John J. Flynn

Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals, Division of Paleontology

Principal Investigator, Institute for Comparative Genomics

Dean & Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School

Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
212-769-5806
Download Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Columbia University, Ph.D, 1983
  • Columbia University, M.Phil, 1980
  • Columbia University, M.A., 1979
  • Yale University, B.S., 1977

Research Interests

Author of more than 200 scientific publications, Dr. Flynn's research focuses on the phylogeny and evolution of Cenozoic mammals and Mesozoic vertebrates, geological dating, plate tectonics, and biogeography. He was curator for the American Museum’s “Extreme Mammals” and “Whales” exhibitions, curated numerous earlier exhibitions, and has contributed articles to Scientific American, Natural History, and National Geographic, provided scientific expertise for several popular science books, and been featured in numerous television and radio shows, newspapers and magazines. Dr. Flynn has led collaborative international teams for more than 65 paleontological expeditions to Chile, Perú, Colombia, Madagascar, Angola, India, and the Rocky Mountains, and his research, educational initiatives, and paleontological expeditions have been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, NASA, international partner science foundation awards, and other organizations. In 2001 Flynn received a Guggenheim Fellowship for a year of research, writing and expeditions in South America and was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009. He is a longstanding member of Yale's Peabody Museum Leadership Board, and has served the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP, the world's largest organization of professionals in this field) as President (1999-2001) and member of the Board/Executive Committee (1993-2002), and received the Joseph T. Gregory Award (2007) for service and the Alfred Sherwood Romer Prize (1982) for best student presentation from the SVP.

With a specialty in mammalian evolution and paleomagnetism, Flynn has spent his career searching for important new fossil localities to better understand mammalian phylogenetics and evolutionary history, as well as developing better ways to read the age of rocks and fossils, leading to more accurate geological time scales. He has contributed to numerous public education projects (university, museum, web, and popular science), is actively pursuing research on mammalian evolution (particularly the anatomy, DNA and evolution of Carnivora and extinct relatives), has helped expand and enhance the world-leading fossil mammal collections at the American Museum, and has current field programs focusing on the Amazon Basin of Perú and Eocene deposits of Wyoming.

On expeditions to the Andes Mountains in Chile over more than three decades, in collaboration with the Universidad de Chile and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural of Chile, Dr. Flynn and colleagues discovered extremely important and rare fossil specimens, including the continent's oldest, best preserved fossil primate skull and early rodent fossils, both of which suggest an African origin for these important New World groups. These same Andean volcanic-derived deposits have produced more than a dozen new mammal faunas, spanning at least 30 million years (about 10-40 million years ago) and more than 4 degrees of latitude, including a new South American Land Mammal "Age" (the Tinguirirican, about 32-34 million years old) and evidence for the oldest open habitat/grassland environments found anywhere in the world. This research also yields important insights into the relationships and evolutionary history of other mammals, including a variety of groups native to South America.  This work on South American faunas has included work throughout the Chilean Andes, from Patagonia to the Altiplano, as well as in the Peruvian Amazon and Colombia.  More than 2 decades of collaborative research in the Amazon Basin of NE Peru in partnership with the Natural History Museum of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos yielded discovery of the first fossil mammal assemblages from that part of the western Amazon, as well as rich and often spectacularly well-preserved fossils of crocodiles, turtles, and fishes, in addition to plants, pollen, amber, and other evidence of life from the Pebas Mega-Wetland System that preceded first formation of the Amazon River drainage. Similarly, 8 expeditions to Madagascar with the Université d'Antananarivo uncovered spectacular Mesozoic fossils, from mid-late Triassic cynodonts, archosaurs, and rhynchosaurs to tiny advanced mid-Jurassic mammals representing the oldest known tribosphenic mammals.  Together with doctoral students and postdoctoral scientists, Flynn's research also has focused on integrating DNA, anatomical and paleontological data in analysis of the phylogeny and diversification of major groups of mammals (including the prior multi-investigator “Assembling the Tree of Life- Mammalia” project), and the investigation of the evolutionary relationships, craniodental function, and patterns and rates of evolution of the mammalian order Carnivora (e.g., cats, dogs, bears, weasels, seals, etc.) and its extinct relatives, as well as in other vertebrates. Recent research has generated the most comprehensive DNA-based phylogeny of living Carnivora, and studies of body size and relative brain size evolution across living and fossil members of this group.  Current research analyzes high-resolution CT images from the Museum’s recently acquired Zeiss CT scanner. Recent studies and others underway by Flynn and colleagues of the internal structures of skulls, including the inner ear (organ of balance and orientation) and brain endocasts, are yielding new insights into the evolutionary relationships and locomotion specializations of New World Primates, endemic South American ungulates (hoofed plant-eaters), cetaceans, rodents, and carnivorans and their fossil relatives.

