Courses taught:
Principles of Organismal Biology, Mammalogy, Genetics and Evolution, Biogeography, Macroevolution.

Mammalogy: 2008 syllabus  (108KB pdf),  field trip photos 2006 (160KB pdf), field trip photos 2008 (440KB pdf)

Research in Our Lab:
The research in our lab is quite varied, but can be summarized as the study of the evolution, extinction, systematics, and theoretical issues of living and extinct vertebrates and their geological setting.

Over the years, others students in our lab have examined the evolution and systematics of kangaroos using postcranial data, examined the systematics of living and fossil tapirs, studied the systematic relationships of river dolphins and the question of monophyly of odontocete whales, analyzed the phylogenetic relationships within the stork family, analyzed the cytochrome B region of mitochondria in all extant equids with a special interest in whether zebras are monophyletic, described and determined the phylogenetic relationships of vertebrates from the Late Cretaceous Williams Fork fauna of western Colorado to assess the biostratigraphic context of this small but important fauna, studied early ungulate evolution using information from the middle ear, examined the geologic setting of a Pleistocene mammalian fauna from the Anza Borrego Desert, studied the taphonomy and paleoecology of  the intraformational conglomerates at Dzharakuduk in the Kyzylkum  Desert of Uzbekistan, and completed a faunal analysis of a late Oligocene mammal fauna from San Diego.

Current & Recent Graduate Student Research:

CONTRATULATIONS. Cory Redman finished his MSc in the summer of 2006 and has moved to Texas A&M for his PhD.  His thesis was on the taphonomy and paleoecology of  the intraformational conglomerates that occur throughout the Bissekty Formation at Dzharakuduk, Kyzylkum  Desert, Uzbekistan.

CONGRATULATIONS. Selisa Lim successfully defended her MSc in the spring of 2007.  Her study was of the Eastlake mammal fauna collected by the San Diego Natural History Museum from the Otay Formation in San Diego County. This is a very rich early Arikareean fauna with many well-preserved specimens.

CONGRATULATIONS. Cory Jones finished his MSc in the spring of 2008.  His thesis project dealt with the systematics of the extant and extinct North Amercan gopherine tortoises.

Joshua  Ludtke joined the lab in the Fall, 2004 from Occidental College.   He is interested in larger, mid Tertiary mammals.  He is examining the phylogenetic relationship of agriochoerid oreodontoids and their position among basal artiodactyls for his thesis.

Justin Strauss joined the lab in the Fall 2005 from the South Dakota School of Mines.  He is interested in mammalian evolution and systematics.  He is studying the systematics of the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene cimolestids,  a eutherian group that has been implicated in the origin of taxa such as carnivores.

Yue Zhang joined the lab in the Fall 2006, from Beijing University, Beijing.  His thesis project is on the richest mammal site from the Late Cretaceous of Montana.

Field site at Dzharakuduk, Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan.  Fossil sites are in the badlands behind the encampment in the middle of the photo.  The two round structures are called yurts.  For scale, the largest yurt on the left measures 7 meters in diameter and the highest point on the escarpment is 150 meters above camp.
 

Field research in recent years has concentrated on Late Cretaceous sites in Uzbekistan, a former republic of the Soviet Union.  These are approximately 90 million years old and preserve ecologies along the coast of ancient shallow inland seas.  We have built a team composed of Uzbek, Russian, British, American, and Canadian scientists (URBAC).  We are interested in what the faunas can tell us about the evolution, ecology, and faunal turnover during this time.  I am specifically interested in the mammals in this fauna.  In Uzbekistan we have found and begun describing the oldest known representatives (zhelestids) of the clade that gives rise to as many as seven orders of extant mammals collectively termed Ungulata. This work has extended this clade back 20 million years.  We more recently completed similar studies of a clade (zalambdalestids) that we believe gives rise to extant rodents and rabbits, and a clade (asioryctitheres) that are probably stem eutherians.  Fieldwork has been sponsored by the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, and the Civilian Research Defense Fund.  I also continue my broader interests in the analysis of extinction and faunal turnover that was originally spurred by my work on vertebrate turnover at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. These studies have been broadened to other intervals in the Late Cretaceous. Such studies also continue to raise broader theoretical questions of how phylogenetic systematics should play a role in the analysis of faunal turnover, including both questions of extinction and speciation.

An article (336KB pdf) by Coleen L. Geraghty about our work in Uzbekistan can be found in the Fall 2005 issue of 360 The Magazine of San Diego State University.

Complete CV for J. D. Archibald (220KB pdf). 

Publications since 1996:
Articles may be downloaded for personal "fair" use only and may not be reposted or distributed. Copies of pre-1996 may be available.

Archibald, J. D.  2006. Review of Mammals from the Age of Dinosaurs: Origins, Evolution, and Structure.  by Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, Richard L. Cifelli, and Zhe-Xi Luo.  Journal of Mammal Evolution 13:147-149. (123KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D.  2006. A cacophony of causes. Review of Extinction: How Life Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago by Douglas H. Erwin.  Trends in Ecology and Evolution 21:428. (80KB pdf).

