As an invertebrate paleontologist, my research program primarily focuses on evolutionary paleoecology, emphasizing the role of ecology as an evolutionary driver in marine systems through deep time. Broadly, my research falls into two overlapping and complementary areas: Extinction, including extinction risk, recovery, and evolutionary consequences of mass extinctions. Community paleoecology, including the assembly and phylogenetic structure of paleocommunities, changes in niche space occupation through time, and ecological restructuring following environmental perturbations. Although my research uses diverse groups of fossil marine invertebrates, my taxonomic expertise is on fossil crinoids (the feather stars and sea lilies, relatives of sea urchins and starfish) and I most frequently use their exceptional fossil record for addressing evolutionary and paleoecological questions. Crinoid systematics and morphology constitute a major component of my research, including phylogeny reconstruction, systematic revision, descriptions of new taxa, and study of crinoid functional ecology. Another area of research focuses on the role of crinoids in carbonate sedimentology, especially encrinites, which are units formed almost entirely of crinoid fragments. Much of my current and ongoing research focuses on the Ordovician to better understand (1) the evolution of crinoid paleocommunities during the lower Paleozoic, and (2) extinction selectivity and long-term consequences of the Late Ordovician mass extinction. This work involves extensive study of specimens in museum collections, phylogeny reconstruction, implementation of quantitative and phylogenetic comparative approaches, and fieldwork on Anticosti Island in Quebec, Canada.
Fundamentals of Invertebrate Paleontology
