Dr. Robert Feranec

Director of Research and Collections, Curator of Pleistocene Vertebrate Paleontology
robert.feranec@nysed.gov
518-474-5819

While my interests encompass a broad scope of topics including influences on biogeography, causes of speciation and adaptive radiation, and triggers of extinction, my research has been focused at describing the evolution of ecology in mammals.  My research concentrates on examining ecology in mammals from short time scales (seasons) to very long time scales (millions of years). 

In order to understand ecology of fossil mammals, the modern quantitative and analytical techniques I employ include stable isotope geochemistry, utilization of bioinformatics databases, and computer-based imaging of fossils which permits quantitative analysis of various morphological features.  Fieldwork is also an important aspect of my research program, and I have conducted or participated in excavations in the U.S. and Spain. 

Typical questions addressed in my research include:

How does climate change effect ecology?
Does ecology change during development?
Does immigration/dispersal of new species affect ecology?
Does extinction/extirpation of species affect ecology?

I am interested and open to collaboration within and beyond North America.  Potential collaborators, including current or potential graduate students, are encouraged to email me.

Publications

2006

Geyer, G., Landing, E., 2006. Morocco Field Excursion 2006. Ediacaran-Cambrian Depositional Environments and Stratigraphy of the Western Atlas Regions, in: Geyer, G., Landing, E. (Eds.), Morocco 2006. EdiacaranCambrian Depositional Environments and Stratigraphy of the Western Atlas Regions. Explanatory Description and Field Excursion Guide. , , pp. 47-112.

2005

Landing, E., 2005. Ancient Life, in: Eisenstadt, P., Moss, L. (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, pp. 83-86.
Landing, E., 2005. Geology and Plate Techtonics, in: Eisenstadt, P., Moss, L. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, pp. 632-636.
E. Landing 2005, Early Paleozoic Avalon — Gondwana Unity: An Obituary — Response to ’Palaeontological Evidence Bearing on Global Ordovician-Silurian Continental Reconstructions’ by R. R. Fortey and L. R. M. Cocks, Earth-Science Reviews 69, 169-175. 10.1016/j.earscirev.2004.10.002
E. Landing 2005, Fabulous Fossils-The State Museum’s Trilobites. Legacy: The Magazine of the New York State Museum 1, 8-9

2004

G. Geyer, E. Landing 2004, A Unified Lower-Middle Cambrian Chronostratigraphy for West Gondwana, Acta Geologica Polonica 54, 233-273.
E. Landing 2004, Fossils and "Deep Time" In New York, New York State Museum Educational Leaflet The University of the State of New York, Albany, NY
E. Landing 2004, Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary Interval Deposition and the Marginal Platform of the Avalon Microcontinent, Journal of Geodynamics 37, 411-435. 10.1016/j.jog.2004.02.014
Landing, E., Westrop, S., 2004. Environmental Patterns in the Origin and Evolution and Diversification Loci of Early Cambrian Skeletalized Metazoa: Evidence from the Avalon Microcontinent, in: Lipps, J., Wagoner, B. (Eds.), Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Biological Revolutions. Paleontological Society, , pp. 93-105.

2003

E. Landing 2003, Self-Taught American Scientist. New York Archives 2, 13-15