Research Assistant Professor
3139 Jordan Hall
515-0383
Email: daniel_ksepka@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Research Website

B.S., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (Geological Sciences), 2002

M.S., Columbia University, New York, NY (Earth and Environmental Sciences), 2004

PhD, Columbia University, New York, NY (Earth and Environmental Sciences), 2007

TEACHING AND RESEARCH AREAS:

My research focuses on avian paleontology and systematics. I am interested in reconstructing the evolutionary relationships of birds through analysis of morphological and molecular data, with an emphasis on fossil diversity.  Incorporating the stratigraphic information from fossils into phylogenetic analyses reveals the timing of major radiations, biogeographic events, and patterns of survivorship across extinction horizons and intervals of abrupt climate shifts.

One of my primary groups of interest is Sphenisciformes (penguins). Research projects involve applying systematic analyses, histological studies and computed tomography scanning to gain insight into the evolution of underwater flight in these fascinating birds.  Penguins have thick, osteosclerotic bones that preserve well in many environments and so they have an excellent fossil record by avian standards.  Field work and international collaborations often bring me to Peru and New Zealand, two centers of fossil penguin diversity.

Outside of Sphenisciformes, ongoing projects target resolving the relationships of fossil Galliformes (landfowl) and using this data to whether modern landfowl diversified before or after the K-T extinction, tracking patterns of dispersal and ecological specialization in Coliiformes (mousebirds), and describing a new Miocene avifauna from the western US including new species of grebes, songbirds and other groups.

My teaching interests include introductory and core paleontology undergraduate courses (Dinosaurian World, Terrestrial Paleontology) and graduate courses in phylogenetic systematics and comparative anatomy (offered under MEA 592).

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Ksepka, D.T. and J.A. Clarke. In press (April 2009). The coliiform affinities of Palaeospiza bella and the phylogeny and biogeography of mousebirds. Auk.
 
Ksepka, D.T. and J. Cracraft. 2008. An avian tarsometatarsus from near the K-T boundary of New Zealand. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28: 1224-1227.

Ksepka, D.T., J.A. Clarke, T. DeVries and M. Urbina. 2008. Osteology of Icadyptes salasi, a giant penguin from the Eocene of Peru. Journal of Anatomy 213: 131-147.

Gao, K-Q. and D.T. Ksepka. 2008. Osteology and taxonomic revision of Hyphalosaurus (Diapsida: Choristodera) from the Lower Cretaceous of Liaoning, China. Journal of Anatomy 212: 747-760.

Clarke, J.A., D.T. Ksepka, M. Stucchi, M. Urbina, N. Giannini, S. Bertelli, Y. Naraez and C. Boyd. 2007. Paleogene equatorial penguins challenge the proposed relationship between biogeography, diversity, and Cenozoic climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  104: 11545-11550.

Ksepka, D.T., S. Bertelli and N. Giannini. 2006. The phylogeny of the living and fossil Sphenisciformes (penguins). Cladistics 22: 412-441.

Ksepka, D.T. and M.A. Norell. 2006. Erketu ellisoni, a long-necked sauropod from Bor Guve (Dornogov Aimag, Mongolia). American Museum Novitates 3508: 1-16.