David L. Fox
Professor
[email protected]
I am an evolutionary paleoecologist and my research focuses on the connections between changes in environmental conditions through Earth history and changes in the composition and structure of organismal communities. The methods I use in my research include stable isotope geochemistry, biogeography, and quantitative analyses of the 3D morphology of skulls, jaws, and teeth of mammals. Most of my projects focus on the Cenozoic record of mammals, with a particular emphasis on the Neogene, Quaternary, and Recent, but I have also worked with collaborators on Cambrian brachiopods and with graduate students on Paleogene mammals and squamates. My current projects focus on the evolution of Neogene to Recent rodents in North America and Australasia, ecosystem change in the Miocene of eastern Africa, and the evolution of grassland ecosystems in the Great Plains (and elsewhere) since the late Paleogene.
Graduate students
David Birlenbach
Ph.D. candidate
[email protected]
I am primarily interested in studying ecology on evolutionary timescales. For my doctorate, I focus on testing the hypothesized competition between micromammals during the late Paleocene (~57 million years ago). I also utilize the skeletal morphology of living species to develop and test the validity of tools and assumptions used to identify competition in the fossil record. Aside from my PhD research, I am fortunate to work with collaborators on a wide variety of projects, including studies of community structure, systematics, ecomorphology, and evolutionary rates.
Nora Loughlin
Ph.D. candidate
[email protected]
I am a PhD Candidate in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Before starting my PhD research, I earned a BA in Biological Sciences and a BA in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago in 2016, after which I worked as a research intern in the Paleobiology Department at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. My broad research interests include paleoecology, biogeography, and conservation paleobiology. My dissertation work focuses on analyzing how the functional diversity of North American mammalian communities has changed since Last Glacial Maximum. I am particularly interested in studying how climate change and extinction events have affected past communities in order to better understand how extant communities will react to anthropogenic ecological disturbances.
Francesca Socki
Ph.D. student
[email protected]
I am a third year PhD student in the Fox Lab. In 2018, I earned a BA in Zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University. Throughout my undergraduate career I had opportunities to study morphological variation across multiple taxa, such as voles, fish, and ants, which have in turn introduced me to advanced techniques in morphometrics and systematics. For my dissertation, I am studying the ecologically and morphologically disparate rodent clade Geomyoidea. I am interested in how traits on the skull may coevolve due to functional and/or ecological adaptations, if patterns in covariation reflect phylogeny, and how the magnitude to which traits covary may have facilitated or constrained diversity throughout a groups evolutionary history. I am also passionate about drawing, pedagogy, and citizen science.
Evan Whiting
PhD Candidate
[email protected]
I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota. Prior to starting my PhD, I earned my MSc degree in 2016 from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and my BSc degree in 2014 from the University of Florida. My previous research focused on the morphology, ecology, and systematics of modern and fossil crocodylians, particularly alligators. My PhD dissertation research focuses on the biogeography and dental ecomorphology of modern and fossil squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes). I am broadly interested in studying the Cenozoic reptile fossil record of continental North America, as well as how extinct reptiles responded to past episodes of climate change, which can help inform modern and future conservation plans. I am also passionate about STEM education and outreach, and am actively pursuing a career as a science educator.
Undergraduate students
Hayley Orlowski
B.S. 2021
Alumni researcher
[email protected]
I recently graduated with my BSc in 2021 from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. My current research follows the evolution of dentition across the 55-million-year evolutionary history of the Equidae (horses), with specific regard to the inhibitory cascade model of development and the emergence of the grassland ecosystem. More broadly, I am interested in questions about how ancient tetrapods lived, through lenses of morphometrics, functional morphology, and trait evolution; by examining these traits in ancient communities, I hope to help provide a clearer picture of how these ancient ecosystems and organisms worked so that we can better understand modern biodiversity.
