Best Paleoecology

Rick Potts is an American paleoanthropologist who currently directs the Smithsonian Institution's Human Origins Program. He is best known for developing the "variability selection hypothesis," a major theoretical framework which posits that human evolution was driven by adaptation to fluctuating env...

Felisa Smith is an American paleoecologist and academic whose research focuses on the ecological history of mammals. She specializes in analyzing body size trends and geographic ranges to better understand past extinction events and responses to climate change. Her extensive work frequently examines...

Conrad Labandeira is an American paleobiologist who serves as a curator of fossil arthropods at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. His research centers on the evolutionary history of plant-insect interactions, particularly insect herbivory, pollination, and other ecological associat...

Emily Mitchell is a British paleontologist and paleoecologist whose research focuses on the spatial ecology of early animal communities. She is known for applying quantitative and computational methods to study Ediacaran fossil assemblages, particularly the soft-bodied organisms found in Newfoundlan...

Larisa DeSantis is an American paleontologist and a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on paleoecology, specifically utilizing dental microwear texture analysis and stable isotope geochemistry to reconstruct the diets and habitats of ext...

Scott Wing is a research geologist and curator of paleobotany at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. His scientific research centers on paleoecology, utilizing fossil plants to reconstruct terrestrial climates during the Cenozoic era. He is specifically recognized...

Adolf Seilacher was a German paleontologist specializing in invertebrate paleontology and paleoecology. His research focused on trace fossils – primarily ichnofacies – providing insights into ancient environments and animal behavior. He is particularly recognized for his detailed studies of fossil t...

Samantha Hopkins is an American vertebrate paleontologist currently serving as a professor at the University of Oregon. Her research centers on the evolution and paleoecology of Cenozoic mammals, with a particular focus on burrowing rodents. By examining fossil records, she studies how ancient anima...

Anthony D. Barnosky is an American paleoecologist and paleontologist whose research focuses on Quaternary mammals, past climate change, and mass extinctions. He has studied the North American fossil record to compare current biodiversity loss with previous extinction events and has written about whe...

Jenny McGuire is an American paleoecologist and an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research integrates fossil records with modern ecological data to examine how mammal communities have responded to past climate changes over the Quaternary period. She has worked on pro...

Peter Andrews is a British paleoanthropologist associated with the Natural History Museum, London. His research has focused on Miocene fossil apes, including Sivapithecus and Dryopithecus, primate evolution, and taphonomy—the study of how animal remains accumulate and fossilize at sites. His work on...

Jordan Mallon is a Canadian paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, noted for research on the ecology and diversity of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs.

Anthony R. Fiorillo is an American paleontologist known for research on Arctic dinosaurs, including Cretaceous fossils from Alaska's North Slope.

Judy A. Massare is an American paleontologist known for research on ichthyosaurs and for using tooth form to reconstruct marine-reptile feeding ecology.

Dana Geary is an American paleontologist known for studying molluscan evolution, including speciation and environmental change in Europe's ancient Lake Pannon.

A. Kay Behrensmeyer is an American paleontologist and taphonomist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. She is recognized for her pioneering research in vertebrate taphonomy, particularly her long-term bone weathering and ecological studies in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, initiate...

David Bottjer is an American paleontologist and geologist holding a faculty position at the University of Southern California. His research specializes in invertebrate paleontology and paleoecology, with a specific focus on Paleozoic and Mesozoic marine ecosystems. He investigates the evolutionary a...

Guy M. Narbonne is a Canadian paleontologist and professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. His research focuses on early complex life, with a specialization in the Ediacaran biota, the oldest known communities of multicellular organisms. He is prominently recognized for his extensive fie...

Johannes Walther was a German geologist who made significant contributions to sedimentology and stratigraphy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is most famous for formulating Walther's Law of Facies, a foundational geological principle stating that vertical sequences of sedimentary rocks...

Mikael Fortelius is a Finnish paleontologist and professor at the University of Helsinki. He is recognized for his extensive research in mammalian paleoecology, particularly the study of tooth wear in ungulates to reconstruct past environments. Fortelius is also a prominent coordinator of the Neogen...

Christine Janis is an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist known for research on the functional morphology and paleoecology of Cenozoic mammals, especially ungulates. Much of her work has examined how dental and skeletal anatomy reflects diet and locomotion in extinct mammals. She has...

James O. Farlow is an American vertebrate paleontologist whose research includes dinosaur trackways, biomechanics, locomotion, and the ecological interpretation of fossil evidence. He has studied how dinosaur footprints can be used to estimate movement, behavior, body size, and interactions with anc...

Ralph E. Taggart was an American paleobotanist and Michigan State University professor known for research on Miocene vegetation change in Oregon and Idaho.

William H. Twenhofel was an American geologist whose research helped establish sedimentology as a distinct field within the earth sciences. His 1926 Treatise on Sedimentation synthesized knowledge about the erosion, transport, deposition, and alteration of sediments and became an influential referen...

Catherine E. Badgley is an American paleontologist at the University of Michigan, noted for mammal paleoecology and SVP presidency from 2006 to 2008.