Sandra J. Carlson
Ph.D., Michigan (1986)
Professor

Invertebrate (and vertebrate) paleontology. Phylogeny, functional morphology, biology, and evolution of living and fossil brachiopods. Recent projects include: phylogenetic relationships among extant brachiopods; phylogeny and evolution of "pentameride" brachiopods; understanding conflicts between morphological and molecular data in brachiopod systematics; revising the brachiopod volumes of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology; evolutionary trends in the articulate brachiopod hinge mechanism; geochemical investigations of growth in selected Recent articulate brachiopods; a phylogenetic perspective on articulate brachiopod diversity and the Permo-Triassic extinctions; role of development and heterochrony in the thecideide brachiopod evolution; investigating morphological variations in the loops of two extant species of terebratulide brachiopods; organized the 2001 Paleontological Society Short Course on Brachiopods; investigating phylogenetic relationships among rapanine, and nassariine gastropods. Biomineralization, growth, and diagenesis of "hard parts" - shells, bones, and teeth.

carlson@geology.ucdavis.edu
(530) 752-2834