Neil H. Landman

RESEARCH

Dr. Landman's interests include the evolution, life history, and systematics of externally shelled cephalopods, particularly the twin groups-the ammonoids and nautiloids. Both have a superb fossil record comprising about 10,000 species. The ammonoids arose in the Devonian period and attained a high level of diversity in the Mesozoic era, becoming extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period. The nautiloids had a spectacular radiation in the early Paleozoic era. They declined thereafter, although they have persisted into the Recent as the genus Nautilus. Both groups preserve in their shells a record of their ontogeny. These studies, based on material collected from Morocco and elsewhere, reveal unique characters that help define each of the groups.

Dr. Landman's investigations have focused on the early ontogenetic development of ammonoids and nautiloids, and how this information can be used to reconstruct the phylogeny of these groups. He also studies the evolution and systematics of ammonoids from Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Northern Great Plains in the United States. Fieldwork in Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming has resulted in an extensive collection of fossils from a group of ammonoids known as scaphites, which were plentiful in the seaway that once covered this part of North America during the Cretaceous period. In addition to their systematics, he is concerned with the distribution of these species in time and space, and in relation to their paleoenvironment.

Recent Significant Publications

Landman, N. H., H. F. Bizzarini, K. Tanabe, and R. H. Mapes. "Micro-ornamentation on the Embryonic and Postembryonic Shells of Triassic Ceratites (Ammonoidea)." American Malacological Bulletin 29 ms. pp. (in press/2001).

Landman, N. H., D. S. Jones, and R. A. Davis. "Hatching Depth of Nautilus pompilius in Fij." The Veliger 44 (2001): 325-331.

Kennedy, W. J., N. H. Landman, W. A. Cobban, and G. R. Scott. "Late Campanian (Cretaceous) Heteromorph Ammonites from the Western Interior of the United States." Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 3277 (2000): 88 pp.

Kennedy, W. J., N. H. Landman, W. A. Cobban, and R. O. Johnson. "Additions to the Ammonite Fauna of the Upper Cretaceous Navesink Formation of New Jersey." American Museum Novitates 3306 (2000): 30 pp.

Tanabe, K., R. H. Mapes, T. Sasaki, and N. H. Landman. "'Soft-Part' Anatomy of the Siphuncle in Permian Prolecanitid Ammonoids" Lethaia vol. 33 (2000): pp. 83-91.

Klofak, S. M., N. H. Landman, and R. H. Mapes. "Embryonic Development of Primitive Ammonoids and the Monophyly of the Ammonoidea." In Advancing Research on Living and Fossil Cephalopods, ed. F. Olóriz and F. Rodriguez-Tovar, 23-45. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press, 1999.

Landman, N. H., J. Lane, W. A. Cobban, S. D. Jorgenson, W. J. Kennedy, and N. L. Larson. "Impressions of the Attachment of the Soft Body to the Shell in Late Cretaceous Pachydiscid Ammonites from the Western Interior of the United States." American Museum Novitates 3273 (1999): 31 pp.

Landman, N. H., R. H. Mapes, and K. Tanabe. "Internal Features of the Embryonic Shells of Late Carboniferous Goniatitina." In Advancing Research on Living and Fossil Cephalopods, ed. F. Olóriz and F. Rodriguez-Tovar, 243-254. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press, 1999.

Professional Affiliations

• Paleontological Society of America
• American Malacological Society
• Advisory Board, Timber Lake Museum

Adjunct and Editorial Appointments

• Curatorial Affiliate, Yale/Peabody Museum of Natural History
• Adjunct Professor, Department of Biology, City College, CUNY
• Adjunct Professor, Department of Geology, Brooklyn College
• Co-Editor, Topics in Geobiology
• Associate Editor, Paleontological Research

Graduate Students and Scientific Assistants

• Susan Klofak, Senior Museum Technician and Ph.D. Candidate, CUNY
• Kathleen Sarg, Senior Museum Technician
• David Weinreb, Undergraduate, Yale University