home news faculty undergraduate graduate staff seminars resources & links history intranet giving alumni

email:  bvanval@ucla.edu
phone:  (310) 794-9398
office:  LS 5312
lab:  

research interests:  Paleobiology, ecology, and functional morphology of vertebrates

Research Interests

As a vertebrate paleobiologist, my focus is the evolution of form, function and ecology in organisms, both living and extinct. I study living species as a key to understanding extinct species and am drawn to the fossil record because of its unique attributes. First, it provides the only record of long-term evolutionary change in form, matched perhaps in magnitude only by the history of genetic change preserved in the genome. Second, it provides a window into life and ecosystems prior to the alterations and biases engendered by anthropogenic forces and recent Pleistocene extinctions. Third, it presents us with species and morphologies that are no longer present, such as dinosaurs and sabertooth cats, and thereby expands our understanding of life?s potentials beyond what we can observe today.

Much of my research has focused on large preatory mammals. Large predators on land and sea are receiving much attention among ecologists because they act as major drivers within their ecosystems and many are threatened with extinction. As top-down regulators, they are pivotal players in trophic cascades that affect both plant and animal distributions and abundance3. Modern species evolved within much more diverse and complex guilds of large predators that included species such as short-faced bears, sabertooth cats, and dire wolves. To better understand both the dynamics of extant predator communities and the adaptations of individual species, I have explored the fossil record of carnivores from both ecological and evolutionary perspectives, sometimes focusing on guilds of species in distinct time horizons, and other times focusing on the evolutionary trajectories of species over millions of years. Below I list four recent areas of research that exemplify the work in my lab.

1. Parallels between past and present predator guilds

2. Evolution of feeding adaptations

3. Function and evolution of mammalian turbinates

4. Molecular and morphological evolution within the Carnivora.

Selected Publications

Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2009. Costs of carnivory: tooth fracture in Pleistocene and Recent carnivorans Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 96: 68-81 .

Carbone, C., Maddox, T., Funston, P.J., Mills, M.G.L., Grether, G. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2009. Parallels between playbacks and Pleistocene tar seeps suggest sociality in an extinct sabretooth cat, Smilodon Biology Letters 5: 81-85 .

Samuels, J. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2009. Craniodental adaptations for digging in extinct burrowing beavers Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29: 254-268 .

Roemer, G., Gompper, M. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2009. The ecological role of the mammalian mesocarnivore Bioscience 59: 165-173 .

Meachen-Samuels, J. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2009. Forelimb indicators of prey-size preference in the Felidae Journal of Morphology 270: 729-744 .

Slater, G.J., Dumont, E.R. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2009. Implications of predatory specialization for cranial form and function in canids Journal of Zoology 278: 181-188 .

Meachen-Samuels, J. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2009. Craniodental indicators of prey size preference in the Felidae Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 96: 784-799 .

Van Valkenburgh, B., Maddox, T., Funston, P.J., Mills, M.G.L., Grether, G. and Carbone, C.. 2009. Sociality in Rancho La Brea Smilodon: arguments favour ?evidence? over coincidence? Biology Letters 5: 563-564 .

Slater, G. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2008. Long in the tooth: evolution of sabertooth cat cranial shape Paleobiology 34: 403-419 .

Samuels, J. and Van Valkenburgh, B.. 2008. Skeletal indicators of locomotor adaptations in living and extinct rodents Journal of Morphology 269: 1397-1411 .