Stephanie E. Pierce is a trained paleontologist, anatomist, functional morphologist and evolutionary biomechanist. She completed a BSc degree in palaeontology at the University of Alberta, Canada, which included an honors thesis on the anatomy and evolution of hadrosaurian dinosaurs. Directly following this, Stephanie pursued a MSc degree by research in Systematics and Evolution at the University of Alberta studying the anatomy and evolutionary relationships of extinct marine lizards.  Her love of vertebrate evolution took her to the University of Bristol, UK where she embarked on a palaeobiology PhD degree which focused on assessing the interplay between skull shape variation and biomechanical performance in extant and extinct crocodiles. Following this, Stephanie conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, UK and Royal Veterinary College, London, examining and reconstructing the 3D anatomy and locomotion potential of early tetrapods across the water-land transition. Stephanie's research interests are very broad and inspired by the vertebrate fossil record, and tend to focus on the relationship between morphology, function, and ecology across major evolutionary transitions.