CURRENT RESEARCH      The current focus of my research aims at understanding the paleoecological consequences of the evolution of key adaptations in ancient mammals.  I am currently concentrating my research on the ecological consequences due to the evolution of hypsodont teeth by ungulates in the early Miocene of North America.  The main techniques used to determine resource utilization by ungulates are by the analysis of morphological and stable isotope proxies. Specific projects: Resource Partitioning in the Ungulates of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Through Isotopic Analysis of Fecal Matter---aims at determining whether or not resource partitioning can be determined in a dominantly C3 ecosystem. Isotopic Analysis of the Fauna at Rancho La Brea, California---aims at determining the partitioning of the large mammals within this well-known, and supposedly C3-dominated, locality from southern California.  This analysis will include both herbivores and carnivores. Isotopic Analysis of the Faunas at Black Hawk Ranch and Barstow Localities from the Miocene of California---aims at determining resource partitioning of ungulates prior to the C4 global carbon shift that occurred about 7 million years ago.  Both of these localities are strictly C3. Morphological Analysis of Teeth: Do Lengths, Widths, and Areas Help Tell Anything About the Mammalian Herbivore Diet?---aims at determining whether morphological proxies provide an adequate estimate of the diet of ungulates. Side Projects: How to Grow a Saber-Tooth---aims at determining how long, how fast, and do all tsaber-toothed taxa grow their canines in the same way. Description of Lignimus and Mojavemys from Hepburn's Mesa, MT---a description of these two geomyid taxa from the early Miocene of Montana.

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