Invertebrate Paleontology
Research and Fieldwork
Invertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History combines fieldwork, the Museum's collections, and quantitative methods to understand the early evolution of animals; the mechanisms driving evolution and extinction; and the complex interactions between life and Earth's system through geological time.
Dr. Hopkins’ research focuses on understanding the evolution of morphology, particularly in trilobites. Her fieldwork in Anticosti Island is shedding new light on the world’s first major mass extinction event, which occurred at the end of the Ordovician Period, around 445 million years ago.
Curator Melanie Hopkins holding an extremely well-preserved fossil of Triarthrus eatoni from upstate New York.
Daniel Kim /© AMNH
Dr. Evans is interested in exceptionally preserved fossil invertebrates, including some of the earliest known animals from the Ediacaran Period, around 550 million years ago. His fieldwork takes him to remote locations in the United States, Australia and Canada, searching for the remains of rare and enigmatic soft-bodied organisms.
© AMNH
Dr. Landman’s research focuses on the evolution and life history of cephalopods, such as ammonites. He is also interested in how life in the oceans was affected by the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous Period, 66 million years ago. He collects extensively from the Northern Great Plains and the Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains of the United States.
Neil Landman and colleagues search for ammonite fossils along the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in Morocco.
J. Sessa/© AMNH
Dr. Eldredge seeks to integrate patterns observed in the fossil record with evolutionary theory. Along with Dr. Stephen Jay Gould (Harvard University), Dr. Eldredge formulated the theory of Punctuated Equilibria.
© American Museum of Natural History
