Dr. Daniel Peppe

• Paleobotany
• Paleomagnetism
• Paleoclimate

http://bearspace.baylor.edu/Daniel_Peppe/www/index.htm

Ph. D., Yale University
M. Phil., Yale University
B. S., St. Lawrence University

My research focuses on integrating paleomagnetism, paleobotany, and paleoclimatology to reconstruct past ecosystems. I utilize this interdisciplinary approach to address the way that terrestrial ecosystems respond to climate change through time. I use paleobotanical techniques to reconstruct paleoenvironments, estimate paleoclimate, and examine the evolutionary history of plant communities. Paleomagnetism is used for age dating and correlation. Through this integration, it becomes possible to study plant communities then make regional and global correlations to synchronous ecosystems. Using these correlations, I can test local, regional, and global hypotheses about evolution, paleoenvironment, paleoecology, and paleoclimate.

Recent and current projects include the development of proxies for climate and plant ecology from the size and shape and modern and fossil leaves, the examination of changes in early Paleocene plant communities in the northern Great Plains of North America in response to climatic changes, the development of a terrestrial temperature record of the early Paleogene from fossil leaf data, and collaborative research with anthropologists focused on the paleoecology of the Neogene and early Quaternary as it relates to hominoid evolution in Kenya and the United Arab Emirates. Please visit my webpage for more information.

I am looking for students interested in carrying out undergraduate, MSc, and PhD research projects in paleobotany, paleoclimatology, and paleomagnetism.

Peppe, D.J., McNulty, K., Harcourt-Smith, W., Dunsworth, H., Cote, S., 2009, Stratigraphic interpretation of the Kulu Formation (Early Miocene, Rusinga Island, Kenya) and its implication for primate evolution: Journal of Human Evolution, 56: 447-461.

Peppe, D.J., Evans, D.A.D., and Smirnov, A.V., 2009, Magnetostratigraphy of the Ludlow Member of the Fort Union Formation (Lower Paleocene) of the Williston Basin in North Dakota: Geological Society of America Bulletin, 121: 65-79. doi:10.1130/B26353.1

Peppe, D.J., Hickey, L.J., Miller, I., Green, W., 2008, A morphotype catalogue, floristic analysis and stratigraphic distribution of the Aspen Shale Flora (Cretaceous-Albian) of southwestern Wyoming: Peabody Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 49(2): 181-208.

Peppe, D.J. and Reiners, P.W., 2007, Conodont (U-Th)/He thermochronology: Initial results, potential, and problems: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 258 (3-4): 569-580.

Peppe, D.J., Erickson, J.M. and Hickey, L.J., 2007, Fossil leaf species from the Fox Hills Formation (Upper Cretaceous: North Dakota, USA) and their paleogeographic significance: Journal of Paleontology, 81(3): 550-567.