Research Interests
Paleontological and geological research in the field and laboratory, with a particular focus on the ecological context of human evolution in the later Cenozoic of East Africa. Concurrent research in modern ecosystems to understand how processes that alter and destroy organic remains affect information preserved in the fossil record. This understanding forms a basis for reconstructing ancient faunas and tracing them through time in relation to changes in paleoclimate and other environmental variables. Developing new approaches to data collecting in the field to improve temporal and spatial resolution of information from the fossil record also is an important component in her research agenda.
Current Research Projects
Taphonomic and paleoecological projects in the Pakistan Siwalik sequence (Miocene), the Turkana Basin and the Olorgesailie Basin in the rift valley of Kenya (Plio-Pleistocene), and the Hadar Formation (Pliocene) of Ethiopia. Also continuing a 30-year study of modern taphonomic processes affecting bone preservation in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. With Dr. Robin Whatley, a project on the taphonomy and paleoecology of the earliest mammals and their non-mammalian relatives.
Current or Projected Exhibits
Core-team member for the Behring Family Hall of Mammals, NMNH, completed in the Fall of 2003. Projected involvement in new hall of dinosaur evolution and paleoecology.
Recent Publications
2002. Barry, J. C., M. E. Morgan, L. J. Flynn, D. Pilbeam, A. K. Behrensmeyer, S. M. Raza, I. A. Khan, C. Badgley, J. Hicks and J. Kelley. Faunal and environmental change in the late Miocene Siwaliks of northern Pakistan. Paleobiology 28: Memoir 3 (Supplement to Number 2).
2002. Behrensmeyer, A. K., C. T. Stayton and R. E. Chapman. Taphonomy and Ecology of Modern Avifaunal Remains from Amboseli Park, Kenya. Paleobiology 29(1):52-70.
2002. Behrensmeyer, Anna K., R. Potts, A. Deino and P. Ditchfield. Olorgesailie, Kenya: A million years in the life of a rift basin. In: Sedimentation in Continental Rifts, Renaut, R.W. and Ashley, G.M, eds.) SEPM Special Publication 73: 97-106.
2004. Bobe, René and A. K. Behrensmeyer. The expansion of grassland ecosystems in Africa in relation to mammalial evolution and the origin of the genus Homo. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 207: 399-420.
2004. Trueman, C. N. G., A. K. Behrensmeyer, N. Tuross and S. Weiner. Mineralogical and compositional changes in bones exposed on soil surfaces in Amboseli National Park, Kenya: Diagenetic mechanisms and the role of sediment pore fluids. Journal of Archeological Science 31:721-739.
2004. Potts, R., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Deino, A., Ditchfield, P., and Clark, J. Small mid-Pleistocene hominin associated with East African Acheulean technology. Science 305: 75-78.
2004. DiMichele, W.A., A.K. Behrensmeyer, T.D. Olszewski, C.C. Labandeira, J.M. Pandolfi, S.L. Wing, and R. Bobe, Long-term stasis in ecological assemblages: evidence from the fossil record. Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics 35:285-322.
2004. Bobe Quinteros, R., A. K. Behrensmeyer and G. Carroasco Ormazábal. Paleoclima y evolución faunística en el Plio-Pleistoceno de África y América del Sur. (Proceedings de Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Santiago, Chile, January 2003) Ameghiniana (Rev. Asoc. Paleontol. Argent.) 41(4):641-649.
2005. Behrensmeyer, Anna K. and J. C. Barry. Biostratigraphic surveys in the Siwaliks of Pakistan: A method for standardized surface sampling of the vertebrate fossil record. Palaeontologica Electronica (Special issue in honor of W. R. Downs): Vol. 8, Issue 1:15A:24p, 839kb. http://palaeo-electronica.org.
2005. Behrensmeyer, Anna K., Franz T. Fürsich, Robert A. Gastaldo, Susan M. Kidwell, Matthew A. Kosnik, Michal Kowalewski, Roy E. Plotnick, Raymond R. Rogers, John Alroy. Are the most durable shelly taxa also the most common in the marine fossil record? Paleobiology 31(4):607-623.
Updated -11/01/05
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