Postdoctoral Fellow

Competition, guild structure and evolution in the carnivora

PI(s): Julie A Meachen
Start Date: 1-Aug-2009
End Date: 31-Jul-2012
Keywords:

I am examining how mammalian carnivores differentiate their diets and how they compete for resources within carnivore guilds. I will be examining both living guilds from all over the world and extinct guilds from the Pleistocene and Pliocene of North America. I will be looking at carnivore skeletal morphology to see if there is a shift in form or body size depending upon what other carnivore species are present in the guild. This data can ultimately be used to predict what will happen to the world's remaining carnivore species as other carnivore species in their guild become extinct.

For more information, my publications and CV go to:
http://www.duke.edu/~js311/

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PublicationsProposals and Grants
  • Duke Postdoctoral Professional Development Award funded to attend SACNAS 2010 conference in Anaheim, CA in the capacity as a mentor, panelist, speaker and poster judge.
Presentations
  • Short untitled talk to the Pocatello, Idaho Kennel Club on canid turbinates and competition and niche partitioning in extinct canids. November 10, 2009
  • short talk for triangle area SCONCs at NESCent titled, "Smilodon fatalis, a different kind of predator" on November 19, 2009
  • Job interview talk for John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, titled, "Carnivore Morphology and Evolution: Past, Present and Future" given on November 17, 2009
  • Meachen-Samuels, J. and J.X. Samuels. 2011. Bigger, stronger and faster in the Pleistocene: evolutionary change in coyotes (Canis latrans) after the megafaunal extinction. Society for the Study of Evolution Meeting. Norman, OK.
  • Meachen-Samuels, J. 2011. Carnivore morphology and evolution: past, present and future. Marshall University, Huntington, WV.
  • Meachen-Samuels, J. 2010. Carnivore morphology and evolution: past, present and future. College of Charleston, Department of Biology departmental seminar, Charleston, SC.
  • Meachen-Samuels, J. 2010. Changes within carnivore guilds from the Pleistocene and Holocene of North America. 70th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Pittsburgh, PA.
  • Talk presented at Society for the Study of Evolution Meeting, Portland, OR.
  • MEAS Departmental seminar at NC State University, titled "Morphology and evolution in the Carnivora: past, present and future" given on February 8, 2010
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