Publications

(Selected recent publications)

2025. S.M. McCarroll, S. Tomiya, R.H. Dunn, S.P. Zack, M.C. Wood, B. Bai, W.D. Turnbull, J.J. Flynn. An early to middle Uintan (Ui1b–Ui2) mammalian fauna from the upper unit of the middle Eocene Adobe Town Member, Washakie Formation (Wyoming, U.S.A.). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2570730.

2025. A. Fernández-Reyes, Q. Jiangzuo, J.J. Flynn, and A. Valenciano. First description of fossil remains of the giant mustelid Eomellivora (Mammalia, Carnivora) from the Late Miocene of the Shouyang Basin (China). PalZ (2025), https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-025-00747-8.

2025. K. Tsukui, J.J. Flynn, S.R. Hemming, J. Ramezani, M.L. Machlus, C. Nuñez, S.J. McCarroll, and S.A. Bowring. Magnetostratigraphy and U-Pb geochronology of the middle Eocene Bridger Formation (Wyoming, USA): Implications for the age and correlation of the Bridgerian/Uintan NALMA boundary and calibration of the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale. GSA Bulletin 2025, https://doi.org/10.1130/B37223.1.

2025. Z.J. Tseng, C. Grohé, B. DesRocher, E. Waldman, and J.J. Flynn. Emergent network properties link phenotypic modules to ecomorphological divergence in carnivoran mammals. iScience, 28:111828.

2024. C.J. Law, T.J. Linden, and J.J. Flynn. Skull evolution and lineage diversification in endemic Malagasy carnivorans. Royal Society Open Science 11: 240538.

2024. J.J. Flynn. INMERSIÓN: Sudamérica: Evolución en un continente insular y nuevos conocimientos desde los Andes y las tierras bajas tropicales. Pp. 74-76 In: R. Salas Gismondi, Vertebrados fósiles del Perú: archivos sobre el origen de la biodiversidad, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia - Fondo Editorial Cayetano, Lima, Peru.

2024. N.J. Lee, J.J. Flynn, A.R. Wyss, and D.A. Croft. Early Miocene sloth (Folivora) remains from Pampa Castillo, Southern Chile, including a natural cranial endocast. Ameghiniana, v. 61(3), p. 148–169.

2024. Z.T. Calamari and J.J. Flynn. Gene expression supports a single origin of horns and antlers in hoofed mammals. Communications Biology v. 7, 509 (2024).

2024. S. Bartolini-Lucenti, O. Cirilli, M. Melchionna, P. Raia, Z.J. Tseng, J.J. Flynn, and L. Rook. Virtual reconstruction of the Canis arnensis type (Canidae, Mammalia) from the Upper Valdarno Basin (Italy, Early Pleistocene). Scientific Reports, v. 14, 8303 (2024).

2024. A. Benites-Palomino, G. Aguirre-Fernández, P. Baby, D. Ochoa, A. Altamirano, J.J. Flynn, M.R. Sánchez-Villagra, J.V. Tejada, C. de Muizon, and R. Salas-Gismondi. The largest freshwater odontocete: A fossil South Asian river dolphin relative from Proto-Amazonia. Science Advances, v. 10, issue 12, eadk6320 (2024).

