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Department of Paleobiology

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  • Robert W. Purdy
  • Collections Management, Vertebrate Paleontology
  • Phone:   202-633-1348
  • Fax:   202-786-2832
  • E-mail Address:   purdyr
  • Mailing Address:
    Smithsonian Institution
    PO Box 37012, MRC 121
    Washington, DC 20013-7012
  • Shipping Address:
    Smithsonian Institution
    National Museum of Natural History
    10th & Constitution NW
    Washington, DC 20560-0121
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Education

B.S. George Washington University

Research Interests and Responsibilities

I am interested in the range of variation that occurs in living lamniform shark (includes mako, mackerel, great white sharks, etc.) dentitions and applying that information to the study of fossil sharks. This interest also extends to the ecology and distribution of living sharks; for example, many species of living sharks segregate by size and have nursery areas along the coast. Some of the questions I am interested in are:
Can we see evidence of segregation or nursery areas in the fossil record?
What characteristics of shark teeth are useful for studying evolutionary relationships?
How do changes in paleoclimates affect the distributions of fossil sharks?

Publications

1984.   (with Robert J. Emry). The Holotype and Would-be Holotypes of Hyracodon nebrasdensis (Leidy 1850). Notulae Naturae, n. 460, pp. 1-18.

1984.   (with Peter G. Kimmel). Fossil Fish of the Calvert and Eastover Formations: In L. W. Ward (ed.) Stratigrahpy and Paleontology of the Outcropping Tertiary Beds in the Pamunkey River Region, Central Virginia Coastal Plain. pp. 205-215.

1984.   A Key to the Common Genera of Neogene Shark Teeth.
Published as an appendix to Publication No. 2 above.

1988.   (with Emma Lewis Lipps and Robert A. Martin). An Annotated Bibliography of the Pleistocene Vertebrates of Georgia. Georgia Journal of Science, v. 46, pp. 109-148.

1992.   (with James C. Tyler and Karl H. Oliver). A New Species of
Sphoeroides Pufferfish (Teleostei: Tetraodontidae) with Extensive Hyperostosis from the Pliocene of North Carolina. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, v. 105, n. 3, pp. 462-482.

1996.   (with Stephen K. Donovan, Ron K. Pickerill, and Harold L. Dixon). Fish Teeth from the Pleistocene of Jamaica. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 16, n. 1, pp. 165-167.

1996.   (with Spencer G. Lucas and Robert J. Emry). Marine fossilshark (Chondrichthyes) from Nonmarine Eocene Sediments, Northeastern Kazakhstan. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, v. 109, n. 2, pp. 349-352.

1996.   Paleoecology of fossil white sharks. In A. P. Klimley and D. G. Ainley, eds. Great White Sharks: the biology of Carcharodon carcharias. Academic Press (New York). P. 67-78.

1996.   A Key to the Common Genera of Neogene Shark Teeth [Revised]. http://www.nmnh.si.edu/departments/paleo.html. pp. 1-24

1998.   The early Miocene fish fauna from the Pollack Farm Site, Delaware. In R. N. Benson, ed., Geology and paleontology of the lower Miocene Pollack Farm Fossil Site, Delaware. Delaware Geological Survey Special Publication No. 21, p. 133-139.

1998    Chondrichthyan fishes from the Paleocene of South Carolina. In A. E. Sanders, Paleobiology of the Williamsburg Formation (Black Mingo Group; Paleocene) of South Carolina, U. S. A. American Philosophical Society Transactions, V. 88, pt. 4, p. 122-146.

1998    Fossil shark teeth. The Paleontological Society pamphlet.

2000    (with Sánchez-Villagra, M. R., R. J. Burnahm, D. C. Campbell, R. M. Feldman, E. S. Gaffney, R. F. Kay, R. Lozsán, and J. G. M. Thewissen. A new near-shore marine fauna and flora from the early Neogene of northwestern Venezuela. Journal of Paleontology, 74:957-968.

2001. (with V. P. Schneider, J. H. McLellan, S. P. Applegate, R. L.
Meyer, and R. Slaughter). Preliminary Study of the Neogene Fish Faunas from the Texasgulf, Inc., Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, Beaufort County, North Carolina. Contributions to Paleobiology, N. 90, p. 71-202.

2004    Sanchez-Villagra, M. R., R. J. Asher, A. D. Rincon, A. A. Carlini, P. Meylan and R. W. Purdy, 2004. New faunal reports for the Cerro La Cruz locality (lower Miocene), North-western Venezuela. Special papers in Palaeontology, 71:105-112.

In press. (with Malcom Francis) Ontogenetic development of teeth in Lamna nasus (Bonnaterre, 1758) (Chondrichthyes: Lamnidae) and its implications for the study of fossil shark teeth. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.