David Krause
Distinguished Service Professor
Ph.D., University of Michigan,
1982

david.krause@stonybrook.edu

Systematics, biogeography, functional morphology, paleoecology, biochronology of Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic mammals, evolutionary and biogeographic history of the Gondwanan vertebrate fauna, biogeographic origins of the extant Malagasy vertebrate fauna

The main focus of Dr. Krause's research is the evolutionary history and paleobiology of Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic vertebrates, particularly mammals. Almost all of this research is based on field-oriented programs, primarily in Madagascar and the Western Interior of North America.

The Madagascar project is concentrated on Upper Cretaceous vertebrates from the Mahajanga Basin. Four expeditions to the basin since 1993 have more than quadrupled the known diversity of Late Cretaceous vertebrate species from the island. Among the discoveries are the first pre-Late Pleistocene records of mammals, birds, and frogs on the island. Many of the vertebrate taxa, primarily crocodyliforms, dinosaurs, and birds, are represented by nearly complete, exquisitely preserved skulls and/or skeletons that have provided critical new data with which to test phylogenetic hypotheses. The project has also provided the opportunity to address questions concerning the Mesozoic plate tectonic and biogeographic history of Gondwana and, more specifically, the biogeographic origins of the highly endemic modern vertebrate fauna of Madagascar.

The collections that Dr. Krause, colleagues, and students have amassed from the western United States (particularly from Paleocene deposits in the Crazy Mountains Basin of Montana) have provided the opportunity to test hypotheses correlating mammalian faunal turnover and climatic changes during the Paleocene and early Eocene. Many new taxa have been discovered and, as a result, phylogenetic patterns within a number of lineages have been elucidated. Additionally, through studies of functional morphology, the dietary and locomotory habits and diel activity patterns of several previously poorly known forms have been determined. These analyses have allowed both theoretical and empirical aspects of competition in the fossil record to be assessed.

Selected Publications:

Krause DW (2001) Fossil molar from a Madagascan marsupial. Nature 412:497-498.

Silcox MT, Krause DW, Maas MC, Fox RC (2001) New specimens of Elphidotarsius russelli (Mammalia, ?Primates, Carpolestidae) and a revision of plesiadapoid relationships. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21:132-152.

Krause DW (2000) A fossil bonanza. National Geographic Magazine (August issue), pp. 52-57.

Buckley GA, Brochu C, Krause DW, Pol D (2000) A pug-nosed crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Nature 405:941-944.

Krause DW, Rogers RR, Forster CA, Hartman JH, Buckley GA, Sampson SD (1999) The Late Cretaceous vertebrate fauna of Madagascar: Implications for Gondwanan paleobiogeography. GSA Today 9(8):1-7.

Forster CA, Sampson SD, Chiappe LM, Krause DW (1998) The theropod ancestry of birds: new evidence from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Science 279(5358):1915-1919.

Sampson SD, Witmer LM, Forster CA, Krause DW, O'Connor P M, Dodson P, Ravoavy F (1998) Predatory dinosaur remains from Madagascar: implications for the Cretaceous biogeography of Gondwana. Science 280:1048-1051.

Krause DW, Hartman JH, Wells NA (1997) Late Cretaceous vertebrates from Madagascar: Implications for biotic change in deep time. Pp. 3-43 in S. D. Goodman and B. D. Patterson (eds.), Natural Change and Human Impact in Madagascar. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Krause DW, Prasad GVR, von Koenigswald W, Sahni A, Grine FE (1997) Cosmopolitanism among Late Cretaceous Gondwanan mammals. Nature 390:504-507.

Krause DW, Bonaparte JF (1993) The discovery of a radiation of multituberculate mammals in South America. Proc. National Academy of Sciences 90:9379-9383.

Maas MC, Krause DW, Strait SG (1988) The decline and extinction of Plesiadapiformes (Mammalia: Primates) in North America: displacement or replacement? Paleobiology 14:410-431.

Krause DW, Jenkins FA Jr (1983) The postcranial skeleton of North American multituberculates (Mammalia). Bull. Museum Comp. Zool., Harvard University, 150:199-246.

Krause DW (1982) Jaw movement, dental function, and diet in the Paleocene multituberculate Ptilodus. Paleobiology 8:265-281.

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