Loren E. Babcock

My research addresses critical moments in evolutionary history and the processes involved in fossilization. I am interested in answering questions about the palaeobiology, evolutionary history, and extinction of ancient organisms, as well as how living organisms make the transition to the fossil record. I study how the oceans became populated during the Cambrian “explosion”, and how jawed fishes arose and diversified ecologically. The role of predator-prey relationships in guiding the course of evolution has been a unifying theme to this work. Studies on large Pleistocene mammal species are providing perspective on the extinction and survivorship potential of species during times of glacial recession and human expansion into new ecosystems.