David Jablonski, University of Chicago
Professor
Chicago, Illinois
djablons@uchicago.edu
Office:
(773) 702-8163
Bio/Research
My research emphasizes the combining of data from living and fossil organisms to study the origins and the fates of lineages and adaptations.
Main areas include: (1) the dynamics of the latitudinal diversity gradient in marine bivalves, and the interplay or origination, extinction, and r...
Click to Expand >>
Main areas include: (1) the dynamics of the latitudinal diversity gradient in marine bivalves, and the interplay or origination, extinction, and r...
Click to Expand >>
Bio/Research
My research emphasizes the combining of data from living and fossil organisms to study the origins and the fates of lineages and adaptations.
Main areas include: (1) the dynamics of the latitudinal diversity gradient in marine bivalves, and the interplay or origination, extinction, and range shifts in shaping global diversity patterns. The fossil record shows that the "tropics-as-cradle-or-museum" paradigm of the past 30 years is a false dichotomy, with the tropics actually being an evolutionary source of expanding lineages that also accumulate in their tropical starting points. (2) The role of geographic range, larval development, and other biological factors in determining speciation rates and patterns in mollusks of the Coastal Plain Cretaceous and the Cenozoic. Hierarchical approaches to large-scale evolutionary processes appear to be powerful tools for understanding macroevolutionary patterns. Once background patterns are understood, they can (3) be compared to patterns of extinction and survival during mass extinctions to gain a better picture of the evolutionary significance of extinction events. Work on the end-Cretaceous extinction indicates neither a simple intensification of background patterns nor an entirely random culling of the biota, and analyses on the early Cenozoic evolutionary rebound shows distinct differences among biogeographic regions (North America vs. Europe vs. North Africa vs. Pakistan), suggesting that evolutionary patterns are shaped by the alternation of extinction regimes, with rare but influential mass extinctions driving unexpected evolutionary shifts. Analysis of both background and mass extinction along latitudinal and bathymetric gradients, and spatial and environmental histories of major evolutionary novelties and higher taxa in post-Paleozoic marine invertebrates, are also active research projects based on the primary literature and museum collections.
Click to Shrink <<
Main areas include: (1) the dynamics of the latitudinal diversity gradient in marine bivalves, and the interplay or origination, extinction, and range shifts in shaping global diversity patterns. The fossil record shows that the "tropics-as-cradle-or-museum" paradigm of the past 30 years is a false dichotomy, with the tropics actually being an evolutionary source of expanding lineages that also accumulate in their tropical starting points. (2) The role of geographic range, larval development, and other biological factors in determining speciation rates and patterns in mollusks of the Coastal Plain Cretaceous and the Cenozoic. Hierarchical approaches to large-scale evolutionary processes appear to be powerful tools for understanding macroevolutionary patterns. Once background patterns are understood, they can (3) be compared to patterns of extinction and survival during mass extinctions to gain a better picture of the evolutionary significance of extinction events. Work on the end-Cretaceous extinction indicates neither a simple intensification of background patterns nor an entirely random culling of the biota, and analyses on the early Cenozoic evolutionary rebound shows distinct differences among biogeographic regions (North America vs. Europe vs. North Africa vs. Pakistan), suggesting that evolutionary patterns are shaped by the alternation of extinction regimes, with rare but influential mass extinctions driving unexpected evolutionary shifts. Analysis of both background and mass extinction along latitudinal and bathymetric gradients, and spatial and environmental histories of major evolutionary novelties and higher taxa in post-Paleozoic marine invertebrates, are also active research projects based on the primary literature and museum collections.
Click to Shrink <<