Thierry Smith is a senior researcher in vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS). He holds a master's degree in zoology and a PhD degree in geology and mineralogy from UCLouvain. He was a research fellow (1994-1998) at the Fund for Scientific Research (FRIA grant holder) and prize-winner of the 2000 annual examination of the Royal Academy of Belgium (Class of Sciences, question in Geology) for his PhD thesis. Since 2018, he has been the head of the RBINS Paleontology service (renamed Research Program Paleobiosphere Evolution), which is one of the three research units of the Operational Directorate Earth and History of Life. From 2013 to 2022 he was also guest lecturer for the Micropaleontology course at the University of Namur, where he has been guest professor in charge of the Paleontology course since 2023.
Thierry Smith research topics include the origin, evolution, paleobiodiversity, paleobiogeography and biostratigraphy of early modern vertebrates, as well as the reconstruction and paleoclimate of Cretaceous and Paleogene continental ecosystems. His expertise is particularly focused on the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, one of the fastest and most intense global warming events since the dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago. This event, which happened 56 million years ago, seems to be at the origin of the rapid dispersal of the first orders of modern mammals (primates, perissodactyls, artiodactyls, rodents, whales, bats...) via land bridges, notably in Greenland and the Bering Strait. Thierry is the author or co-author of more than 150 full papers in international scientific journals. He is also an editor for different scientific journals and an advisor for numerous exhibitions in Belgium and France. He leaded more than 40 international paleontological expeditions (explorations and excavations) in India, China, Romania, Wyoming, RD Congo... He is an expert in screen washing techniques in the field.
Key publications
Solé, F., Noiret, C., Desmares, D., Adnet, S., Taverne, L., De Putter, T., Mees, F., Yans, J., Steeman, T., Louwye, S., Folie, A., Stevens, N.J., Gunnell, G., Baudet, D., Kitambala Yaya, N. & Smith, T. (2019). Reassessment of historical sections from the Paleogene marine margin of the Congo Basin reveals an almost complete absence of Danian deposits. Geoscience Frontiers, 10, 1039-1063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2018.06.002
Smith, T., Kumar, K., Rana, R.S., Folie, A., Solé, F., Noiret, C., Steeman, T., Sahni, A. & Rose, K.D. (2016). New early Eocene vertebrate assemblage from western India reveals a mixed fauna of European and Gondwana affinities, Geoscience Frontiers, 7, 969-1001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2016.05.001
Smith, T. & Codrea, V. (2015). Red iron-pigmented tooth enamel in a multituberculate mammal from the Late Cretaceous Transylvanian “Haţeg Island”. PLoS ONE. 10(7):e0132550. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0132550
Rose, K.D., Holbrook, L.T., Rana, R.S., Kumar, K., Jones, K.E., Ahrens, H.E., Missiaen, P., Sahni, A. & Smith, T. (2014). Early Eocene fossils suggest that the mammalian order Perissodactyla originated in India. Nature Communications, 5(5570): 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6570
Smith, T., Rose, K. & Gingerich, P. (2006). Rapid Asia-Europe-North America geographic dispersal of earliest Eocene primate Teilhardina during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 103(30): 11223-11227. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0511296103