- The feeding behavior of carnivorous dinosaurs and other extinct predators
- The bite force of extinct predators.
- The environments and climate in which extinct animals lived.
- Faunal and environmental changes that occurred just before the extinction of dinosaurs.
Professional Highlights
- Discovered the first feathered dinosaurs from North America.
- Researched Cryodrakon boreas, a new species of pterosaur that was among the largest and oldest in North America.
- Published on a theropod site from Mongolia that reveals that colonial nesting behaviour first evolved in the dinosaurian ancestors of birds.
- Researched Thanatotheristes degrootorum
Education
Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University – School of Medicine, 2004
M.Sc., University of Rhode Island, 1999
B.Sc., Université de Montréal, 1997
- Recent Publications
Joubarne, T., Therrien, F., and Zelenitsky, D.K. 2024. Evidence of age segregation behavior in Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (Hadrosauridae: Lambeosaurinae) based on the taphonomic comparison of bonebeds from the Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian) Oldman Formation of southernmost Alberta (Canada) and Two Medicine Formation of Montana (USA). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 653 (20 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2024.112416
Voris, J.T., Zelenitsky, D.K., and Therrien, F. 2024. Caenagnathids (Theropoda, Oviraptorosauria) from the uppermost Maastrichtian of the Scollard Formation of Alberta, Canada. Cretaceous Research, 153: 105708 (7 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105708
Therrien, F., Zelenitsky, D.K., Tanaka, K., Voris, J.T., Erickson, G.M., Currie, P.J., DeBuhr, C.L., and Kobayashi, Y. 2023. Exceptionally preserved stomach contents of a young tyrannosaurid reveal an ontogenetic dietary shift in an iconic extinct predator. Science Advances, 9: eadi0505 (10 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adi0505
Tanaka, K., Zelenitsky, D.K., Therrien, F., Lee, Y.-N., Kubota, K., Kobayashi, Y., Funston, G.F., and Tsogtbaatar, K. 2023. Description and review of non-avian dinosaur eggs from Cretaceous deposits of the Mongolian Gobi Desert. In Y.-N. Lee (ed.), Windows into Sauropsid and Synapsid Evolution: Essays in Honor of Louis L. Jacobs, Dinosaur Science Center Press, South Korea, pp. 176–210.
Joubarne, J., Therrien, F., and Zelenitsky, D.K. 2023. Integumentary impressions on hadrosaurid specimens from the Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada: Implications for integument patterns and hand morphology. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 42: e221387 (6 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2023.2213287
Farlow, J.O., Coroian, D., Currie, P.J., Foster, J.R., Mallon, J.C., and Therrien, F. 2023. “Dragons” on the landscape: Modelling the abundance of large carnivorous dinosaurs of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation (USA) and the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation (Canada). The Anatomical Record, 306: 1669–1696.
Tagliavento, M., Davies, A.J., Bernecker, M., Staudigel, P.T., Dawson, R.R., Dietzel, M., Goetschl, K., Guo, W., Schulp, A.S., Therrien, F., Zelenitsky, D.K., Gerdes, A., Müller, W., and Fiebig, J. 2023. Evidence for heterothermic endothermy and reptile-like eggshell mineralization in Troodon, a non-avian maniraptoran theropod. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(15): e2213987120 (9 pp.).
Voris, J.T, Zelenitsky, D.K., Therrien, F., Ridgely, R., Currie, P.J., and Witmer, L.M. 2022. Two exceptionally preserved juvenile specimens of Gorgosaurus libratus (Tyrannosauridae: Albertosaurinae) provide new insight into the timing of ontogenetic changes in tyrannosaurids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 41: 21 pp. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2021.2041651
Martin, J., Hassler, A., Montagnac, G., Therrien, F., and Balter, V. 2022. How stable were dinosaur communities before the K-Pg boundary? A perspective using calcium isotopes as a dietary proxy. GSA Bulletin, 134: 2548–2560.
Brown, C.M., Currie, P.J., and Therrien, F. 2022. Intraspecific facial bite marks in tyrannosaurids provide insight into sexual maturity and evolution of bird-like intersexual display. Paleobiology, 48: 12–43. https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2021.29
Farlow, J.A., Falkingham, P.L., and Therrien, F. 2021. Pedal proportions of small and large hadrosaurs and other potentially bipedal ornithischian dinosaurs. Cretaceous Research, 127: 10 pp. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104945
Therrien, F., Zelenitsky, D.K., Voris, J.T., and Tanaka, K. 2021. Mandibular force profiles and tooth morphology in growth series of Albertosaurus sarcophagus and Gorgosaurus libratus (Tyrannosauridae: Albertosaurinae) provide evidence for an ontogenetic dietary shift in tyrannosaurids. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 58: 812–828.
Wosik, M., Chiba, K., Therrien, F., and Evans, D.C. 2020. Testing size-frequency as a method of ontogenetic aging: A life-history assessment of hadrosaurid dinosaurs from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada, with implications for hadrosaurid paleoecology. Paleobiology, 46: 379–404.
Tanaka, K., Zelenitsky, D.K., Therrien, F., Ikeda, T., Kubota, K., Saegusa, H., Tanaka, T., and Ikuno, K. 2020. Exceptionally small theropod eggs from the Lower Cretaceous Ohyamashimo Formation of Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. Cretaceous Research, 114: 104519.
Voris, J.T., Therrien, F., Zelenitsky, D.K., and Brown, C.M. 2020. A new tyrannosaurine (Theropoda: Tyrannosauridae) from the Campanian Foremost Formation of Alberta, Canada, provides insight into the evolution and biogeography of tyrannosaurids. Cretaceous Research, 110: 104388.
Dawson, R.R., Field, D.J., Hull, P.M., Zelenitsky, D.K., Therrien, F., and Affek, H.P. 2020. Eggshell geochemistry reveals ancestral metabolic thermal regulation in Dinosauria. Science Advances, 6:eaax9361, 10 pp. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax9361
Voris, J.T., Therrien, F., Zelenitsky, D.K., and Brown, C.M. 2020. A new tyrannosaurine (Theropoda:Tyrannosauridae) from the
Campanian Foremost Formation of Alberta, Canada, provides insight into the evolution and biogeography of tyrannosaurids.
Cretaceous Research 110: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104388- Selected Publications
Eberth, D. A., Evans, D. C., Brinkman, D. B., Therrien, F., Tanke, D. H. & Russell, L. S. (2013). Dinosaur biostratigraphy of the Edmonton Group (Upper Cretaceous), Alberta, Canada: evidence for climate influence. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 50(7) 701-726. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2012-0185
Zelenitsky, D. K., Therrien, F., Erickson, G. M., DeBuhr, C. L., Kobayashi, Y., Eberth, D. A. & Hadfield, F. (2012). Feathered non-avian dinosaurs from North America provide insight into wing origins. Science, 338(6106), 510-514. http://doi.org/10.1126/science.1225376
Therrien, F., Zelenitsky, D. K. & Weishampel, D. B. (2009). Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Late Cretaceous Sânpetru Formation (Haţeg Basin, Romania) using paleosols and implications for the “disappearance” of dinosaurs. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 272, 37-52.
Zelenitsky, D. K., Therrien, F. & Kobayashi, Y. (2009). Olfactory acuity in theropods: Palaeobiological and evolutionary implications. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 667-673.
Therrien, F., Henderson, D. M. & Ruff, C. B. (2005). Bite me: Biomechanical models of theropod mandibles and implications for feeding behavior. In K. Carpenter (Ed.), The Carnivorous Dinosaurs (179-237). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.