Dr. Jeremy J. Kirchman

Curator of Birds and Mammals
jeremy.kirchman@nysed.gov
518-474-1441

I am broadly interested in the evolution and biogeography of birds, but most of my research focuses on populations found on islands. Islands have long been considered “natural laboratories of evolution”, and studying birds on islands teaches us much about speciation, extinction, and adaptation.  I have a special interest in one group of birds, the rails (Rallidae), which are great island colonists, found even on the most remote oceanic islands.  Many rail species have evolved to become totally flightless on islands that lack mammalian predators. Closer to home, I am studying several species of birds that breed in “islands” of coniferous (boreal) forest isolated above 3000 feet of elevation in New York’s mountain ranges. I want to know if these populations of Bicknell’s Thrush, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Spruce Grouse and other boreal forest specialists are genetically isolated and evolving independently of one another. These high-elevation populations may be imperiled as the climate continues to warm.

Publications

2016

G. Geyer, E. Landing 2016, Comment on “Terreneuvian Small Shelly Faunas of East Yunnan (South China) and Their Biostratigraphic Implications”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology , doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.04.016. 10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.04.016
E. Landing, A. Kouchinsky 2016, Correlation of the Cambrian Evolutionary Radiation: geochronology, evolutionary stasis of earliest Cambrian (Terreneuvian) small shelly fossil (SSF) taxa, and chronostratigraphic significance, Geological Magazine 153, 750-756. 10.1017/S0016756815001089
E. Landing, Joseph Meert, Natalia Levashova, Mikhail Bazhenov 2016, Rapid changes of magnetic Field polarity in the late Ediacaran: Linking the Cambrian evolutionary radiation and increased UV-B radiation, Gondwana Research 34, 149–157. 10.1016/j.gr.2016.01.001
E. Landing, Samuel Bowring, Judy Pu, Jahandar Ramezani, Paul Myrow, Timothy Raub, Andrea Mills, Eben Hodgin, Francis Macdonald 2016, Dodging snowballs: Geochronology of the Gaskiers glaciation and the first appearance of the Ediacaran biota, Geology 44, 955-958. 10.1130/G38284.1
E. Landing, M. Webster 2016, Geological context, biostratigraphy and systematic revision of late early Cambrian olenelloid trilobites from the Parker and Monkton formations, northwestern Vermont, U.S.A., Australasian Palaeontological Memoirs 49, 193-240.
Geyer, G., Landing, E., 2016. The Precambrian–Phanerozoic and Ediacaran–Cambrian Boundaries: A Historical Approach to a Dilemma, in: Brasier, A., McIlroy, D., McLoughlin, N. (Eds.), Earth System Evolution and Early Life: A Celebration of the Work of Martin Brasier. Geological Society of London, London, England, pp. 311-349.

2015

E. Landing, J. Antcliffe, M. Brasier, A. English 2015, Distinguishing Earth’s oldest bryozoan (Pywackia, Late Cambrian) from pennatulacean octocorals (Mesozoic–Recent), Journal of Paleontology 89, 292-317. 10.1017/jpa.2014.26
E. Landing, J. Antcliffe, M. Brasier, A. English 2015, Distinguishing Earths Oldest Bryozoan (Pywackia, Late Cambrian) from Pennatulacean Octocorals (Mesozoic-Recent), Journal of Paleontology 89, 292-317. 10.1017/jpa.2014.26
G. Geyer, E. Landing, R. Buckwaldt, S. Bowring 2015, Geochronology of the Cambrian: A Precise Middle Cambrian U-Pb Zircon Date from the German Margin of West Gondwana, Geological Magazine 152, 28-40. 10.1017/S0016756814000119
E. Landing, A.W.A. Rushton, R.A. Fortey, S.A. Bowring 2015, Improved Geochronologic Accuracy and Precision for the ICS Chronostratigraphic Charts: Examples from the late Cambrian–Early Ordovician, Episodes 38, 154-161.