Associate Professor Phil Bell

Associate Professor in Earth Sciences (Palaeontology) - School of Environmental and Rural Science

Phil Bell

Phone: +61 2 6773 2329

Email: pbell@une.edu.au

Biography

Phil is a vertebrate palaeontologist who work focuses on dinosaurs. He leads the Dino Lab within the Palaeoscience Research Centre at UNE alongside colleague Dr Nicolas Campione. His research is centred on some of the best-known Cretaceous dinosaur ecosystems from western Canada and Australia, where he does the majority of his fieldwork. He is also an authority on the study of dinosaur skin. Phil is also a keen surfer, rock climber and gardener.

Teaching Areas

GEOL202 - Introductory Palaeontology (coordinator)
GEOL315 - Vertebrate Palaeontology (coordinator)
EVOL102 – Evolution in the Fossil Record (coordinator)

Research Interests

  • Dinosaur evolution, behaviour, and palaeoecology.
  • Dinosaur skin, its morphology, preservation, and taxonomic implications.
  • Cretaceous palaeoecology and dinosaur faunas of Australia, particularly from Lightning Ridge, NSW.

Earth Science Research Group

Publications

For a full list of publications, please visit Dr Bell's Google Scholar or ResearchGate profile.

Recent Publications

In Press

Enriquez, N.J., Campione, N.E., White, M.A., Fanti, F., Sissons, R.L., Sullivan, C., Vavrek, M.J. & Bell, P.R. (in press) The Dinosaur Tracks of Tyrants Aisle: An Upper Cretaceous ichnofauna from Unit 4 of the Wapiti Formation (upper Campanian), Alberta, Canada. PLoS ONE

White, M.A., Bell, P.R., Campione, N.E., Brougham, T., Sansalone, G., Molnar, R., Wroe, S., Elliot, D. (in press). Abdominal contents reveal Cretaceous crocodyliforms ate dinosaurs. Gondwana Research

Pittman, M., Enriquez, N.J., Bell, P.R., Kaye, T.G., Upchurch, P. (In press) Newly detected data from Haestasaurus and review of sauropod skin morphology suggests Early Jurassic origin of skin papillae. Communications Biology

Frauenfelder, T.G., Bell, P.R., Brougham, T., Bevitt, J., Bicknell, R.D.C., Kear, B.P., Wroe, S., Campione, N.E. 2022. New ankylosaurian cranial remains from the Lower Cretaceous (upper Albian) Toolebuc Formation of Queensland, Australia. Frontiers in Earth Science

2022

Hendrickx, C., Bell, P.R., Pittman, M., Milner, A.R.C., Cuesta, E., O’Connor, J., Loewen, M., Currie, P.J., Mateus, O., Kaye, T., and Delcourt, R. (2022) Morphology and distribution of scales, dermal ossifications, and other non-feather integumentary structures in non-avialan theropod dinosaurs. Biological Reviews. DOI: 10.1111/brv.12829

2021

Enriquez, N.J., Campione, N.E., Brougham, T., Fanti, F., White, M.A., Sissons, R.L., Sullivan, C., Vavrek, M.J. & Bell, P.R. (2021). Exploring possible ontogenetic trajectories in tyrannosaurids using tracks from the Wapiti Formation (upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 
40(6): e1878201. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2021.1878201

Hendrickx, C. and Bell, P.R. (2021). The scaly skin of the abelisaurid  Carnotaurus sastrei
(Theropoda: Ceratosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia. Cretaceous Research
28: 104994

Holland, B., Bell, P.R., Fanti, F., Hamilton, S.M., Larson, D.W., Sissons, R.L., Sullivan, C., Vavrek, M.J., Wang, Y.-Y., Campione, N.E. (2021) Taphonomy and systematics of a late Campanian juvenile lambeosaurine (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) bonebed from the Wapiti Formation of north-western Alberta, Canada. PeerJ
9:e11290 DOI 10.7717/peerj.11290

Park, J.Y., Lee, Y.N., Currie, P.J., Ryan, M.J., Bell, P., Sissons, R., Koppelhus, E.B., Barsbold, R., Lee, S. and Kim, S.H., 2021. A new ankylosaurid skeleton from the Upper Cretaceous Baruungoyot Formation of Mongolia: its implications for ankylosaurid postcranial evolution. Scientific Reports doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83568-4

2020

Bell, P.R. & Hendrickx, C. (2020) Epidermal complexity in the theropod dinosaur Juravenator from the Upper Jurassic of Germany. Palaeontology 64:203–223

Frauenfelder, T. Bell, P.R., Campione, N.E. & Smith E.T. (2020). Diversity and palaeoecology of Australia’s southern-most sauropods, Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales. Lethaia https://doi.org/10.1111/let.12407

Enriquez, N.J., Campione, N.E., Sullivan, C., Vavrek, M., Sissons, R.L., White, M.A. & Bell, P.R. (2020). Probable deinonychosaur tracks from the Late Cretaceous Wapiti Formation (upper Campanian) of Alberta, Canada. Geological Magazine. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756820001247

Hart, L. J., Bell, P.R., Smith, E.T., Mitchell, D.R., Brougham, T., & Salisbury, S. W. (2020) A probable skeleton of Isisfordia 
(Crocodyliformes) and additional crocodyliform remains from the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian, New South Wales, Australia). Journal of Paleontology 95 (2), 351-366https://doi.org/10.1017/jpa.2020.98

Bell, P.R. & Hendrickx, C. (2020) Crocodile-like sensory scales in a Late Jurassic theropod dinosaur. Current Biology 30: R1068-R1070. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.066

Farman, R. & Bell, P.R. (2020) Australia’s earliest tetrapod swimming traces from the Hawkesbury Sandstone (Middle Triassic) of the Sydney Basin. Journal of Paleontology 94:966–978 DOI:10.1017/jpa.2020.22

Brougham, T., Smith, E. T., & Bell, P.R. (2020) Noasaurids are a component of the Australian ‘mid’-Cretaceous theropod fauna. Scientific Reports 10:1428 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-57667-7

White, M.A., Bell, P.R., Poropat, S.P., Pentland, A.H., Rigby, S.L., Elliot, R.A., Sloan, T., Elliot, D.A. (2020). New theropod remains and implications for megaraptorid diversity in the Winton Formation (lower Upper Cretaceous), Queensland, Australia. Royal Society Open Science 7:191462 DOI:10.1098/rsos.191462