Research & teaching

Current research

• Functional anatomy

  “Putting extinct animals back together”

  Reconstructing how the skeletons of extinct animals fit together and moved — the anatomical groundwork every skeletal on this site is built on.

  Read more on my research site ↗

• Physiological modeling

  “Investigating the physiologies of extinct vertebrates”

  Using mechanistic microclimate and physiological models to test what early dinosaurs and their relatives could actually do — and where their bodies constrained them.

  Read more on my research site ↗

• Origin of avian flight

  “Breaking the false ground-up / trees-down dichotomy”

  Working out how flight arose along the bird stem, using detailed functional anatomy of the earliest paravians rather than a forced either/or.

  Read more on my research site ↗

Publications

1. Grosmougin, M., Wang, X., Zheng, X., Kaye, T. G., Chotard, M., Barlow, L. A., Dececchi, T. A., Habib, M. B., Zariwala, J., Hartman, S. A., Xu, X., & Pittman, M. (2025). Forelimb feathering, soft tissues, and skeleton of the flying dromaeosaurid Microraptor. BMC Ecology and Evolution. doi:10.1186/s12862-025-02397-5
2. Chotard, M., Wang, X., Zheng, X., Kaye, T. G., Grosmougin, M., Barlow, L. A., Kundrát, M., Dececchi, T. A., Habib, M. B., Zariwala, J., Hartman, S. A., Xu, X., & Pittman, M. (2025). New information on the Hind limb feathering, soft tissues and skeleton of Microraptor (Theropoda: Dromaeosauridae). BMC Ecology and Evolution. doi:10.1186/s12862-025-02372-0
3. Hartman, S., Lovelace, D. M., Linzmeier, B. J., Mathewson, P. D., & Porter, W. P. (2022). Mechanistic Thermal Modeling of Late Triassic Terrestrial Amniotes Predicts Biogeographic Distribution. Diversity. doi:10.3390/d14110973
4. Pittman, M., Kaye, T. G., Wang, X., Zheng, X., Dececchi, T. A., & Hartman, S. A. (2022). Preserved soft anatomy confirms shoulder-powered upstroke of early theropod flyers, reveals enhanced early pygostylian upstroke, and explains early sternum loss. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.2205476119
5. Lovelace, D. M., Hartman, S. A., Mathewson, P. D., Linzmeier, B. J., & Porter, W. P. (2020). Modeling Dragons: using linked mechanistic physiological and microclimate models to explore environmental, physiological, and morphological constraints on the early evolution of dinosaurs. PLOS ONE. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0223872
6. Hartman, S., Mortimer, M., Wahl, W. R., Lomax, D. R., Lippincott, J., & Lovelace, D. M. (2019). A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.7247
7. Snively, E., O'Brien, H., Henderson, D. M., Mallison, H., Surring, L. A., Burns, M. E., Holtz, T. R., Jr., Russell, A. P., Witmer, L. M., Currie, P. J., Hartman, S. A., & Cotton, J. R. (2019). Lower rotational inertia and larger leg muscles indicate more rapid turns in tyrannosaurids than in other large theropods. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.6432
8. Wang, X., Pittman, M., Zheng, X., Kaye, T. G., Falk, A. R., Hartman, S., & Xu, X. (2017). Basal paravian functional anatomy illuminated by high-detail body outline. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/ncomms14576
9. Hendrickx, C., Hartman, S. A., & Mateus, O. (2015). An Overview of Non-Avian Theropod Discoveries and Classification. PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology.
10. Conway, J., Kosemen, C. M., & Naish, D. (2013). All Yesterdays: Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals. Irregular Books. Skeletal diagrams by S. Hartman.
11. Hartman, S. (2012). Investigating the impact of competing interpretations of pectoral girdle placement and appendicular function on sauropod head height. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP Program & Abstracts).
12. Ryan, M. J., Russell, A. P., & Hartman, S. (2010). A new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the Judith River Formation, Montana. New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium.
13. Lovelace, D. M., Hartman, S. A., & Wahl, W. R. (2007). Morphology of a specimen of Supersaurus (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Morrison Formation of Wyoming, and a re-evaluation of diplodocid phylogeny. Arquivos do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
14. Mayr, G., Pohl, B., Hartman, S., & Peters, D. S. (2007). The tenth skeletal specimen of Archaeopteryx. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00245.x
15. Wegweiser, M. D., Hartman, S. A., & Lovelace, D. M. (2006). Duckbill dinosaur chin skin scales: Ups, downs, and arounds of surficial morphology of Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation dinosaur skin. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 35.

Conference presentations and the complete record are in the CV.