Richard Anthony "Tony" Thulborn was a British-born paleontologist who became one of Australia's leading vertebrate paleontologists, working across dinosaur ichnology (fossil tracks), locomotion, and palaeobiology.[1]
In 1976 Thulborn joined Mary Wade and a team of volunteers excavating the Lark Quarry tracksite near Winton, Queensland. Their 1984 publication described what remains the world's only known trace-fossil evidence of a dinosaur stampede -- thousands of small tracks reading as a mass panic among fleeing dinosaurs. His continued work helped secure Lark Quarry's listing on the Australian National Heritage List in 2004, and he critically re-examined the site's interpretation in a 2013 paper.[1]
Thulborn's other work spanned dinosaur thermoregulation, tooth wear and jaw mechanics, the evolutionary relationship between birds and theropods including Archaeopteryx, and Australia's Triassic vertebrate fauna. He died on 22 July 2025 at age 81.[1]