MacLeod, N. and Archibald, J. D.  2005.  Decline and fall of the non-Avian dinosurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 25 (supplement. to no. 3):87A. (57KB pdf).

Averianov, A. O. and Archibald, J. D.  2005. Mammals from the mid-Cretaceous Khodzhakul Formation, Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan. Cretaceous Research 26: 593-608. (848KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D.  2005.  Were dinosaurs the victims of a single catastrophe?  No, it only finished them off.  Natural History 114: 52-53. (424KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D.  2005.  Shape of Mesozoic dinosaur richness: Comment.  Geology 33: e74. (62KB pdf).

Rose, K. D. and Archibald, J. D., eds.  2005. The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origin and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades.  Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 259p.  The book can be purchased for  a 20% discount using the indicated pdf (591KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D. and Rose, K. D.  2005. Womb with view: The Rise of Placentals. In, K. D. Rose & J. D. Archibald (eds). The Rise of Placentals Mammals: Origin and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades,  Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 1-8. (91KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D. and Fastovsky, D. E.  2004.  Dinosaur extinction. In, Weishampel, D. B et al., eds., The Dinosauria. University of California Press, p.672-684 (316KB pdf). 

Archibald, J. D.  2004.  Eutheria (Placental Mammals).  In Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, Nature Publishing Group, www.elsnet, p. 1-4.

Ekdale, E. G., Archibald, J. D., Averianov, A. O.   2004. Petrosal bones of placental mammals from the Late Cretaceous Uzbekistan.  Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49:161-176 (960KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D.  2003. Timing and biogeography of the eutherian radiation: Fossils and molecules compared.  Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution 28:350-359 (653KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D. and Averianov, A. O.  2003.  The Late Cretaceous eutherian mammal Kulbeckia.  Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23:404-419 932KB pdf).

Averianov, A. O. and Archibald, J. D.  2003.  Mammals from the Upper Cretaceous Aitym Formation, Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan.  Cretaceous Research 24:171-191 (769KB pdf).

Szalay, F. S., Sargis, E. J., Archibald, J. D. and Averianov, A.O.  2003.  Late Cretaceous therian postcranials from the Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan: A preliminary assessment of taxonomic properties.  Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23(supplement. to no. 3):103A.

Averianov, A. O., Archibald, J. D. and Martin. T.  2003. Placental nature of the alleged marsupial from the Cretaceous of Madagascar.  Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 48:149-151(128KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D.  2003.  A new periodical on mammals.  Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 48:152 (56KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D.  2002. Dinosaur extinction: Changing Views. Dinosaur Extinction: Changing Views," In Dinosaurs: The Science Behind the Stories, Geological Institute, p.99-106 (200KB pdf).

Hunter, J. P. and Archibald, J.D.   2002.  Mammals from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs in North Dakota and southeastern Montana. Hell Creek Formation and its faunas and floras.  Geological Society of America Special Paper 361:191-215 (436KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D.  2002.  On the Brink, essay review of Rivers in Time: The Search for Clues to Earth's Mass Extinctions. Peter D. Ward. Biosciences. 52:445-446 (205KB pdf).

Archibald, J. D. and Averianov, A. O. 2001. Paranyctoides and allies from the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 46:533-551. (1.3MB pdf proof version).

Archibald, J. D., Averianov, A. O., and Ekdale, E. G. 2001. Late Cretaceous relatives of rabbits, rodents, and other extant eutherian mammals. Nature 414:62-65 (212KB pdf). 

Archibald, J. D. and Deutschman, D. 2001. Quantitative analysis of the timing of origin of extant placental orders. Journal of Mammal Evolution 8:107-124 (205KB pdf). 

Archibald, J. D. 2001. Eutheria. In Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd, Nature Publishing Group, www.els.net, p. 1-4 (176KB pdf). 

Archibald, J. D. and Averianov, A.O. 2001. Zhelestids, archaic ungulates, and Placentalia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(supplement. to no. 3):29A. 

Ekdale, E. G., Archibald, J. D. and Averianov, A. O. 2001. Ear regions of archaic ungulates and zhelestids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(supplement. to no. 3):47A. 

Archibald, J. D. 2001. Dinosaurs, extinction theories for. In, Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Volume 2. San Diego, Academic Press, p. 95-108. 

Archibald, J. D. 2000. Review of Fossil Vertebrates of Arabia: With Emphasis on the Late Miocene Faunas, Geology, and Palaeoenvironments of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Peter J. Whybrow and Andrew Hill, eds. American Scientist 88:368.

Archibald, J. David. 2000. Dinosaur abundance was not declining in a "3 m gap" at the top of the Hell Creek Formation, Montana and North Dakota: Comment. Geology 28:1150-1151 (46KB pdf). 

Diem, S. D. and Archibald, J. D. 2000. Vertebrate fauna from the Upper Cretaceous Williams Fork Formation, northwestern Colorado. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20(supplement. to no. 3):38A. 

Archibald D., Sues H.-D., Averianov A., Danilov I., Rezvyi A., Ward D., King C. & Morris N. 1999. New paleontologic, biostratigraphic, and sedimentologic results at Dzharakuduk (U. Cret.), Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 19 (supplement. to no. 3):29A-30A. 

