At our school, the paleontological research conducted covers a variety of subject areas, including paleobiology, paleoecology, taphonomy, biostratigraphy, biogeography, and phylogenetics. Faculty and students combine field research in both modern and ancient settings with museum research and laboratory analyses to reconstruct past paleoenvironmental conditions and identify their ecological and evolutionary consequences through geologic time. Taken together, the research focuses on four key paleontological questions:
How do organisms respond to environmental change and adapt to different environments?
How is biodiversity distributed in space and time?
How can paleontological resources be best utilized and preserved for scientific research?
How do modern processes contribute to the formation and preservation of fossils in different environments?
Understanding the relationships between organisms and their environments is important for interpreting the evolutionary history of the biosphere and for predicting future biotic responses to climate change.
Paleontological research at the School is motivated by several overarching questions: what were the causes and mechanisms of change of the main lineages represented in the fossil record? What is the evolutionary history of lineages such as needlebacks, reptiles, and mammals? How can we use the fossil record and phylogenetic hypotheses to test current theories and predict the potential consequences of current global change events?
Vertebrate paleontologists at the School focus on the evolutionary morphology of vertebrates, evolutionary ecology (recent and ancient), phylogenetic systematics, and developmental evolution. The main tool in this work is a high-resolution computed tomography scanner for 3D imaging of fossil vertebrates.
The invertebrate paleontologists at the School focus on the development of early Paleozoic needlebacks. This includes attempting to determine the origin, early evolutionary history, paleoecology, and closest relatives of the earliest crinoids in the Early Ordovician based on new collections from the Rockies.
Among the School’s paleontologists, there is also an interest in the relationships between organisms over time, especially in reef environments. Rudists, a species of extinct bivalve mollusks important to reef environments, are a particular focus of interest. Researchers are investigating the links between changes in key reef-forming organisms over time to better understand how conditions in the global ocean have changed. Because they provide a unique long-term perspective, the university’s extensive fossil collections are used by researchers to link ancient climate change to modern ones.