Research in our lab focuses on the ecological, evolutionary, and geological processes that control the diversity, distribution, and abundance of fossil taxa in time and space. We work at local (outcrop), regional (depositional basin), and continental scales. Understanding how processes interact across these scales is the key to understanding global diversity through time, simply because global diversity is built from local, regional, and continental diversity. Lab members have worked in the Ordovician from Pennsyvania to Nevada, the Devonian of central Pennsylvania, the Mississippian of the Illinois and Appalachian basins, the Pennsylvanian and Permian of the Midcontinent, the Paleogene of the Gulf Coast, and the Neogene of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
STRATIGRAPHIC PALEOBIOLOGY
One of the main threads through all the field research in the lab is the collection and interpretation of fossils in a sequence stratigraphic framework emphasizing how the architecture of the stratigraphic record affects the preservation and distribution of fossils. This area of paleontology, called stratigraphic paleobiology, is growing rapidly and, working with our collaborators, we have played a large role in shaping this new field of study. I recently published a book with my long-time collaborator, Steve Holland, called Stratigraphic Paleobiology: Understanding the Distribution of Fossil Taxa in Time and Space (Mark E. Patzkowsky and Steven M. Holland, The University of Chicago Press, 2012). Our book defines the conceptual issues, outlines the analytical methods required to solve the important problems, and seeks to stimulate research in this burgeoning field.
PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY AND MASS EXTINCTION
Lab members have worked on geographic and environmental variability in the Late Ordovician and K-T mass extinctions and subsequent recovery intervals. These two mass extinctions had very different effects on the history of life and we would like to know how to quantify those different effects. We (Zack Krug and Mark Patzkowsky) were recently funded by NASA to investigate the Late Ordovician mass extinction and recovery with phylogenetic methods that quantify evolutionary history.
STRATIGRAPHIC PALEOBIOLOGY
One of the main threads through all the field research in the lab is the collection and interpretation of fossils in a sequence stratigraphic framework emphasizing how the architecture of the stratigraphic record affects the preservation and distribution of fossils. This area of paleontology, called stratigraphic paleobiology, is growing rapidly and, working with our collaborators, we have played a large role in shaping this new field of study. I recently published a book with my long-time collaborator, Steve Holland, called Stratigraphic Paleobiology: Understanding the Distribution of Fossil Taxa in Time and Space (Mark E. Patzkowsky and Steven M. Holland, The University of Chicago Press, 2012). Our book defines the conceptual issues, outlines the analytical methods required to solve the important problems, and seeks to stimulate research in this burgeoning field.
PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY AND MASS EXTINCTION
Lab members have worked on geographic and environmental variability in the Late Ordovician and K-T mass extinctions and subsequent recovery intervals. These two mass extinctions had very different effects on the history of life and we would like to know how to quantify those different effects. We (Zack Krug and Mark Patzkowsky) were recently funded by NASA to investigate the Late Ordovician mass extinction and recovery with phylogenetic methods that quantify evolutionary history.