Current Projects

Emergent Amphibian Diseases

​

The sudden decline and extinction of amphibian species around the world has motivated researchers across many fields to investigate the causes behind the dramatic loss of biodiversity. The list of culprits appears to include habitat loss, climate change, pollution, over-exploitation, and emergent diseases. Moreover, many of these factors have been found to work synergistically. In our area in central New York, widespread declines and extinctions have not been documented officially, but field herpetologists and many local residents have noted a decrease in frogs and salamanders. When amphibian declines were first recognized...

 

Miniature, Burrowing Squamates

​

The repeated evolution of similar, specialized anatomy in many different groups of unrelated animals provides an important opportunity to investigate the factors that shape the major differences we see in skeletal structure. The specialized, shared skull shapes found across head-first burrowing vertebrates that use their heads as a digging tool are an example of such convergence. It has been proposed that these head-first burrowers, from snakes to amphibians, which also tend to be miniaturized, converged on a similar skull shape because of interconnected limitations resulting from similar pressures such as the functional requirements of digging, shared features of vertebrate skull growth, and existing anatomical features inherited from ancestors...

Microvertebrate Fossils of Cathedral Cave and Ghost Ranch

​

The Hayden Quarry at Ghost Ranch, NM, is recognized for its high diversity and abundance of large archosaur fossils including early dinosaurs like Tawa and crocodylian relatives such as phytosaurs and aetosaurs. However, the age of the Hayden Quarry (~ 215 mya) also places it in a prime position to preserve tiny, delicate fossils of early representatives of today’s dominant terrestrial vertebrates including mammals, amphibians, and squamates. Additionally, the uncommon depositional setting of the site, including fluvial transport via a network of small river channels and burned wood associated with terrestrial forest fires, increased the preservation potential of rarer small reptiles such as drepanosaurs  and many fish groups...