David Fox

Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Contact

[email protected]

612-624-6361

385-08 John T. Tate Hall
116 Church Street Se
Minneapolis, MN 55455

David Fox

Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Research

Accepting new undergraduate research students

I am an evolutionary paleoecologist and my research focuses on the connections between changes in environmental conditions through Earth history and changes in the composition and structure of organismal communities. The methods I use in my research include stable isotope geochemistry, biogeography, and quantitative analyses of the 3D morphology of skulls, jaws, and teeth of mammals. Most of my projects focus on the Cenozoic record of mammals, with a particular emphasis on the Neogene, Quaternary, and Recent, but I have also worked with collaborators on Cambrian brachiopods and with graduate students on Paleogene mammals and squamates. My current projects focus on the evolution of Neogene to Recent rodents in North America and Australasia, ecosystem change in the Miocene of eastern Africa, and the evolution of grassland ecosystems in the Great Plains (and elsewhere) since the late Paleogene.

Visit David Fox's Experts@Minnesota profile page.

Biography

Teaching

Publications & Awards

Selected Publications

Marcot, J.D. and Fox, D.L., 2008. StrataPhy: a new computer program for stratocladistic analysis. Palaeontologia Electronica 11.5.5A, 16 pp.
Martin, R.A., Pelez-Campomanes, P., Honey, J.G., Fox, D.L., Zakrzewski, R.J., Albright, L.B., Lindsay, E.H., Opdyke, N.D., and Goodwin, H.T., 2008. Rodent community change at the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition in southwestern Kansas and identification of the Microtus immigration event on the Central Great Plains.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 267: 196-207.
Matson, S.D. and Fox, D.L., 2008. Can oxygen isotopes from turtle bone be used to reconstruct paleoclimates? PALAIOS 23: 24-34. DOI: 10.2110/palo.2006.p06-049r.
Fox-Dobbs, K., Bump, J.K., Peterson, R.O., Fox, D.L., and Koch, P.L. Carnivore specific stable isotope variables and variation in grey wolf foraging ecology: case studies from Isle Royale, Minnesota, and La Brea. Canadian Journal of Zoology 85: 458-471.
Fox, D.L., Fisher, D.C., Vartanyan, S., Tikhonov, A.N., Mol, D., and Buigues, B., 2007. Paleoclimatic implications of oxygen isotopic variation in late Pleistocene and Holocene tusks of Mammuthus primigenius from northern Eurasia. Quaternary International 169-170: 154-165.
Rountrey, A.N., Fisher, D.C., Vartanyan, S., and Fox, D.L., 2007. Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analyses of a Juvenile Woolly Mammoth Tusk: Evidence of Weaning.Quaternary International 169-170: 166-173.
Angielczyk, K. and Fox, D.L., 2006. A new role for stratigraphic data in phylogeny reconstruction? Exploring an alternative use of stratigraphic data in phylogeny reconstruction. Paleobiology 32: 147-165.
Cowan, C.A., Fox, D.L., Runkel, A.C., and Saltzman, M.R. Terrestrial-marine carbon cycle coupling in ~500 million year-old phosphatic brachiopods. Geology 33(8): 661-664. (authorship is alphabetical)
Fox, D.L. and Koch, P.L., 2004. Carbon and oxygen isotopic variability in Neogene paleosol carbonates: constraints on the evolution of the C4-dominated grasslands of the Great Plains, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 207: 305-329.
Fox, D.L. and Fisher, D.C, 2004. Dietary reconstruction of Gomphotherium (Mammalia, Proboscidea) based on carbon isotope composition of tusk enamel.Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 206: 311-335.
Fox, D.L. and Koch, P.L., 2003. Tertiary history of C4 biomass in the Great Plains, U.S.A. Geology 31: 809-812.
Fisher, D.C. and Fox, D.L., 2003. Season of death and terminal growth histories of Hiscock mastodons. In: Laub, R.S. (ed.), The Hiscock Site: Late Pleistocene and Holocene Paleoecology and Archaeology in Western New York State. Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences 37: 83-100.
Fisher, D.C, Fox, D.L., and Agenbroad, L.D., 2003. Tusk growth rate and season of death of Mammuthus columbi from Hot Springs, South Dakota, USA. DEINSEA 9: 117-133.
Fisher, D.C., Foote, M., Fox, D.L., and Leighton, L.R., 2002. Stratigraphy in phylogeny reconstruction--Comment on Smith (2000). Journal of Paleontology 76(4): 585-586.
Fox, D.L. and Fisher, D.C., 2001. Stable isotope ecology of a late Miocene population of Gomphotherium (Mammalia, Proboscidea) from Port of Entry Pit, Oklahoma: diet, climate and diagenesis. PALAIOS 16: 279-293.
Fox, D.L., 2000. Growth increments in Gomphotherium and implications for late Miocene climate change in North America. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 156: 327-348.