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MY RESEARCH

The core of my research is paleoecology, the study of the interactions between organisms and their environments through time.  I am especially interested in the the factors that have influenced the evolution of carnivorous mammals and in using the fossil and paleoenvironmental records of northwestern North America as a natural laboratory for studying the factors that drive ecological change.  See the lists below for the specific questions that motivate my research, as well as for an overview of undergraduate projects I have overseen in the past.  If you're a Gonzaga student that shares some of these interests, I'm always happy to take on new researchers and research projects.

Smilodon at the Idaho Museum of Natural History

MY RESEARCH INTERESTS

Climate & Mammal Evolution Through Time

Have past changes in climate led to changes in the morphology and ecology of mammals?

Functional Morphology of Mammals

What can morphology reveal about the behavior of extinct mammals?

Ecomorphology of Mammals

Which factors have driven the evolution of mammalian guilds through time?

CURRENT STUDENT RESEARCHERS

 Christiana Schmer

  • Description of Miocene ungulates from northeast Oregon

  • Using fossils to better predict how mammal ranges may shift with climate change

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 Jeffrey Lubisich

  • Description of Miocene carnivores from northeast Oregon

  • Evolution of sexual dimorphism in small carnivores

 Campbell Bastian

  • Evolution of sexual dimorphism in small carnivores

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 Claryssa Thomas

  • Evolution of burrowing in ground squirrels based on humerus morphology

Paleoecological History of the Northwest

How - and why - have the ecosystems and organisms of the Northwest evolved through time?

Conservation Paleobiology

How can paleoecology inform predictions of the effects of current and future environmental change?

Bias in the Fossil Record

How can we determine which patterns in the fossil record are biological and which are preservational?

PREVIOUS STUDENT RESEARCHERS

Lacy Abrams

  • Description of Miocene birds from northeast Oregon

  • Inland Northwest fossils as the basis of classroom lessons in paleontology

 Rémy Delplanche

  • Description of large Miocene mammals from northeast Oregon

  • Ecological interactions between horses and rhinos

 Claire Vietri

  • Description of Miocene microvertebrates from northeast Oregon

  • Evolution of burrowing in ground squirrels based on humerus morphology

Makenzie Kooima

  • Convergence in diet between deer and kangaroos

  • Pleistocene artiodactyls and future range shifts

Taylor Ritchey

  • Fossils & ecological niche models

  • Evolution of squirrel locomotion

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