The Messel Pit
Taxonomy, taphonomy, and community structure of a terrestrial ecosystem in the Eocene Climatic Optimum.
In brief
I’m a vertebrate paleobiologist specializing on lower vertebrates, particularly lizards and snakes. I’m intensely interested in the mutual relations between evolution and climate change: how different clades respond to warming or cooling, for example, and conversely how we can reconstruct ancient climates using the species composition of fossil assemblages. To do this, I combine detailed morphological, taxonomic, and phylogenetic studies of extinct species with quantitative modeling across episodes of significant climate change. Geographically my studies focus on North America, including the tropics, and Europe during the Paleogene. I also use lower vertebrates to help understand the environmental context and ecology of early humans.
Selected recent papers
Wolf, M., A. Janke & K.T. Smith (2026) The genome of the relict earless monitor lizard, Lanthanotus borneensis, and the Toxicofera hypothesis. BMC Biology 24: 58. PDF
Zanolli, C., D. Alba, T. Caley, M. Cazenave, I. Crevecoeur, I. de la Torre, A. Delagnes, L. Delezene, F. Détroit, R. Joannes-Boyau, A. Le Cabec, T. Lüdecke, A. Margvelashvili, C. Musiba, S. Neubauer, Y. Sahle, F. Schrenk, M. M. Skinner, K.T. Smith, A. Urciuoli, B. Villmoare, B. Wood & O. Kullmer. (2026) The early Homo conundrum: challenges and potential solutions. Evolutionary Anthropology 35(3): e70043. PDF
Hunt, A.P., S.G. Lucas & K.T. Smith (2026) A new regurgitalite from the early Eocene of Wyoming, USA provides evidence for specialised predation on “armored” glyptosaurid lizards and diurnal behaviour by early owls. Fossil Studies 4: 12. PDF
Smith, K.T. & A.A. Bruch (2025) Persistent greenhouse conditions in Eocene North America point to lower climate sensitivity. Communications Earth and Environment 6: 352. PDF
Smith, K.T., M. Collinson, A. Folie, J. Habersetzer, F. Hennicke, E. Kothe, T. Lehmann, O. Lenz, G. Mayr, N. Micklich, R. Rabenstein, R. Racicot, S.F.K. Schaal, T. Smith, A. Tosal, D. Uhl, T. Wappler, S. Wedmann & M. Wuttke (2024) The biodiversity of the Eocene Messel Pit. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments 104: 859–940. PDF
Smith, K.T., S.F.K. Schaal & J. Habersetzer, eds. (2018) Messel: An Ancient Greenhouse Ecosystem. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart. Book
Full list, with year navigation
Research
Biogeography, climate, and Paleogene squamates
Assemblages that span Paleogene climate change, used both as climate proxies and as records of faunal response.
Neotropical Paleogene vertebrates
The first Paleogene vertebrate localities in the tropics of North America, contemporaneous with the better-known mid-latitude assemblages.
Zooarcheology in the Near East
Microvertebrates from Levantine sites such as Qesem Cave, as environmental and ecological context for early humans.