2023. S.J. Nesbitt, E. Patellos, C.F. Kammerer, L. Ranivoharimanana, A.R. Wyss, and J.J. Flynn. The earliest-diverging avemetatarsalian: a new osteoderm-bearing taxon from the Triassic (?Earliest Late Triassic) of Madagascar and the composition of avemetatarsalian assemblages prior to the radiation of dinosaurs. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 199, issue 2, p. 327-353.

2023. M.-P. Aubry, W.E. Piller, J.A. Van Couvering, W.A. Berggren, J.J. Flynn, M.J. Head, F. Hilgen, T. Jun, D.V. Kent, and K.G. Miller. Unifying Cenozoic chronostratigraphy and geochronology: Applying the rules. Newsletters on Stratigraphy DOI: 10.1127/nos/2023/0767.

2023. Z.J. Tseng, S. Garcia-Lara, J.J. Flynn, E. Holmes, T.B. Rowe, and B.V. Dickson. A switch in jaw form–function coupling during the evolution of mammals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 378: 20220091.

2023. Q. Jiangzuo, J.J. Flynn, S. Wang, S. Hou, and T. Deng. New fossil giant panda relatives (Ailuropodinae, Ursidae): A basal lineage of gigantic Mio-Pliocene cursorial carnivores. Novitates, no. 3996.

2023. A.J. McGrath, J.J. Flynn, J. Chick, D.A. Croft, H.E. Dodson, and A.R. Wyss.  Caviomorphs (Rodentia, Hystricognathi) from Pampa Castillo, Chile: new octodontoid records and biochronological implications. Papers in Palaeontology 2023, e1477.

2023. E. Waldman, Y. Gonzalez, J.J. Flynn, and Z.J. Tseng. Dental topographic proxies for ecological characteristics in carnivoran mammals. Journal of Anatomy, v. 242, no. 4, p. 627-641.

2022. J.J. Flynn, L. Ranivoharimanana, and A.R. Wyss. Latest Paleozoic to Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrate faunas of Madagascar: Biotic history during the break-up of Gondwana. In: Goodman, S.M. (ed.). The New Natural History of Madagascar. Princeton, Princeton University Press, pp. 51-59 (plus composite references for “Geology” section on p. 82-90).

2022. O.C. Bertrand, S.L. Shelley, T.E. Williamson, J.R. Wible, S.G.B. Chester, J.J. Flynn, L.T. Holbrook, T.R. Lyson, J. Meng, I.M. Miller, H.P. Püschel, T. Smith, M. Spaulding, Z.J. Tseng, and S.L. Brusatte. Brawn before brains in placental mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction. Science v. 376, issue 6588, p. 80-85.

2022. A.J. McGrath, J. Chick, D.A. Croft, H.E. Dodson, J.J. Flynn, and A.R. Wyss. Cavioids, chinchilloids, and erethizontoids (Hystricognathi, Rodentia, Mammalia) of the Early Miocene Pampa Castillo Fauna, Chile. American Museum Novitates no. 3984, p. 1-46.

2021. D.A. Croft, J.J. Flynn, A.R. Wyss, R. Charrier, and F. Anaya. New chinchillid rodents (Hystricognathi: Caviomorpha) from northern Chile and Bolivia fill a 17-million-year gap in the pan-chinchilline fossil record. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, v. 28, p. 1205–1236.

2021. F.A. Perini, T.E. Macrini, J.J. Flynn, K. Bamba, X. Ni, D.A. Croft, and A.R. Wyss. Comparative endocranial anatomy, encephalization, and phylogeny of Notoungulata (Placentalia, Mammalia). Journal of Mammalian Evolution 29:369-394. 

2021. J.V. Tejada, J.J. Flynn, R. MacPhee, T.C. O’Connell, T. Cerling, L. Bermudez, C. Capuñay, N. Wallsgrove, and B.N. Popp. Isotope data from amino acids indicate Darwin’s ground sloth was not an herbivore. Scientific Reports (2021) 11:18944.

2021. S. Tomiya, S.P. Zack, M. Spaulding, and J.J. Flynn. Carnivorous mammals from the middle Eocene Washakie Formation, Wyoming, USA, and their diversity trajectory in a post-warming world. Journal of Paleontology, v. 95, suppl. S82 (Memoir 82), p. 1–115.

