Dissertation Research: Regional trophic diversity dynamics in North American Eocene mammals

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Due largely to climate change and changes in land use, at least 20% of the mammal species living today are threatened with extinction. The fossil record is a key source of information about how species responded to environmental change in the past. Fossil material from carnivorous mammals in southern California, dating to the Eocene and Oligocene epochs (56 - 23 million years ago), will be examined to learn more about the ecology of those species and how they may have been impacted by a changing environment. This material also will be compared to records from central Oregon to examine patterns of change in regional mammalian diversity at a time when there was a dramatic loss in flowering plant diversity. Together, these analyses will provide insights into the timing and magnitude of changes in mammalian diversity, and how the extent and timing of this loss of diversity compared for carnivorous and non-carnivorous mammals. To encourage more dialogues between paleontologists and conservation biologists, and to promote the irreplaceable value of paleontological collections in biodiversity research, the findings of this study will be disseminated through professional scientific meetings, undergraduate-level college courses, and museum tours and lectures for schoolchildren and the general public.