Emily Rayfield

Infobox_Scientist
name = Emily Rayfield


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birth_place = Northallerton
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residence = England flagicon|England
nationality = British flagicon|UK
field = Palaeontology
work_institution = University of Bristol
alma_mater = Cambridge University
doctoral_advisor = David B. Norman
doctoral_students = Stephanie Pierce, Sandra Jasinoski, Mark Young, Jen Bright
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Emily Rayfield is a British palaeontologist, who is currently a Lecturer of palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol [http://www.gly.bris.ac.uk/people/ejr.html Dr Emily Rayfield: Earth Sciences: University of Bristol ] ] .

Her research primarily focuses on the functional anatomy of extinct vertebrates, especially dinosaurs, using computational methods such as finite element analysis (FEA). In the landmark paper Rayfield "et al." (2001) Rayfield, E. J., Norman, D. B., Horner, C. C., Horner, J. R., Smith, P. M., Thomason, J. J. and Upchurch, P. 2001. Cranial design and function in a large theropod dinosaur. "Nature" 409: 1033-1037.] , the skull of the theropod dinosaur "Allosaurus" was analysed using FEA in order to quantitatively assess different feeding hyoptheses. This paper was the first use of FEA on a three-dimensional structure in palaeontology (in collaboration with CT scanning), and spurred the current trend of CT-scanned skull FEA on feeding biomechanics in zoology and palaeontology Rayfield, E. J. 2007. Finite element analysis in vertebrate morphology. "Annual Reviews in Earth and Planetary Sciences" 35: 541–576.] .

In addition, she helped elucidate the cranial biomechanics of the noted carnivorous dinosaur "Tyrannosaurus rex" using two-dimensional FEA Rayfield, E. J. 2004. Cranial mechanics and feeding in "Tyrannosaurus rex". "Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences" 271: 1451-1459.] . This study was expanded upon in a comparative finite element analysis of 2D theropod skulls (namely "Allosaurus" "Coelophysis" and "Tyrannosaurus"), in order to quantitately compare cranial biomechanics Rayfield, E. J. 2005. Aspects of comparative cranial mechanics in the theropod dinosaurs "Coelophysis", "Allosaurus" and "Tyrannosaurus". "Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society" 144 (3): 309–316.] .

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