2020. J.V. Tejada, J.J. Flynn, P.-O. Antoine, V. Pacheco, R. Salas-Gismondi, and T. Cerling.  Comparative isotope ecology of western Amazonian rainforest mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A., v. 117, no. 42, p. 26263–26272.

2020. R.K. Engelman, J.J. Flynn, A.R. Wyss, and D.A. Croft. Eomakhaira molossus, a new saber-toothed sparassodont (Metatheria: Thylacosmilinae) from the Early Oligocene (?Tinguirirican) Cachapoal Locality, Andean Main Range, Chile. American Museum Novitates no. 3957, p. 1-75.

2020. C.F. Kammerer, J.J. Flynn, S.J. Nesbitt, L. Ranivoharimanana, and A.R. Wyss.  A tiny ornithodiran archosaur from the Triassic of Madagascar and the role of miniaturization in dinosaur and pterosaur ancestry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 117(30):17932-17936.

2020. Q. Jiangzuo and J.J. Flynn. The earliest ursine bear demonstrates the origin of plant-dominated omnivory in Carnivora. iScience 23, 101235

2020. 1st or co-author of 10 chapters in: K. de Queiroz, P. Cantino & J. Gauthier (eds.), Phylonyms: An Implementation of the Phylocode. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.

2020.  Q. Jiangzuo, D. Sun, and J.J. Flynn. Paleobiogeographic implications of additional Felidae (Carnivora, Mammalia) specimens from the Siwaliks. Historical Biology DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2020.1737683

Teaching Experience

(Recent)

Faculty Appointments

  • Adjunct Professor (voting), Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, 2005-present
  • Adjunct Professor (voting), Departments of Biology and Earth and Environmental Sciences, City University of New York, 2005-present
  • Resource Faculty, NYCEP (New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology)

Courses Taught

  • Grantsmanship, Ethics and Communication (core course), Richard Gilder Graduate School, 2008- present
  • Vertebrate Paleobiology, Richard Gilder Graduate School, Fall 2011, Fall 2015, Spring 2019, Spring 2021, Fall 2025 
  • Major Events in Evolution: The Paleozoic-Mesozoic Transition, Spring 2011
  • Independent Study Courses, Undergraduate, Columbia University, Spring & Fall 2016
  • Vertebrate Paleontology-Evolution Seminar, Topics in Vertebrate Evolution: Methods and Case Studies, Columbia University, Fall 2005
  • Seminar in Vertebrate Paleontology: The Origins of Major Vertebrate Clades, Columbia University, Spring 2006
  • Seminar in Vertebrate Paleontology: A Total Evidence Approach to Lizard Phylogeny, Columbia University, Spring 2006

Graduate Advisees

More than 20 PhD students and several Masters students supervised since 1986; recent PhD students include:

  • Julia Tejada-Lara, Columbia University
  • Anna Ragni, Richard Gilder Graduate School, AMNH
  • Zachary Calamari, Richard Gilder Graduate School, AMNH
  • Abagael West, Columbia University
  • Kaori Tsukui, Columbia University
  • Shaena Montanari (co-advisor), Richard Gilder Graduate School, AMNH
  • Michelle Spaulding, Columbia University
  • Andrés Giallombardo, Columbia University
  • Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar
  • Anjali Goswami, University of Chicago
  • John Finarelli, University of Chicago
  • Jon Marcot, University of Chicago
  • Karen Sears, University of Chicago

Graduate Committees

Served on 20 PhD and numerous Masters committees since 1984; recent PhD committees include:

  • R. Benjamin Sulser, Richard Gilder Graduate School, AMNH
  • Jianye Chen, Columbia University
  • Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, Université Montpelier 2, France
  • Rui Pei, Columbia University
  • Hong-yu Yi, Columbia University
  • Stephen Brusatte, Columbia University
  • Amy Balanoff, Columbia University
  • Sterling Nesbitt, Columbia University
  • Alan Turner, Columbia University