Paleobiology | Biogeography
Stable Isotope Ecology

We are a team of evolutionary ecologists interested in how climate and landscape history shape the diversity, biogeography, and ecological structure of faunas across spatio-temporal scales. We test hypotheses about how changes in climate, topographic complexity, and habitat heterogeneity impact communities and ecological processes at local scales and govern diversity at regional scales.

To do so, we use the fossil record to investigate diversity patterns and paleoecology, focusing on the history of small mammals and environments during the Cenozoic. Our work on the past is conducted in parallel with investigations of modern and historical small-mammal populations across climatic and environmental gradients today. Our work takes place across a range of geographic regions differing in habitats, topographic complexity, and geologic history, with a special focus on the Miocene history of the Basin and Range Province of western North America and the Turkana Basin, Kenya, in the East African Rift.

Our lab is housed in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York. We are affiliated with the Turkana Basin Institute at SBU.

To learn more about what we do and who we are, please visit the links above, including the Join Us page for information on Lab philosophy and expectations for prospective and current students.