Discovering mammals in the time of dinosaurs (T.N. George Medallist lecture)

Dr Elsa Panciroli, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Mammals, the furry, milk-giving group to which humans also belong, can trace their origins back to the Mesozoic. Fossils, from the Isle of Skye in Scotland in particular, are providing new insights, revealing how their evolution alongside the dinosaurs set the foundations of their survival and success after the mass extinction 66 million years ago. In this talk, we will find out about fieldwork in Skye uncovering exceptionally preserved fossils, and the new analytical techniques revealing how mammals lived, grew, and flourished in the Jurassic.

Dr Elsa Panciroli is a palaeobiologist from the Scottish Highlands who completed her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at the University of the Highlands and Islands, her Masters in Palaeobiology at the University of Bristol, and her PhD joint between the University of Edinburgh and National Museums Scotland. Her thesis examined fossil mammals from the Jurassic rocks of the Isle of Skye in Scotland. After working as a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford, she continued her work on Scottish mammal fossils for her Research Fellowship at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, before taking up her position at National Museums Scotland in 2025. She is Secretary of the Palaeontographical Society and until recently she was chair of the Scottish Geology Trust.

She co-leads a team that has carried out annual fieldwork on the Isle of Skye since 2016. She has described multiple fossils from the island and the neighbouring Isle of Eigg, including early mammals and their close relatives, salamanders, small reptiles and dinosaurs. This work is providing new insights into the evolution of these animal groups in the Middle Jurassic, a time period which is poorly known globally. It is also a pivotal time for the birth of modern ecosystems.  

As well as a researcher, Dr Panciroli is also a science writer and author, and has featured on various television and radio programmes and podcasts. Her first book, “Beasts Before Us”, is a popular science title on the origin and evolution of mammals. This was followed by “The Earth, A Biography of Life”, the story of life on our planet through 47 incredible organisms.