Comparative paleoecology of marine animals & communities
It seems intuitive that ancient, fossilized communities—and the organisms composing them—were strikingly different from those living today. While understanding the ecology of ancient communities is important in its own right, their fossil record can also test and expand current theories regarding modern communities. Significantly, the fossil record offers a means to distinguish among those mechanisms unique to the present-day—perhaps related to our peculiar biologic, geographic, climatic, and oceanographic conditions—from those that are universal, regulating all manner of ecologically interacting systems. My research uses the vast temporal record of fossil communities (especially Paleozoic ones) to illuminate reciprocally both the structure of modern communities as well as those of the past. In this vein, my research combines community ecology and evolutionary biology with the methods and interpretive lenses of analytical paleobiology, macroecology, and functional morphology.
Specific research topics:
Click on the following to read more about my research interests.
How has the ecological diversity of marine communities changed through time?
