Rate My Professor Darla Zelenitsky

Darla Zelenitsky is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, where she serves as the principal dinosaur researcher in the Department of Earth, Energy, and Environment. She earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Manitoba in 1991, followed by a Master of Science in Paleontology from the University of Calgary in 1995 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Paleontology from the University of Calgary in 2004. Zelenitsky has held her current position at the University of Calgary since completing her doctoral studies.

Her research centers on dinosaur paleontology, with particular emphasis on nesting behaviors, reproductive traits, eggshell assemblages, and ontogenetic development in various dinosaur taxa. She has contributed to significant discoveries, including evidence related to dinosaur reproduction and physiology. Zelenitsky received the Faculty of Science Research Award – Early Career from the University of Calgary in 2019, a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2007, and an Alberta Ingenuity Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2006. Additional recognitions include being named one of Alberta’s 50 most influential people in 2005 and receiving research acknowledgements from the Geological Association of Canada. Key publications include works on dinosaur nesting at high latitudes (2017), the evolution of nesting and reproductive traits in dinosaurs (2018), and analyses of hadrosaur histology and crest development (2017–2019).