THOMAS STIDHAM

Assistant Professor
Biology

Department of Biology
Texas A&M University
TAMU 3258
College Station, TX 77843-3258
Office: 307A Butler Hall (map)
Phone: 979.845.4660
Fax: 979.845.2891
E-mail: furcula@mail.bio.tamu.edu
Department Web page

Keywords: birds, avian systematics and paleontology, African birds, vertebrate paleontology, vertebrate morphology and osteology, biotic response to climate change

Interests: I am a (paleo) biologist interested broadly in ecology and evolution. The kinds of questions that I am interested in are interdisciplinary, require a variety of approaches, and involve the fossil record. Fossils provide the only record of really long term ecological, environmental, and biotic change. Using stable isotopes, morphology, systematics, morphometrics, phylogenetic constraint, ecology, behavior, and biogeography, the fossil record can tell us about the history of life, the processes of change over time, and the interactions among life and our planet from its climate to biogeochemical cycles. I am particularly interested in the biotic response (mainly of birds) to climatic change in the present and past. My research focuses on two intervals of time, the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene (~83 - 45 Ma) and the later part of the Neogene Period (~6 Ma to the present day). I study the phylogenetic systematics of the (avian) fossils and their extant relatives, their morphometrics in relation to their (paleo) ecology, and the biogeography of various clades through time.

I have other interests distributed across natural history, and I have ongoing projects on fossil and recent insects, insect behavior, Paleogene sharks, rays, and fish, and the geology of Texas.

Disciplines: Paleobiology, Evolutionary Biology, Ecology.

Courses:
BIOL 214: Genes, Ecology, and Evolution
BIOL 357: Ecology
BIOL 491: Research in Vertebrate Paleontology

Selected publications:
Stidham, T.A. 2009 in press. A small Pleistocene lovebird (Psittacidae: Agapornis) from Plovers Lake, South Africa. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen.

Williamson, T.E., B.S. Kues, G.S. Weissman, T.A. Stidham, S.L. Yurchyk. 2009. A feather from the Upper Cretaceous (lower Campanian) Point Lookout Sandstone, San Juan Basin, Northwestern New Mexico. Cretaceous Research 30:547-550.

Stidham, T.A. 2008. The importance of Diamantornis eggshell (Aves: Struthionidae) in the age and correlation of the Prospect Hill Formation, South Africa. South African Journal of Geology 111:459-461.

Stidham, T.A. 2008. The first fossil of the Congo Peafowl (Galliformes: Afropavo). South African Journal of Science 104:511-512.

Gilbert, W.H. and T.A. Stidham. 2008. Chapter 12 - Rare taxa. pp. 261-264. In Gilbert, W.H. and B. Asfaw eds. Homo erectus in Africa-Pleistocene evidence from the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. University of California Press.

Stidham, T.A. and T.A. Janus. 2008. New vertebrates from the Paleogene of eastern Texas. Transactions of the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies 58:853-855.

Stidham, T.A. 2007. Preliminary assessment of the Late Miocene avifauna from Lemudong’o, Kenya. Kirtlandia 56:173-176.

Ambrose, S.H., C.J. Bell, R. L. Bernor, J.-R. Boisserie, C.M. Darwent, D. Degusta, A. Deino, N. Garcia, Y. Haile-Selassie, J.J. Head, L.J. Hlusko, F.C. Howell, M.D. Kyule, F.K. Manthi, E.M. Mathu, C.M. Nyamai, M. Pickford, H. Saegusa, T.A. Stidham, M.A.J. Williams. 2007. The paleoecology and paleogeographic context of Lemudong’o locality 1, a Late Miocene terrestrial fossil site in Southern Kenya. Kirtlandia 56:38-52.

Stidham, T.A. 2007. Possible vertebrate burrows from the Miocene Fleming Formation near Huntsville, Walker County, Texas. Texas Journal of Science 59:317-321.

Fox-Dobbs, K., T.A. Stidham, G.J. Bowen, S.D. Emslie, and P. Koch. 2006. Dietary controls on extinction versus survival among avian megafauna in the late Pleistocene. Geology 34:685-688.

Van Tuinen, M., T.A. Stidham, and L. Hadly. 2006. Tempo and mode of modern bird evolution observed with large-scale taxonomic sampling. Historical Biology 18:205-221.

Bibi, F., A.B. Shabel, B.P. Kraatz, and T.A. Stidham. 2006. New fossil eggshell discoveries (Diamantornis and Aepyornithoid-type) from the late Miocene of Arabia. Palaeontologia Electronica 9 issue 1; 2A, 13pp.

Stidham, T.A., P.A. Holroyd, G.F. Gunnell, R. L. Ciochon, T. Tsubamoto, N. Egi, and M. Takai. 2005. A new ibis-like bird (Aves: cf. Threskiornithidae) from the late middle Eocene of Myanmar. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology University of Michigan 31:179-184.