David
Polly is a vertebrate paleontologist at Indiana
University-Bloomington. He received degrees from the University of
Texas—Austin (BA) and the University of California-Berkeley (Ph.D.),
and was a postdoctoral fellow with the Michigan Society and
the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
For ten years he was a Queen Mary, University of London. His main
areas of research interest are in the phylogenetics and functional
morphology of Mesozoic and Palaeogene mammals; in intraspecific
variation and phylogeographic radiation of Quaternary and living
mammals; in the roles of development and function in the evolution
of skeletal morphology; and, more generally, in the evolution of
quantitative traits. His most recent projects include a comparative
study of the phylogenetic and environmental factors in quantitative
size and shape in different morphological structures and different
taxonomic groups; an investigation of developmental, genetic, and
ecological components of quantitative variation and the extent to
which each shapes long-term evolution; methods for reconstructing
vertebrate phylogeny using morphometric traits, maximum-likelihood,
and bootstrapping; and a comparison of palaeophylogeographic
evolution of Quaternary mammals with molecular phylogeographic
patterns. David is committed to keeping scientific publication under
academic control. He is currently an editor of Palaeontology and
Palaeontologia Electronica, and has also worked actively to
develop scientific internet publishing for the University of
California Museum of Paleontology, the Society of Vertebrate
Paleontology, and the Natural History Musuem. (Photo by Rebecca
Spang).
David
Polly is a vertebrate paleontologist at Indiana
University-Bloomington. He received degrees from the University of
Texas—Austin (BA) and the University of California-Berkeley (Ph.D.),
and was a postdoctoral fellow with the Michigan Society and
the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
For ten years he was a Queen Mary, University of London. His main
areas of research interest are in the phylogenetics and functional
morphology of Mesozoic and Palaeogene mammals; in intraspecific
variation and phylogeographic radiation of Quaternary and living
mammals; in the roles of development and function in the evolution
of skeletal morphology; and, more generally, in the evolution of
quantitative traits. His most recent projects include a comparative
study of the phylogenetic and environmental factors in quantitative
size and shape in different morphological structures and different
taxonomic groups; an investigation of developmental, genetic, and
ecological components of quantitative variation and the extent to
which each shapes long-term evolution; methods for reconstructing
vertebrate phylogeny using morphometric traits, maximum-likelihood,
and bootstrapping; and a comparison of palaeophylogeographic
evolution of Quaternary mammals with molecular phylogeographic
patterns. David is committed to keeping scientific publication under
academic control. He is currently an editor of Palaeontology and
Palaeontologia Electronica, and has also worked actively to
develop scientific internet publishing for the University of
California Museum of Paleontology, the Society of Vertebrate
Paleontology, and the Natural History Musuem. (Photo by Rebecca
Spang).