Archibald, J. D. 1999. Pruning and grafting on the mammalian phylogenetic tree. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 44:220-222. 

Archibald, J. D. 1999. Molecular dates and the mammalian radiation. Correspondence, Trends in Ecology & Evolution 14:278. 

Eaton, J.G., Diem, S., Archibald, J.D., Schierup, C., and Munk, H. 1999 Vertebrate paleontology of the Upper Cretaceous rocks of the Markagunt Plateau, southwestern Utah. In, Gillette, D.D., ed. Vertebrate Fossils of Utah. 

Archibald, J. D. 1999. Divergence times of mammals. Science, Technical Comment 285:2831a. 

Archibald, J. D. 1998. "Gaps" in the K-T Record. Letters, Science 279:1114-1115. 

Archibald, J. D. 1998. Shiva Impact. Member's Dialogue, The Planetary Report, May/June, p.3. 

Archibald, J. D. 1998. Death, Taxes, and Extinction: An Example from the Dinosaurs. National Forum, The Phi Kappa Phi Journal 78(3):28-31. 

Archibald, J. D., Sues, H.-D., Averianov, A. O., King, C., Ward, D. J., Tsaruk, O. A., Danilov, I. G., Rezvyi, A. S, Veretennikov, B. G., and Khodjaev, A.).1998. Précis of the Paleontology, Biostratigraphy, and Sedimentology at Dzharakuduk (Turonian? - Santonian), Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan. In, Kirkland, J. I. and Lucas, S., eds.. Lower to Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems. New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science Bulletin 14: 21-28. 

Archibald, J. D. 1998. Emerging importance of the Grand Staircase-Escalante region in Cretaceous vertebrate biostratigraphy, western U.S. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Science Symposium Proceedings, pg.1-3. 

Archibald, J. D. and Averianov, A. O. 1998. Eskhodnaya formula koryennukh zubov dlya platsentarnykh mlyekopetayushchekh (Mammalia, Eutheria) [Original tooth formula fundamental for placental mammals (Mammalia, Eutheria)], Otchyetnaya Nauchnaya Syesseya po Etogam Rabot 1997, 7 [in Russian] 

Archibald, J. D. 1998. Archaic Ungulates ("Condylartha"). In, C. Janis, K. Scott, & L. Jacobs, (eds.). Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America. Volume 1. Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulatelike Mammals. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 292-331. 

Janis, C. M., Archibald, J. D., Cifelli, R. L., Lucas, S. G., Schaff, C. R., Schoch, R. M., and Williamson, T. E. 1998. Part III: Archaic Ungulates and ungulate-like mammals. In, C. Janis,  K. Scott, & L. Jacobs, (eds.). Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America. Volume 1. Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulatelike Mammals. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 247- 259. 

Nessov, L. A., Archibald, J. D. (corresponding author), and Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. 1998. Ungulate-like mammals from the Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan and a phylogenetic analysis of Ungulatomorpha. Bulletin of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History 34:40-88 (10.6MB pdf). 

Archibald, J. D. 1997. El Impacto del retroceso de los mares. Mundo Cientifico, 176:155-157. 

Archibald, J. D. and Averianov, A.O. 1997. New evidence for the ancestral placental premolar count. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 17(supplement. to no. 3):p.29A. (Archibald, J.D. and Averianov, A.O.) 

Archibald, J. D. 1997. Extinction (biology). McGraw-Hill 1998 Yearbook of Science &Technology, p. 129-132. 

Archibald, J. D. 1997. Evolution. In, Currie, P. J. and Padian, K., eds., Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. San Diego, Academic Press, p. 217-220. 

Archibald, J. D. 1997. Extinction, In, Currie, P. J. and Padian, K., eds., Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. San Diego, Academic Press, p. 221-229. 

Archibald, J. D. 1997. Speciation. In, Currie, P. J. and Padian, K., eds., Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. San Diego, Academic Press, p. 693-695. 

Archibald, J. D. 1997. Species. In, Currie, P. J. and Padian, K., eds., Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. San Diego, Academic Press, p. 695-699. 

Archibald, J. D. 1996. L'impact du retrait des mers. La Recherche 293: 67-69. 

Archibald, J. D. 1996. Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say.  New York: Columbia University Press, 237p. 

Archibald, J. D. 1996. Fossil evidence for a Late Cretaceous origin of "hoofed" mammals. Science 272:1150-1153. 

Archibald, J. D. 1996. Testing extinction theories at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary using the vertebrate fossil record, In, MacLeod, N., and Keller, G., eds. The Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction: biotic and environmental changes. New York, W. W. Norton & Co., p. 373-398. 

Archibald, J. D. 1996. Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say. In, Wolberg, D. L. and Stump, E., eds., Dinofest International: Symposium April 18-21, 1996, Program with Abstracts, Arizona State University, p. 25. 

Archibald, J. D. 1996. Acid trauma at the Cretaceous-tertiary (K/T) boundary in eastern Montana: Comment. GSA Today 6: 21. 

Archibald, J. D. 1996. No statistical support for sudden (or gradual) extinction of dinosaurs. Reply. Geology 24: 958-959.