Paleontological studies in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department focus on both field data and quantitative analysis to address questions ranging from evolutionary paleoecology to body plan evolution in trilobites.
- The earliest multicellular life-Ediacaran fauna.
- Ecological shifts and community dynamics through the Ordovician Radiation, the Late Devonian Mass Extinction.
- Ecospace utilization of encrusters through the Cenozoic.
- Utilizing geometric morphometrics as a tool for delineating microevolutionary patterns in trilobites
- Paleozoic paleogeography of the Himalayan region
- Development of trilobite body-plan
- Stratigraphic and geochemical record of the biosphere across the Pre-Cambrian-Cambrian boundary.
- Integration of biostratigraphic sequencing and cladistic analysis of faunas
- Improving the resolving power of Paleozoic time scales by computer sequencing of hundreds of localities and thousands of events.
Faculty Involved: Droser, Hughes, Love, Lyons, Sadler