Dr Neil Clark
Curator of Palaeontology
The Hunterian
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
Short Biography 
Dr Neil Clark studied Geology at Edinburgh University where he became a part-time research assistant travelling around southern Scotland looking for rare Carboniferous fossil crustaceans. At the same time, he began working as a part-time assistant curator at The Hunterian before starting his PhD in 1985. He completed his PhD on the World famous Carboniferous Bearsden arthropod fauna in 1989 before working in interactive science centres in Edinburgh, Halifax and Glasgow. In 1990, he began working as part of a team of geological curators at The Hunterian as a result of the Earth Science Review process that amalgamated several university geology departmental collections in Scotland with The Hunterian.
In 1989, Neil began a public engagement exercise to promote geology in Scotland by instituting a national geology week. This soon evolved into a major undertaking with hundreds of events beingorganised across Scotland during the month of September until 2011.
Much of his early work at The Hunterian was dinosaur related beginning with the discovery of a four toed track from the Jurassic of northern England in 1990, and he was described by the Glasgow Herald as "worth his weight in sand". Since then he has been working on dinosaur eggs from China as well as Scotland's first dinosaurs. From 1996 to the present day, there have been new discoveries of Scottish dinosaurs, nearly every year, all from the Isle of Skye. In 2006 he appeared in the book of Guinness World Records with his discovery of the World's smallest dinosaur footprint. He has now published several dinosaur books for Dorling Kindersely and Readers Digest, as well as having worked on several encyclopedia and a book on Baltic amber. He works on all aspects of Scotland's fossil heritage and because of his work on Scottish Jurassic dinosaurs was nicknamed Jurassic Clark by the Times Educational Supplement.
Research Interests
Scottish Jurassic dinosaurs, Carboniferous crustaceans, Silurian fish, crinoids, Ordovician and Silurian starfish, conodonts, coprolites, the use of medical technology on the study of fossils, Carboniferous bacteria and, of course, the Loch Ness Monster.
Recent Publications
Some of the most recent/most important can be found at http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/view/author/10175.html or www.Researchgate.net under Neil Donald Lewis Clark
2013
Clark, N. (2013) The culture of amber in Scotland. Deposits, 33 . pp. 48-49. ISSN 1744-9588
2012
Clark, N.D.L. (2012) The effects of the spreading of the Central Atlantic during the Middle Jurassic on dinosaur faunas. OUGS Journal, 33 (1). pp. 53-61. ISSN 0143-9472
2011
Clark, N. (2011) The hand-beast of Blackwaterfoot. Deposits, 25 . pp. 6-9. ISSN 1744-9588
2010
Clark, N.D.L. (2010) Amber: Tears of the Gods. Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh, UK. ISBN 9781906716172
Clark, N.D.L., and Daly, C.J. (2010) Using confocal laser scanning microscopy to image trichome inclusions in amber. Journal of Paleontological Techniques, 8 . pp. 1-7. ISSN 1646-5806
2009
Hunter, A.W., and Clark, N.D.L. (2009) The palaeoecology of two Scottish encrinites: Jurassic crinoid assemblages from the Trotternish Peninsula, Isle of Skye, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, 45 pp. 169-176. ISSN 0036-9276 (doi:10.1144/0036-9276/01-366 )
Clark, N.D.L., and Corrance, H. (2009) New discoveries of Isochirotherium herculis (Egerton 1838) and a reassessment of chirotheriid footprints from the Triassic of the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, 45 (1). pp. 69-82. ISSN 0036-9276
Hunter, A.W., and Clark, N.D.L. (2009) The discovery of Isocrinus cf. robustus from the Lias Group (Lower Jurassic) near Dunrobin Castle, Sutherland, Scotland. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, 120 (1). pp. 76-78. ISSN 0016-7878 (doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2009.05.001)
2008
Clark, N. (2008) Deep time travel: inside the mind of the intrepid palaeontologist as the rocks reveal their tale. Nature Geoscience, 1 . p. 567. ISSN 1752-0894 (doi:10.1038/ngeo293)
Clark, N.D.L. (2008) The Elgin Marvels. Deposits, 13 . pp. 36-39. ISSN 1744-9588
Clark, N.D.L. (2008) The public perception of palaeontology in Scotland: "archaeologists dig dinosaurs". In: Trythall, J. (ed.) Sea to Sand: Proceedings of the 2007 Moray Society Conference. Moray Society, Elgin Museum, Moray, UK, pp. 38-48.
Clark, N.D.L., and Brett-Surman, M.K. (2008) A comparison between dinosaur footprints from the Middle Jurassic of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK, and Shell, Wyoming, USA. Scottish Journal of Geology, 44 (2). pp. 139-150. ISSN 0036-9276