K. Christopher Beard

K. Christopher Beard is an American paleontologist, an expert on the primate fossil record and a 2000 MacArthur Fellowship "Genius" Award Winner. Beard's research is reshaping critical debates about the evolutionary origins of mammals, including primates, routinely questioning current thinking about their geographical origins. and Mary R. Dawson Chair of Vertebrate Paleontology, at University of Pittsburgh. He is currently Distinguished Foundation Professor, Senior Curator at the University of Kansas. He was co-author with Dan Gebo about an extinct primate from China. Dr. Beard also authored the book The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes and Humans. Beard was also part of the research teams that discovered Teilhardina, the earliest primate ever found in North America, and Eosimias, one of the earliest higher primates yet discovered. Beard received his PhD from the Functional Anatomy and Evolution Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1989. 2024 Phenacolemur cavatus sp. nov. Anemone, Jones, Van Regenmorter, & Beard 2023 Palaeohodites naduensis gen. et sp. nov. Rust, Ni, Tietjen, & Beard 2023 Ignacius dawsonae sp. nov. Miller, Tietjen, & Beard 2023 Ignacius mckennai sp. nov. Miller, Tietjen, & Beard 2023 Plagioctenodon dawsonae sp. nov. Jones & Beard 2021 Altaynycteris aurora gen. et sp. nov. Jones, Li, Ni, & Beard 2021 Simonsius harujensis sp. nov. Mattingly, Beard, Coster, Salem, Chaimanee, & Jaeger 2020 Africtis sirtensis gen. et sp. nov. Mattingly, Beard, Coster, Salem, Chaimanee, & Jaeger 2018 Anatolianycteris insularis gen. et sp. nov. Jones, Coster, Licht, Métais, Ocakoğlu, Taylor, & Beard 2018 Carpolestes twelvemilensis sp. nov. Mattingly, Sanisidro, & Beard 2019 Chiromyoides kesiwah sp. nov. Beard, Jones, Thurber, & Sanisidro 2016 Apidium zuetina sp. nov. Beard, Coster, Salem, Chaimanee, & Jaeger 2008 Teilhardina magnoliana sp. nov. Beard 2007 Baataromomys ulaanus gen. et sp. nov. Ni, Beard, Meng, Wang, & Gebo 2004 Eosimias dawsonae sp. nov. Beard & Wang 1996 Eosimias centennicus sp. nov. Beard, Tong, Dawson, Wang, & Huang 1994 Macrotarsius macrorhysis sp. nov. Beard, Qi, Dawson, Wang, & Li 1988 Smilodectes gingerichi sp. nov. Beard

Awards 2000 MacArthur Fellows Program

Books The hunt for the dawn monkey: unearthing the origins of monkeys, apes, and humans, University of California Press, 2004, "Mammalian Biogeography and Anthropoid Origins", Primate biogeography: progress and prospects, Editors Shawn M. Lehman, John G. Fleagle, Springer, 2006, "Basal Anthropoids", The primate fossil record, Editor Walter Carl Hartwig, Cambridge University Press, 2002, "Early Wasatchian Mammals From the Gulf Coastal Plain of Mississippi", Eocene biodiversity: unusual occurrences and rarely sampled habitats, Editor Gregg F. Gunnell, Springer, 2001,

Papers