Louis Leo Jacobs (born August 27, 1948) is an American vertebrate paleontologist who discovered Malawisaurus while on an expedition in Malawi. Much of his research concerns the interrelationships of biotic and abiotic events through time. In recent years he has focused on the middle portion of the Cretaceous and the Cenozoic, especially with respect to terrestrial ecosystems.
He used to be the president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and is currently a professor of geological sciences at Dedman's College and the President of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man (ISEM) at Southern Methodist University (SMU). At one point in time, he was the director of the Museum of Natural History in Dallas, Texas.
Louis Jacobs is a vertebrate paleontologist who utilizes the fossil record to answer significant questions about Earth and life history. His fieldwork is currently focused in Angola, Antarctica, Alaska, and Mongolia.
He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. While he was accomplishing this, Jacobs was also working with Kenyan anthropologist Richard Leakey. Afterward, he began working at SMU in 1983.