Dynamic landscapes and mammal diversity, present and past

Catherine Badgley is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. She has been a research scientist in the Museum of Paleontology since 1985 and a lecturer in the Residential College since 1987. She has conducted paleontological field work in Pakistan, China, Kenya and the western United States. Her research also includes studies of modern mammal biogeography. A long-standing interest in the modern biodiversity crisis led her to study the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity and then to evaluate alternative scenarios to the current food system. She is past president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, an international scientific organization.

Mountainous regions are biodiversity hotspots around the world today, especially for small mammals (<I kg).  Catherine's seminar is reporting her findings from a long-term collaboration between paleontologists, mammalogists, and Earth scientists.  The central inquiry was which tectonic and climatic processes and conditions influence the richness and diversification history of small mammals over time.  The collaborative investigations focused on western North America over the past 30 million years. 

For more information about Catherine Badgley and her lab, please visit https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/badgley-lab/people/.