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David Burnham
Preparator
Vertebrate Paleontology
Biodiversity Institute

Contact Information

Office Phone: 
785.864.3917
Email: 
dinosaur@ku.edu
Building: 
Dyche Hall

Research Projects

Active Projects

Wyoming Dinosaurs
Morrison Formation
Our excavations in northeastern Wyoming have produced one of the best collections of sauropod dinosaurs, including articulated, material that gives unique information about the appearance and functional morphology of these giant creatures.
Active
MY 140
dinosaurs, General Project, Jurassic, Morrison Formation, sauropods
Permian Kansas Fossils
The Permian of Kansas is producing a rich fauna of vertebrates from lakes marginal to the old seaway. Much of this fauna occurs in fossil burrows.
Active
General Project, lungfish

2010

Gong, E, Martin LD, Burnham DA, Falk AR.  2010.  Evidence for a Venomous Sinornithosaurus. Paläontologische Zeitschrift.
Burnham, DA, Feduccia A, Martin LD, Falk AR.  2010.  Tree climbing - a fundamental avian adaptation. Systematic Palaeontology.
Alexander, DE, Gong E, Martin LD, Burnham DA, Falk AR.  2010.  Model tests of gliding with different hindwing configurations in the four-winged dromaeosaurid Microraptor gui. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107:2972-2976. Abstract

2008

Martin, LD, Nabavizadeh A, Burnham DA.  2008.  Do Defense Structures in Triceratops Prove Predatory Behavior in Tyrannosaurus ? Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science: Abstracts of the 140th Annual Kansas Academy of Science. :181.
Martin, LD, Burnham DA.  2008.  Predatory Behavior in a Four-Winged Dinosaur-Like-BIrd. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science: Abstracts of the 140th Annual Kansas Acadamey of Science.
Burnham, DA, Miao D, Martin LD, Alexander D.  2008.  The Flight of the Microraptor. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28:58a-58a.
Burnham, DA.  2008.  Book Review: Glorified Dinosaurs. Palaios.
Burnham, DA.  2008.  A Review of the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group of Northeastern China and a Revision of the Origin of Flight Paradigm. Oryctos. 7:27-43.

2007

Burnham, DA.  2007.  Archaeopteryx - a re-evaluation suggesting an arboreal habitat and an intermediate stage in trees down origin of flight. Neues Jahrbuch Fur Geologie Und Palaontologie-Abhandlungen. 245:33-44. Abstract
Burnham, DA.  2007.  Lasting Impressions - Soft-Bodied Molds of Articulated Vertebrate Fossils. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Geological Society of America. 39:18.
Burnham, DA.  2007.  The Archaeopteryx-like Stage in Trees Down Origin of Flight. 110

2006

Burnham, DA.  2006.  Functional Inference from Taphonomic Evidence. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. 109
Burnham, DA.  2006.  Microraptor versus Bambiraptor and the Transistion to Terrestriality.

2005

Burnham, DA, Hines C.  2005.  Transfer Preparation of an Ichthyornis Specimen from the Niobrara Formation. Journal of vertebrate Paleontology. 25
Burnham, DA.  2005.  Comparison of the Tarsus and Pes in the Dromaeosaurs Bambiraptor and Microraptor. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. 24
Burnham, DA.  2005.  The Paleoecology of Archaeopteryx - A Re-evaluation. Zitteliana 26. Abstract

2004

Senter, P, Barsbold R, Britt BB, Burnham DA.  2004.  Systematics and evolution of Dromaeosauridae (Dinosauria, Theropoda). Bulletin of Gunma Museum of Natural History. 8:1-20. Abstract
Burnham, DA.  2004.  Pyroclastic Lagerstatten in Mesozoic Sediments of Northeastern China.

2003

Burnham, DA, Martin LD, Walton A.  2003.  Unusual Preservation Even for a Liaoning Bird. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 47A
Burnham, DA.  2003.  A New Mosasaur from the Interior Seaway. Kansas Acadamy of Science Abstracts. 22

A New Understanding in Bird Evolution
September 7, 2011

A new discovery by researchers from the University of Kansas and China pushes back by millions of years proof that birds’ digestive systems have ancient origins. The investigators found fossil evidence of a crop — the muscular pocket in the esophagus that most modern birds use to store and soften seeds — in two avian species from the Early Cretaceous, the most recent period of the Mesozoic Era, about 130 million years ago.

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On the Origin of Flight
January 25, 2010

A joint team from the University of Kansas and Northeastern University in China says that it has settled the long-standing question of how bird flight began.

In the Jan. 25 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the KU-China researchers push their research into the origins of bird flight and the early evolution of birds with decisive flight tests of a model of the four-winged gliding raptor, called microraptor.

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Venomous Raptor Discovered
December 23, 2009

KU Biodiversity Institute scientists and their collaborator in China have found clues that suggest that a 125-million-year-old dinosaur from China was venomous.

Sinornithosaurus (pronounced sign-ornitho-sore-us) was a feathered, birdlike, dinosaur about three feet long. Living in forests during the Early Cretaceous period, this dinosaur hunted birds as well as small mammals and reptiles.

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