Welcome to the homepage of the Archosauromorph Research Group, led by Dr Richard Butler and based within the GeoBio-Center of the University of Munich (LMU). Our research group has been funded since 2011 by a DFG Emmy Noether Programme award, and focuses on the early evolutionary radiations of Archosauromorpha and Archosauria, major groups of vertebrates that include birds, dinosaurs, crocodilians, pterosaurs and many other extinct clades. Our work combines quantitative analysis of macroevolutionary and biogeographical patterns with cutting edge approaches to phylogeny (evolutionary trees), taxonomy and anatomy. Our aim is to provide new insights into how archosauromorphs radiated over the 50 million years of Triassic, following the devastating end-Permian mass extinction, to shape and dominate terrestrial ecosystems for nearly 150 million years (from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous). We are linked via the GeoBio-Center with the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie (BSPG), and collaborate closely with the Mesozoic Vertebrate Research Group.


Above: a skull of the basal archosauromorph reptile Proterosuchus fergusi from the Early Triassic of South Africa (left). Bone histology of a new species of archosauromorph from the Late Permian (right).