Terry Gates

Adjunct Researcher
tagates@ncsu.edu

121 West Jones Street, Raleigh, NC 27601

Education

  • Ph.D. in Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 2007
  • M.S. in Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 2004

Research Interests

Dr. Gates, palaeontologist/evolutionary biologist, is one of the world's experts on duckbilled dinosaurs, a group of plant-eating dinosaurs that possessed almost a thousand teeth and some of which evolved elaborate crests that contained the nasal passages. He has recently initiated a project studying one of the most famous duckbilled dinosaurs Parasaurolophus, whose nasal passages stretched nearly seven feet before entering the head. Other on-going projects involve evolutionary studies on theropod dinosaur ornamentation (including birds such as chickens, turkeys, and guinea fowl), and naming of new dinosaur species from Mongolia. A large part of Dr. Gates’ work uses citizen scientists to contribute towards scientific goals. Most specifically, as part of a National Science Foundation funded project, he works with middle school students and teachers to collect and measure fossil shark teeth from North Carolina in an effort to reconstruct ancient marine environments.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

  • Gates, T.A., Zanno, L.E., and Makovicky, P. 2015. Theropod teeth from the upper Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation Sue Quarry: Faunal comparisons and morphological variation among localities. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, vol 60, p. 131-139.
  • Gates, T.A. and Scheetz, R. 2014. A new species of the saurolophine hadrosaurid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) Gryposaurus from the Campanian of North America, with re-evaluation of hadrosaurid phylogenetics using parsimony and Bayesian methods. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. Online prepublication
  • Gates, T.A., Lund, E.K., Boyd, C.A., Getty, M.A., DeBlieux, D.D., Kirkland, J.I., and Evans, D.C. 2013. The role of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in macroevolutionary and paleobiogeographic studies of ornithopod dinosaurs. In: Titus, A.L. and Loewen, M.A. (Eds.), At the top of the Grand Staircase: The Late Cretaceous of southern Utah. Indiana University Press, p. 463-481.
  • Gates, T.A., Prieto-Marquez, A., and Zanno, L.E. 2012. Mountain building triggered North American megaherbivore dinosaur cladogenesis. PlosOne, vol 7(8), e42135. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042135
  • Gates, T.A., Horner, J.R., Hanna, R.R., and Nelson, C.R. 2011. New unadorned hadrosaurid (Ornithopoda: Dinosauria) from the Campanian of North America. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol 31, p. 798-811.
  • Gates, T.A., Sampson, S.D., Zanno, L.E., Roberts, E.M., Eaton, J.G., Nydam, R.L., Hutchison, J.H., Smith, J.A., Loewen, M.A., and Getty, M.A. 2010. Biogeography of terrestrial and freshwater vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Western Interior of North America: new information from the Kaiparowits Formation, south-central Utah. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol 291, p. 371-387.

Fields of Research

Laboratories