Erik Seiffert • Ph.D., Duke University, 2003 • I am broadly interested in the biogeography, adaptations, and phylogenetic relationships of placental mammals, and work primarily on fossil placentals from the Eocene and Oligocene of Africa. My fieldwork aims to improve our understanding of mammalian evolution on the Afro-Arabian landmass, particularly within the clades Afrotheria and Primates. My laboratory research involves analysis and description of new fossil mammals, often with the goal of determining how these and other extinct taxa fit into -- and potentially help us to better understand -- the emerging supraordinal molecular phylogeny of Placentalia. As such my research involves analysis of morphological information from extinct placentals as well as molecular and morphological information from extant placentals. At present most of my fieldwork takes place in Egypt, and I have also worked in Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa. As a new member of Stony Brook's Turkana Basin Institute, I hope to expand the search for Late Cretaceous and Paleogene mammals to northern Kenya.

Eugenie Barrow • Ph.D. student, University of Oxford • Eugenie is studying evolution and adaptation within the afrotherian order Hyracoidea using phylogenetic and morphometric approaches. She is currently working on new hyracoid material from the ~37 million-year-old locality BQ-2, and is interested in determining how the highly specialized members of the Neogene hyracoid radiation are related to Paleogene lineages. In 2006 Eugenie completed an M.Sc. in Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity at Imperial College London under the supervision of Norm MacLeod and Marcelo Sánchez-Villagra. She is co-supervised by Stephen Hesselbo in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford.

Barrow E, Seiffert ER, and Simons EL (in press) A primitive hyracoid (Mammalia, Paenungulata) from the early Priabonian (late Eocene) of Egypt. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

Barrow EC and MacLeod N (2008) Shape variation in the mole (Mammalia: Talpidae) dentary. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 153: 187-211.

Barrow E, Krieger J, MacLeod N & Seiffert E (2008) Quantitative taxonomic and positional discrimination among hyracoid teeth using 3D Eigensurface analysis. Programme of the 52nd Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Glasgow, p. 42.

Barrow E, Seiffert E, and Simons E (2007) Craniodental and postcranial morphology of the oldest Fayum hyracoid. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (3): 44A.

Matt Borths • Ph.D. student, Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University •

Katie Goodenberger • Ph.D. student, IDPAS, Stony Brook University • Katie's general research interests are in the functional morphology and phylogeny of Paleogene primates. She is particularly interested in reconstructing ecomorphology with the aim of better understanding the adaptive origins and divergence of different primate clades. Her previous research focused on Eocene rodents from North America, and she has conducted fieldwork in Kenya and Wyoming. She is a Turkana Basin Institute graduate fellow.

Hesham Sallam • Ph.D. student, University of Oxford • Hesham is studying the hystricognathous and anomaluroid rodents of the Birket Qarun and Jebel Qatrani Formations in the Fayum area, with an emphasis on taxonomic, phylogenetic, and biogeographic issues. He is also working to construct a carbon isotope stratigraphy for the Jebel Qatrani Formation using fossil wood, with the goal of resolving the position of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in that succession. Hesham has worked extensively in the Late Cretaceous deposits of Sinai, and completed an M.Sc. at Mansoura University on the sedimentology, invertebrate macrofossils, and paleoenvironment of Cretaceous beds in that area. He has since participated in vertebrate paleontological fieldwork in Egypt, Kenya, and Yemen. He is co-supervised by Stephen Hesselbo in the Department of Earth Sciences at Oxford.

Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, and Simons EL (in press, Palaeontology) A highly derived anomalurid rodent (Mammalia) from the earliest late Eocene of Egypt.

Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, Simons EL, and Brindley C (in revision, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology) A large-bodied anomaluroid rodent from the earliest late Eocene of Egypt: phylogenetic and biogeographic implications.

Sallam HM, Seiffert ER, Steiper ME, and Simons EL (2009) Fossil and molecular evidence constrain scenarios for the early evolutionary and biogeographic history of hystricognathous rodents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.

Kora M, Hamama H, and Sallam H (2002) Senonian macrofauna from west-central Sinai: biostratigraphy and biogeography. Egyptian Journal of Paleontology 2: 235-258.

Kora M, Hamama H, and Sallam H (2002) Stratigraphy and microfacies of the Senonian in west-central Sinai, Egypt. Egyptian Journal of Geology 47/1: 301-328.

Affiliated scientists and collaborators

Elwyn Simons • Head, Division of Fossil Primates, Duke Lemur Center • Elwyn has been leading expeditions to the Fayum Depression since 1961, and his work there over the past many decades forms the basis for our current understanding of advanced stem anthropoid evolution, crown anthropoid origins, catarrhine origins, and the later Paleogene evolution of endemic African mammalian clades such as Afrotheria. He has also led numerous expeditions in other parts of the world, including searches for subfossil lemurs in Madagascar, Miocene apes in India, and Eocene primates in western North America.

Thomas Bown • Erathem-Vanir Geological, Inc. • Tom has been working on the geology, paleoenvironment, and mammalian fauna of the Jebel Qatrani, Qasr el-Sagha, and Birket Qarun Formations for the last many decades, and is one of the world's experts on the geology of Egypt. He has also worked extensively in the western United States, Argentina, and Ethiopia.

Prithijit Chatrath • Curator, Division of Fossil Primates, Duke Lemur Center • Prithijit has been managing paleontological fieldwork in the Fayum region for decades, and is responsible for the discovery of numerous holotype specimens, including those of important fossil primates such as Afrotarsius chatrathi. In 2003 the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology awarded him the Morris Skinner Prize for his numerous important contributions to the field. He has also managed projects in India, Madagascar, Spain, and Wyoming, and has prepared thousands of important fossils from all of these areas.

Former students

Chloe Brindley • MEarthSci, University of Oxford, 2007 • Chloe completed an MEarthSci thesis at Oxford entitled "Phylogeny, Biogeography, and Functional Morphology of Eocene Anomaluroidea". Her study was based on dental and postcranial material of a new large-bodied anomaluroid rodent from locality BQ-2, and provided an analysis of the locomotor adaptations and phylogenetic relationships of the new genus.

Alexander Liu • MEarthSci, University of Oxford, 2007 • Alex completed an MEarthSci thesis at Oxford entitled "Reconstructing the Habitat and Dietary Adaptations of Early Proboscideans Using Stable Isotope Geochemistry". His study was based on samples from the Birket Qarun and Jebel Qatrani Formations, and provided important new information about the habitat preferences of the Fayum proboscidean genera Barytherium and Moeritherium. He is currently a Ph.D. student at University of Oxford.

Liu AGSC, Seiffert ER, and Simons EL (2008) Stable isotope evidence for an amphibious phase in early proboscidean evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. 105: 5786-5791.

Technicians

Moustafa Sallam • Moustafa occasionally volunteers in the lab as a micro preparator. He has extensive experience with scientific photography and is actively using Google Earth to locate new paleontological sites in Egypt.