Filippo Maria Rotatori is a palaeontologist whose research focuses on the evolutionary history of ornithopod dinosaurs and the broader macroevolutionary dynamics that shaped terrestrial ecosystems during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. He completed his PhD at NOVA University Lisbon, where his doctoral research concentrated on the systematics, palaeobiogeography, and evolutionary history of iguanodontian dinosaurs. His work combines comparative anatomy, phylogenetics and macroevolutionary analyses to investigate how biodiversity patterns emerged and changed through time and across geographic regions. Particular emphasis in his research is placed on species evolution, as well as on the ecological and environmental contexts that may have influenced evolutionary change over millions of years.

Since 2026, Filippo Maria Rotatori has been an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Free University of Berlin, where he is carrying out a two-year research project under the supervision of Professor Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr and Dr. Emanuel Tschopp. During his fellowship, he investigates the evolutionary and palaeoecological history of Late Jurassic ornithopod dinosaurs from the iconic Morrison Formation, one of the most important dinosaur-bearing geological units in the world. His project integrates anatomical, stratigraphic, and palaeoenvironmental datasets to reconstruct patterns of faunal turnover, dispersal, and ecological specialization in North American dinosaur communities during intervals of environmental and climatic change. The project particularly benefits from the interdisciplinary expertise available at the Freie Universität Berlin on the relationships between climatic fluctuations, habitat transformations, and biodiversity dynamics through time.

An important component of Rotatori’s research concerns the relationship between long-term environmental change and vertebrate evolution through deep time. By studying how dinosaur faunas and ecosystems responded to shifts in climate and habitat across the Mesozoic, his work contributes to a broader understanding of the factors shaping biodiversity over geological timescales. In this sense, the fossil record offers valuable perspectives for interpreting ecological dynamics and evolutionary responses that remain relevant to modern ecosystems today.

Rotatori’s current research also explores broader questions related to macroevolutionary innovation, palaeobiogeographic connectivity between continents, and the environmental drivers underlying major evolutionary radiations among herbivorous dinosaurs. By combining fossil evidence with quantitative and interdisciplinary approaches, his work contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of extinct ecosystems and the long-term processes governing biodiversity on Earth.