DEPARTMENT OF EARTH, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND PLANETARY SCIENCES

My research covers diverse and interdisciplinary topics, and I often just call myself a scientist. Still, I am perhaps best described as a paleontologist with an interest in experimental and molecular taphonomy (i.e., how fossils preserve and what biomolecules might remain). Whether in the field, museum collection, or lab, my work often focuses on fossilization, dinosaurs, feather evolution, and sexual selection. I study these topics through experimentation, statistical simulations, and direct analyses of fossils and modern organisms. With my collaborators, I have led development of a sediment-encased, high-heat, high-pressure maturation method to simulate longterm, deep-burial diagenesis and produce ‘synthetic fossils’. This laboratory method opens new research avenues to study the preservation potential of biomolecules through fossilization, has attracted popular media interest, and is being utilized by Ph.D. and M.Sci. students at several international universities in their own research. Ultimately, I plan to broaden this experimental approach to 1) understand how organic fossils would preserve under early Earth conditions, 2) predict how organics and pollutants from modern environments will appear in the future rock record, and 3) aid in the search for extraterrestrial fossils by simulating burial conditions on moons and other planets.

Sereno, PC, Vidal, D, Myhrvold, NP, Johnson-Ransom, E, Ciudad Real, M, Baumgart, SL, Sánchez Fontela, N, Green, TL, Saitta, ET, et al. (2026) Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation. Science 391(6787), eadx5486. DOI: 10.1126/science.adx5486

Sereno, PC, Saitta, ET, et al. (2025) Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification”. Science 391(6780), 1–15. DOI: 10.1126/science.adw3536 

Saitta, ET, and Kaye, TG (2025) Experimental maturation of pine resin in sediment to investigate the formation of synthetic copal and amber. Scientific Reports 15, 7627. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-89448-5 

Saitta, ET, Balaji, L, Mitchell, JS, and Makovicky, PJ (2025) Feather evolution following flight loss in crown group birds: relaxed selection and developmental constraints. Evolution 79(5), 737–751. DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpaf020 

Saitta, ET, et al. (2023) Non-avian dinosaur eggshell calcite can contain ancient, endogenous amino acids. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 365, 1–20. DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2023.11.016 

Roy, A, Pittman, M, Kaye, TG, and Saitta, ET (2023) Sediment-encased pressure–temperature maturation experiments elucidate the impact of diagenesis on melanin-based fossil color and its paleobiological implications. Paleobiology 49(4), 712–732. DOI: 10.1017/pab.2023.11

Liang, R, Lau, MCY, Saitta, ET, et al. (2020) Genome-centric resolution of novel microbial lineages in an excavated Centrosaurus dinosaur fossil bone from the Late Cretaceous of North America. Environmental Microbiome 15, 8. DOI: 10.1186/s40793-020-00355-w 

Saitta, ET, et al. (2019) Cretaceous dinosaur bone contains recent organic material and provides an environment conducive to microbial communities. eLife 8, e46205. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.46205.001 

Saitta, ET, et al. (2018) Sediment-encased maturation: a novel method for simulating diagenesis in organic fossil preservation. Palaeontology 62(1), 135–150. DOI: 10.1111/pala.12386

Saitta, ET, et al. (2017) Low fossilization potential of keratin protein revealed by experimental taphonomy. Palaeontology 60(4), 547–556. DOI: 10.1111/pala.12299