
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles
CA 90007
USA
![]() | jlong@nhm.org |
John Long researches the major steps in early vertebrate evolution through studying fishes from the Palaeozoic Era. He has focussed on exceptionally well-preserved specimens from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Western Australia, a site he has collected from over the past 25 years, as well as other Devonian faunas from Australia, Antarctica, South-East Asia, South Africa and Iran.
Research has targetted placoderms, actinopterygians, dipnoans, acanthodians, chondrichthyans, tetrapodomorphs and the transition of fishes to tetrapods, as well as discussion of Devonian vertebrate biogeography and biostratigraphy. Recent papers published pertain to the origins of complex copulatory sex, the nature of internal fertilization in placoderms, and on incipient air-breathing in Devonian lungfishes and tetrapodomorphs (or presented as conference abstracts). Earlier works deal with descriptions of Australian marine reptiles, dinosaurs, a pterosaur, Pleistocene mammal taphonomy, Devonian conodonts and Ordovician problematica.
John Long's popular books span a wide range of topics from paleontology and dinosaurs, the origins of sex, through to general works about evolution, climate change and the environment, and where the big ideas defining civilization have come from for children (see 'The Big Picture Book' series). His most recent books (2011) are about the prehistoric evidence for the origins of sex and how it features in early vertebrate evolution, and about the prehistoric life of Antarctica.
Research has targetted placoderms, actinopterygians, dipnoans, acanthodians, chondrichthyans, tetrapodomorphs and the transition of fishes to tetrapods, as well as discussion of Devonian vertebrate biogeography and biostratigraphy. Recent papers published pertain to the origins of complex copulatory sex, the nature of internal fertilization in placoderms, and on incipient air-breathing in Devonian lungfishes and tetrapodomorphs (or presented as conference abstracts). Earlier works deal with descriptions of Australian marine reptiles, dinosaurs, a pterosaur, Pleistocene mammal taphonomy, Devonian conodonts and Ordovician problematica.
John Long's popular books span a wide range of topics from paleontology and dinosaurs, the origins of sex, through to general works about evolution, climate change and the environment, and where the big ideas defining civilization have come from for children (see 'The Big Picture Book' series). His most recent books (2011) are about the prehistoric evidence for the origins of sex and how it features in early vertebrate evolution, and about the prehistoric life of Antarctica.









