Current Research

The collections at Rancho La Brea are still at the core of late Pleistocene North American research today. Staff, research associates, professional paleontologists, and graduate students frequent the collections throughout the year. Today's research ranges from carbon-14 dating projects to asphalt-dwelling microbial ecology to traditional taxonomic and functional studies. Many questions still remain to be answered. The collections are available for any appropriately qualified person interested in doing formal research. All inquiries must be made through the Collections Manager, including requests for loans of specimens. We only loan specimens to institutions.

STAFF RESEARCH

Dr. Ken Campbell, Ph.D.
Curator of Fossil Birds, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

My current research on the fossil birds of Rancho La Brea includes two major projects. One is the detailed description of the bones of teratorns and the identification of distinguishing characteristics of the two genera and species that occur in the tar pit collections. The second is a complete reevaluation of the nine species of fossil owls in the collections, which is undertaken in collaboration with Dr. Zbigniew Bochenski of Poland. The study of the owls will result in the description of new genera and species. A recently completed study was a revision and redescription of the extinct California Turkey, Meleagris californica, coauthored with Dr. Bochenski. Other families of birds are also being prepared for detailed revisionary studies.
kcampbell@nhm.org

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Dr. Wendy Binder
Associate Professor Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA.

My first work with the Rancho La Brea collections was when I was a graduate student at UCLA. My research focuses mainly on carnivore functional morphology. Recent projects with my undergraduates Shea Franklin, J'aime Moehlman, Derek Hondo, Natalie Poulter and Jaime Bittner include dire wolf and sabertoothed cat post-cranial measurements.

Dr. Julie Meachen
Postdoctoral Associate National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, Durham, NC.

My projects at Rancho La Brea include work on limb proportions, sexual dimorphism and functional morphology of the large carnivores, as well as nitrogen isotope sampling.
meachensamuels@nescent.org

Eric Scott
Curator of Paleontology, San Bernardino County Museum, CA.

My main focus at Rancho La Brea is on the Equidae. I am currently working on resolving the taxonomic status of the large La Brea horse and its population structure.
escott@sbcm.sbcounty.gov

Christopher A. Shaw
Research Associate, George C. Page Museum

My current research includes, western North American vertebrate fossil faunas, saber-toothed cat phylogeny, natural history, and paleopathology. For more than 30 years I have conducted regular collecting expeditions to Sonora, Mexico, in conjunction with an international team of paleontologists from the United States and Mexico.
cshaw@tarpits.org

Dr. Sue Ware
Research Associate, Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Most of my research revolves around pathologies in large carnivores.

VISITING RESEARCHERS

Mairin Balisi
University of California Los Angeles, CA.

My Master's research focused on resource partitioning among the Late Pleistocene carnivorans of Rancho La Brea, using analysis of dental microwear. I graduated from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Currently I am pursuing my doctorate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA.
http://www.eeb.ucla.edu/grad_students.php#

Dr. Jean-Paul Baquiran
Formerly Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA

My research has focused on the metagenomics for identification of novel petroleum hydrocarbon degrading enzymes in natural asphalt seeps from the Rancho La Brea.

Abigail Curtis
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, CA

Cranio-dental shape evolution in Pleistocene canids from Rancho La Brea.
http://www.eeb.ucla.edu/grad_students.php#

Dr. Melanie Fillios
Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, University of Sydney, Australia.

The broad aim of my research is to better understand two significant types of taphonomic marks; tooth marks and pitwear. I make silicone molds of the marks on the bones to produce positive casts which I examine using a SEM. It is hoped that these results may be used in a comparative study of bone surface modification at the Pleistocene megafaunal site, Cuddie Springs, New South Wales, Australia.
http://sydney.edu.au/acmm/about/staff/fillios.shtml

Blanca Garcia
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

The principal aim of my research titled, “Influence of global climatic changes in the structure of predator-prey relationships in mammalian communities of the Iberian Neogene” is to determine how the environment affects the community structure of mammals on a global scale.

Dr. Adam Hartstone-Rose
Assistant Professor of Biology and Anthropology, Penn State University, PA

My current research investigates subtle variation in the carcass processing abilities of the Rancho La Brea carnivore guild to the variation seen in modern carnivorans and the fossil carnivorans of South Africa.  By measuring, photographing and taking molds of the teeth we will examine the two aspects of dietary dental adaptations - radius-of-curvature and intercuspid notches.

Alex Hubbe
Departamento de Genética e Biologia Evolutiva, Instituto de Biociências -Universidade de São Paulo, BZ

Based on measurements of adult extinct and extant Xenarthran skulls and rooted in quantitative genetics, the objective of my PhD project is to better understand some processes that might be related to cranial morphological evolution within Xenarthra lineages.

Lindsey Koper
Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University, IL

Forelimb anatomy of Canis dirus

Edward Linden
Formerly Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA

Size shape change in Rancho La Brea dire wolf limbs during the last glacial-interglacial cycle

Meena Madan
Formerly Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of California Irvine, CA.

Stasis in Rancho La Brea saber-toothed cats and Ice Age lions during the last glacial-interglacial cycle

Dr. Virginia Naples
Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University, IL.

My primary interests in Rancho La Brea are in the big cats and the sloths but have also used the collections to help build an image database for my students.

Dr. Joshua Samuels
Chief of Paleontology at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, OR.

My research is focused on body size in rodents which is correlated with most ecological and physiological characteristics of animals.
Joshua_Samuels@nps.gov

Dr. Blaine Schubert
Department of Geosciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.

My research interests at Rancho La Brea include microwear on carnivore teeth and Arctodus cranial morphology
http://faculty.etsu.edu/schubert/

Dr. Joy Ward
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KN.

My research interests focus on the evolutionary responses of plants to changing carbon dioxide over geologic time scales.
www2.ku.edu/~eeb/faculty/ward.shtml