Paleogeography of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic was dynamic on both global and regional scales. What was its influence on the evolution and ecology of major clades, such as mammals?

North America

  • North America's latest Cretaceous fossil record is biased toward the northern Western Interior and mostly samples coastal lowland paleoenvironments.
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  • Sparse fossil data from farther south along this transect (Colorado, New Mexico), from farther inland (southwestern Wyoming), and from the west coast (Baja California) hint at spatial heterogeneity of vertebrate faunas.
 
  • We fill gaps in this fossil record through field work and study of fossils from these more poorly sampled regions.
 
  • We also compile and analyze fossil databases to quantify how biogeography led to spatial variability in K/Pg responses and to the influx of immigrants that fueled the early Paleocene mammal recovery.​

​Gondwana

  • Mesozoic fossil localities are mostly known from northern landmasses. However, recent discoveries on southern landmasses hint that geographic isolation led to a distinct southern theater of early mammaliaform evolution.
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  • We conduct field work in Africa, India, and South America, to add to this view of mammaliaform evolution on Gondwana.

Relavant Publications

  • ​Wilson, G.P., M. Dechesne, and I.R. Anderson. 2010. New latest Cretaceous mammals from northeastern Colorado with biochronologic and biogeographic implications. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(2):499–520.
  • Donohue, S.L, G.P. Wilson, and B.H. Breithaupt. 2013. Latest Cretaceous multituberculates of the Black Butte Station local fauna from the eastern flank of the Rock Springs uplift (Lance Formation, southwestern Wyoming) with implications for compositional differences among mammalian local faunas of the Western Interior. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(3):677–695. 
  • Smith, S.M., C.J. Sprain, W. A. Clemens, D. L. Lofgren, P. R. Renne, G. P. Wilson. 2018. Early mammalian recovery after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction: A high resolution view from the McGuire Creek area, Montana USA. The Geological Society of America 130(11/12): 2000-2014. 
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