Anthony Friscia

My research program has focused on the evolution of early Tertiary mammals and their diversification into modern families, using extensive anatomical and functional knowledge as a basis for comparison. Specifically I have worked on mammalian carnivores, both extinct and extant. As a comparative base I have built a large collection of pictures and skull/dentition measurements of living small carnivorans, including members of the Procyonidae (raccoons and their relatives), Mustelidae, (weasels, badgers, otters, and their relatives), Mephitidae (skunks), Herpestidae (mongooses), and Viverridae (civets and their relatives). I use this database to study the dietary specializations of these groups and the morphological correlates of diet. These are a diverse group of animals, whose diets run the gamut from hypercarnivores, specializing only in meat (such as the weasels), to almost dedicated frugivores (such as some members of the raccoon family). The goal is to represent the entire ecological range of these poorly studied taxa. I have used the database of living carnivores as a basis for studying the fossil record. Early mammalian carnivores (both members of the modern order Carnivora, as well as the extinct order Creodonta) are similar in body size to the modern small taxa. By understanding the morphological correlates of ecology in living taxa I can then extrapolate to investigate the lifestyles of the fossil taxa. The first thing that drew me to research was paleontological fieldwork. I plan to continue this as part of my further research and involve students in the process. I have a partnership with researchers from Midwestern University, the San Diego Museum of Natural History and Lamar University to collect and teach in the Uinta Basin in Utah. This research includes expanding our collecting area, obtaining better stratigraphic control on our localities, and examining change in the paleoecology of the Basin across time. This will also incorporate a large field school component which would involve students in both collecting and subsequent research on the uncovered specimens. In addition to field work here in the US, I have research collaborations with various colleagues doing research in Sub-Saharan Africa. My research there focuses on a key time period in the history of African animals, right at the transition from archaic groups to taxa we would recognize today. Part of this turnover was the appearance of the first true carnivorans in Africa around 20 million years ago. We have collected specimens of the very first of these taxa to reach Africa, and the question of why these particular species were the first to enter Africa, and how they fit into the endemic carnivore community, is rich in interesting research directions. I also have research interests in looking at broad evolutionary trends across carnivorous mammals, functional anatomy of mammals and birds, the taphonomy of the La Brea tar seeps, and primate paleontology.