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3258 TAMU Office: Lab: Fax: 979-845-2891 |
Biography |
| Thomas Stidham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. He also is a member of the Faculty of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and a research associate at the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection. He received his Bachelor of Science in Geology from the University of Texas, and his senior thesis was on the stratigraphy and graptolite biostratigraphy of the Ordovician Marathon Formation in the Solitario in western Texas. He went on to complete his Ph.D. in Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. His dissertation focused on the origin of the clade Neornithes (modern birds) from systematic and ecological aspects. He studied the systematics, paleobiology, and paleoecology of the extinct wading ducks, Presbyornithidae from their origin in the Cretaceous to their extinction in the Eocene. After completing his dissertation, he was a postdoctoral researcher under Tim White and Clark Howell in the Laboratory for Human Evolution Studies in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at U.C. Berkeley. During that postdoc he began the study of fossil birds from early hominid sites across Africa. | |
| Research | |
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I am a (paleo) biologist interested broadly in ecology and evolution. The kinds of questions that I am interested in are interdisciplinary, require a variety of approaches, and involve the fossil record. Fossils provide the only record of really long term ecological, environmental, and biotic change. Using stable isotopes, morphology, systematics, morphometrics, phylogenetic constraint, ecology, behavior, and biogeography, the fossil record can tell us about the history of life, the processes of change over time, and the interactions among life and our planet from climate to biogeochemical cycles. My research focuses on two intervals of time, the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene (~83 Ma to 45 Ma) and the later part of the Neogene Period (~15 Ma to the present day). In both of those intervals of time, I am most interested in the evolution of birds. My research is almost entirely specimen based. I spend a lot of time in the field collecting modern and fossil specimens and in museums studying specimens. I study the phylogenetic systematics of the fossils and their extant relatives, their morphometrics in relation to their ecology, and the biogeography of various clades over time. I utilize African bird fossils to examine the paleoenvironment of early hominid evolution and to address how fossil bone accumulations formed where hominid fossils have been found. I use stable isotopes from rocks in search of stratigraphically important time intervals (i.e. the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary) and also in order to extract paleodiet information from birds. From the latest Cretaceous through the early Paleogene, the Earth experienced a mass extinction and a number of global hyperthermal events. I am interested in the biotic response to these events. Most of this research is focused in North America. I am examining the birds from the late Cretaceous and early Paleocene in Montana in order to understand the extinction and recovery of birds through the terminal Cretaceous mass extinction. I am researching birds from the Paleocene and Eocene in Wyoming in order to examine their response to the hyperthermal events that affected plants, mammals, and turtles. So that I can better understand the beginning of the Eocene, I have begun a screen-washing and field project in the Paleogene sediments of Eastern Texas. By expanding the geographic sample outside of Wyoming, I hope to better understand geographic shifts of taxa during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. I am interested in the evolution of birds in Africa. The majority of fossil bird material in Africa comes from fossil and archaeological sites that have produced early hominid fossils. I currently am working on material from and projects in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia. The avifauna from the Miocene and Pliocene of Africa looks very similar to that found in Eurasia today. The origins of many “African” bird taxa are still unknown. I am trying to understand the pattern of change of birds in Africa through time. This is particularly important now that molecular systematic hypotheses place Africa as the center of origin for much of the songbird (Passeriformes) radiation. Although I am mostly interested in the birds themselves, they also provide data about our own human lineage. I use birds to provide data for reconstructing the paleoenvironment occupied by our early ancestors. Ostrich eggshell also provides means of direct dating of deposits through carbon dating and amino acid racemization. Changes in eggshell morphology allow for the correlation of Neogene fossil deposits from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi. Birds (especially owls and raptors) have been implicated in the accumulation of fossil bone deposits where hominid fossils have been found. I examine birds from all of these different aspects and using these diverse tools. I have other interests distributed across natural history including insects, behavior, geology, mammals, and reptiles. I have ongoing projects on fossil and recent insects, Paleogene sharks and rays, insect behavior, and the geology of Texas. |
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| Selected Publications | |
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Gilbert, W.H. and T.A. Stidham. 2008 in press. Chapter 12 - Rare taxa. In Gilbert, W.H. and B. Asfaw eds. Homo erectus in Africa-Pleistocene evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. University of California Press. Stidham, J.A. and T.A. Stidham. 2008. Bull nettle (Cnidoscolus texanus) as enemy free space for Texas orthopterans. Entomological News 119:102-104. Stidham, T.A. 2007. Preliminary assessment of the Late Miocene avifauna from Lemudong'o, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56:173-176. Ambrose, S.H., C.J. Bell, R. L. Bernor, J.-R. Boisserie, C.M. Darwent, D. Degusta, A. Deino, N. Garcia, Y. Haile-Selassie, J.J. Head, L.J. Hlusko, F.C. Howell, M.D. Kyule, F.K. Manthi, E.M. Mathu, C.M. Nyamai, M. Pickford, H. Saegusa, T.A. Stidham, M.A.J. Williams. 2007. The paleoecology and paleogeographic context of Lemudong'o locality 1, a Late Miocene terrestrial fossil site in Southern Kenya. Kirtlandia 56:38-52. Stidham, T.A. 2007. Possible vertebrate burrows from the Miocene Fleming Formation near Huntsville, Walker County, Texas. Texas Journal of Science 59:317-321. Stidham, T.A. and J.A. Stidham. 2007. New observations of host plant usage by Clematodes larreae (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Copiocerinae) including a new host plant in Texas, U.S.A. Entomological News 118:207-208. Stidham, T.A. and J.A. Stidham. 2007. New records of Rhammatocerus viatorius (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Gomphocerinae) from Texas, U.S.A. Entomological News 118:317-318. Stidham, T.A. 2006. Additions to the natural history of Gammarotettix bilobatus (Orthoptera: Gryllacrididae). Journal of Orthoptera Research 14. Stidham, T.A. 2006. Preliminary assessment of the Late Miocene avifauna from Lemudong'o, Kenya. Kirtlandia . Fox-Dobbs, K., T.A. Stidham , G.J. Bowen, S.D. Emslie, and P. Koch. 2006. Dietary controls on extinction versus survival among avian megafauna in the late Pleistocene. Geology . Bibi, F., A.B. Shabel, B.P. Kraatz, and T.A. Stidham . 2006. New fossil eggshell discoveries ( Diamantornis and Aepyornithoid-type) from the late Miocene of Arabia. Palaeontologia Electronica 9 issue 1; 2A, 13pp. Stidham, T.A. 2006. New records of least grebe ( Tachybaptus dominicus ) feeding associations in Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Ornithological Society 39(1):15-16. Stidham, T.A. , P.A. Holroyd, G.F. Gunnell, R. L. Ciochon, T. Tsubamoto, N. Egi, and M. Takai. 2005. A new ibis-like bird (Aves: cf. Threskiornithidae) from the late middle Eocene of Myanmar. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology University of Michigan 31:179-184. Stidham, T.A. 2004. New skull material of Osteodontornis orri (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Miocene of California. PaleoBios 24:7-12. Stidham, T.A. 2004. Extinct ostrich eggshell (Aves: Struthionidae) from the Pliocene Chiwondo Beds, Malawi: implications for the potential biostratigraphic correlation of African Neogene deposits . Journal of Human Evolution 46:489-496. Stidhan, T.A . 2004. The first record of Sticthippus californicus (Orthoptera: Acrididae) outside of California. Entomological News 115:51. |
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