# K. Christopher Beard

K. Christopher Beard is an American paleontologist, an expert on the primate fossil record and a 2000 MacArthur Fellowship "Genius" Award Winner. Beard's research is reshaping critical debates about the evolutionary origins of mammals, including primates, routinely questioning current thinking about their geographical origins. Dr. Beard is the former Curator of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Mary R. Dawson Chair of Vertebrate Paleontology, at University of Pittsburgh. He is currently Distinguished Foundation Professor, Senior Curator at the University of Kansas. He was co-author with Dan Gebo about an extinct primate from China. Dr. Beard also authored the book The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes and Humans. Beard was also part of the research teams that discovered Teilhardina, the earliest primate ever found in North America, and Eosimias, one of the earliest higher primates yet discovered. He worked with NASA to scan a Tyrannosaurus rex skull. Beard received his PhD from the Functional Anatomy and Evolution Program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1989.
Below is a list of taxa that Beard has contributed to naming:
| Year | Taxon | Authors |
| 2021 | Nesomomys bunodens gen. et sp. nov. | Beard, Métais, Ocakoğlu, & Licht |
| 2020 | Africtis sirtensis gen. et sp. nov. | Mattingly, Beard, Coster, Salem, Chaimanee, & Jaeger |
| 2019 | Chiromyoides kesiwah sp. nov. | Beard, Jones, Thurber, & Sanisidro |
| 2018 | Carpolestes twelvemilensis sp. nov. | Mattingly, Sanisidro, & Beard |
| 2016 | Apidium zuetina sp. nov. | Beard, Coster, Salem, Chaimanee, & Jaeger |
| 2007 | Baataromomys ulaanus gen. et sp. nov. | Ni, Beard, Meng, Wang, & Gebo |
| 2004 | Eosimias dawsonae sp. nov. | Beard & Wang |
| 2004 | Phenacopithecus krishtalkai sp. nov. | Beard & Wang |
| 2004 | Phenacopithecus xueshii gen. et sp. nov. | Beard & Wang |
| 1994 | Macrotarsius macrorhysis sp. nov. | Beard, Qi, Dawson, Wang, & Li |
| 1994 | Adapoides troglodytes gen. et sp. nov. | Beard, Qi, Dawson, Wang, & Li |
| 1994 | Eosimias sinensis gen. et sp. nov. | Beard, Qi, Dawson, Wang, & Li |

## Awards

* 2000 MacArthur Fellows Program

## Books

* The hunt for the dawn monkey: unearthing the origins of monkeys, apes, and humans, University of California Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-520-23369-0
* "Mammalian Biogeography and Anthropoid Origins", Primate biogeography: progress and prospects, Editors Shawn M. Lehman, John G. Fleagle, Springer, 2006, ISBN 978-0-387-29871-9
* "Basal Anthropoids", The primate fossil record, Editor Walter Carl Hartwig, Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-521-66315-1
* "Early Wasatchian Mammals From the Gulf Coastal Plain of Mississippi", Eocene biodiversity: unusual occurrences and rarely sampled habitats, Editor Gregg F. Gunnell, Springer, 2001, ISBN 9780306465284

## Papers

* Beard, Kenneth Christopher; Qi, Tao; Dawson, Mary R.; Wang, Banyue; Li, Chuankuei (14 April 1994). "A diverse new primate fauna from middle Eocene fissure-fillings in southeastern China". Nature. 368 (6472): 604–609. doi:10.1038/368604a0. ISSN 0028-0836. Retrieved 24 December 2024.
* Beard, Kenneth Christopher (11 March 2008). "The oldest North American primate and mammalian biogeography during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 105 (10): 3815–3818. doi:10.1073/pnas.0710180105. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2268774. PMID 18316721. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
* Beard, Kenneth Christopher; Coster, Pauline M. C.; Ocakoğlu, Faruk; Licht, Alexis; Métais, Grégoire (4 December 2023). "Dental anatomy, phylogenetic relationships and paleoecology of Orhaniyeia nauta (Metatheria, Anatoliadelphyidae), a Gondwanan component of the insular Eocene mammal fauna of Balkanatolia (north-central Turkey)". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 30 (4): 859–872. doi:10.1007/s10914-023-09680-6. ISSN 1064-7554. Retrieved 14 December 2024 – via Springer Nature Link.
* Métais, Grégoire; Coster, Pauline; Licht, Alexis; Ocakoglu, Faruk; Beard, Kenneth Christopher (11 December 2023). "Additions to the late Eocene Süngülü mammal fauna in Easternmost Anatolia and the Eocene-Oligocene transition at the periphery of Balkanatolia". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 22 (35): 711–727. Retrieved 1 July 2024.