Former Postdocs
Jonathan Marcot, Postdoc 2004-2006
Assistant Adjunct Professor
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UCLA
Graduate Student Alumni
Rebecca Nockerts, PhD 2019
Co-advised with Mike Wilson (UM Anthropology)
Stable Isotope Ecology of Gombe National Park: A Modern Analogue for Fossil Hominins
Postdoctoral researcher, UM Anthropology
Daniel Maxbauer, PhD 2017
Co-advised with Joshua Feinberg (UM Earth & Environmental Sciences)
Magnetic Minerals in Soils and Paleosols as Recorders of Paleoclimate.
Assistant Professor of Geology, Carleton College, MN
Nicki Garrett, PhD 2016
Co-advised with Kieran McNulty (UM Anthropology)
Stable isotope paleoenvironmental reconstructions of the Early Miocene and Late Pleistocene deposits on Rusinga and Mfangano Islands, Lake Victoria, Kenya.
National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN
Andrew Haveles, PhD 2015
Ecology and Chemistry of Modern Small Mammals: Implications for Interpreting the Small Mammal Fossil Record.
Assistant Professor of Plant and Earth Sciences and Biology, University of Wisconsin River Falls
Wes Rutelonis, MS 2016
Co-advised with Mike Berndt (MN DNR)
Linking Riparian Flow-Concentration Integration Modeling and HSPF to Predict Background Methylmercury Concentrations in Northeastern Minnesota Streams.
Groundwater Specialist at Dakota County, MN
Laura Vietti, PhD 2014
Co-advised with Jake Bailey (UM Earth and Environmental Sciences) and Raymond Rogers (Macalester College)
Insights into the microbial degradation of bones from the marine vertebrate fossil record: an experimental approach using interdisciplinary analyses
Collections Manager at the University of Wyoming Geological Museum and Assistant Research Scientist at University of Wyoming Department of Geology and Geophysics
Sara Morón Polanco, MS 2011
Paleosol carbon isotope stratigraphy, major oxides and rock magnetic record of climate change across the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the Bogota Basin, Colombia
Research Fellow, University of Sydney
Chiji Ochiagha, MS 2011
Ecological Biogeography of African Mammals in Relation to Climate and Physiography
Peter Rose, PhD 2010
Paleoclimate and Mammal Paleoecology During the Paleocene of North America: Insights from Stable Isotopes.
Geologist, Minerals Management, Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Samuel Matson, MS 2004, PhD 2010
Doctorate dissertation: Stable Isotopic Investigation of Late Neogene Terrestrial Paleoecology and Paleoclimate of the Circum-Mediterranean Region.
Masters thesis: Evaluation of the Use of Stable Isotopes From Turtles, Crocodilians, and Fish to Understand Paleoclimates: An Example From the PaleoceneEocene of the Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming
Stacy Gohman, MS 2008
Vegetation change and the extinction of the wooly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) in eastern Siberia.
Freelance museum exhibit developer
Rhonda Friberg, MS 2006
Macroecology of Mammals: An Analysis of Vegetation Composition as an Explanation for Patterns of Species Richness of Mammals in North America.
Engineer, American Civil Liberties Union
Undergraduate Student Alumni
Kirsten Meltesen, 2021, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; currently Ph.D. student, University of Washington
Jenny Huang, 2021, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Andrew Urevig, 2018, Intercollegiate Program
Alexi Besser, 2017, Earth Sciences and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; currently Ph.D. student, University of New Mexico
Anessa Demers, 2017, Earth Sciences; currently Ph.D. student, The Ohio State University
Anne Kort, 2016, Earth Sciences; currently Ph.D. student, University of Indiana
Joel Torgeson, 2016, Anthropology
Jonathan Keller, 2016, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; currently Ph.D. student, University of New Mexico
John Munson, 2015, Earth Sciences; M.S., University of California, Santa Barbara
An An Hua, 2014, Earth Sciences
Jack Mitchell, 2014, Earth Sciences; M.S., University of California, Santa Barbara
Sylvia Ascari, 2013, Earth Sciences; Ph.D., University of Indiana
Joel Cramblit, 2012, Anthropology
Spencer Niebuhr, 2010, Earth Sciences
Andrew Thomas, 2007, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Matt Sauter, 2005, Geology and Geophysics