My research focuses on the patterns of Tertiary fossil mammal evolution, of both morphological change through time and community structure (i.e., ungulates, or hoofed mammals), and the effects of environmental and climatic changes. Of special interest is the evolution of the North American Miocene savanna faunas.

Another focus correlates morphology relative to behavior in living and fossil mammals (i.e., craniodental morphology relative to diet and limb anatomy relative to locomotion).

Biography

I've wanted to be a paleontologist from an early age, triggered by being taken to see "Fantasia" at age 7. That was the year that I also started riding horses, so I attribute my career (as an ungulate [hoofed mammals] paleobiologist) to having outgrown neither the horse phase or the dinosaur phase.
As great as is the diversity of life on earth today, the fossil record increases out knowledge of life's diversity by many orders of magnitude. The fossil record also adds something that is lacking from the study of the living world alone: the dimension of time, and the documentation of what actually happened during the history of organisms.
Although one cannot study the biology of extinct animals directly, there are ways by which once can make sound inferences about what they were like as living beings, such as qualitative or quantitative comparison with living animals of known biology and/or the use of principles of biomechanics. (The use of isotope geochemistry is a new development in this area, but as I am primarily a biologist this is not a technique that I use myself.)
Mammals are especially good subjects for paleobiological investigations, as their bony remains provide much information about diet and mode of locomotion, and there is a large diversity of living mammals with which to compare the fossil ones. The structure of the communities of fossil mammals, in terms of diversity of body sizes, and dietary and locomotor types, can also provide excellent information about their habitat (in an entirely different fashion from evidence from fossil plants), and tracking changes in communities through time can provide information as to the tempo and mode of climatic and environmental changes.

Institutions

Bu

Research Description

My current research has two main focuses. The first concerns an ongoing collaboration with colleagues who share my interest in patterns of mammalian community change during the past 20 million years or so, and how these patterns reflect the cooling and drying of environments in the northern latitudes during this time. In my role as senior editor for the two volumes of The Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America (first volume published in 1998, second volume to be published in 2007), I have amassed a large database of "who was where when" of North American mammals. John Damuth (University of Santa Barbara) and I have several publications on how the community structure of large mammals changes over this time period (see Janis, Damuth, and Theodor, 2000, 2002, 2004). With completion of the second volume of the mammals book, we will embark on comparing evolutionary patterns in large and small mammals. Both John and I interact with Mikael Fortelius (University of Helsinki), who has amassed a similar database on Eurasian mammals from the same time period, and we will be comparing patterns of community evolution between continents.

A second line of current research focuses more on the functional morphology of individual fossil lineages. My original research into paleobiological problems of this nature involved the use of dental and skull remains to determine diet, but more recently, I have become interested in the postcranial skeleton and evolution of locomotion. Recent work in this area has involved undergraduates working on honors theses, including a study of the evolution of the pacing gait in camels (see Janis, Theodor, and Boisvert, 2002) and the mode of locomotion in sthenurine kangaroos (extinct giant browsing forms). I plan to continue the investigation into sthenurines: these animals are especially interesting (and challenging!) as preliminary work shows that they were very unlike other kangaroos, and may have had a type of locomotion with no living analog. I also plan to return to some work that had its inception a while ago (see Janis and Wilhelm, 1993) on the reason why mammals evolve cursorial (i.e., running) limb adaptations (my hypothesis is that it's really more related to energy conservation at slow gaits rather than speed at fast gaits). Preliminary data on the evolution of horse legs supports this hypothesis, and I will be collecting and analysing more data on this research project in the near future.

Awards

1985: George Gaylord Simpson Prize for Paleontology (Yale University, USA)

Affiliations

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (USA)
The Paleontological Society (USA)
The Palaeontological Association (UK)
GRIPS (Greater Rhode Island Paleontological Society) charter member.
The American Society of Mammalogists
Society for the Study of Mammalian Evolution
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
International Society of Cryptozoology (acting president)
National Center for Science Education

Funded Research

Bushnell Foundation (1/1/2006, $22,000)

Teaching Experience

Current courses

Comparative Biology of the Vertebrates (Bio 188): An evolutionary approach to vertebrate anatomy and diversity, including dissection labs and comparative osteology.

Vertebrate Evolution and Diversity (Bio 39): a lower level course aimed at modes of thought and understanding in science, as well as vertebrate evolution.

I have also taught courses or seminars (graduate and otherwise on the following topics); Mammalian diversity and design, mammalian paleobiology, vertebrate paleontology, human evolution, dinosaurs in society and culture, macroecology, history of evolutionary ideas.

Courses Taught

• Comparative Biology of the Vertebrates (Bio 188)
• Vertebrate Evolution and Diversity (Bio 39)

View My Full Publication List in pdf format

Selected Publications

• Hunter, J.. P., and C. M. Janis. (2006) (pending publication). A southern origin for placental mammals: Garden of Eden or Fool's Paradise? Paleobiology.(2006)
• Hunter, J.P, and C. M. Janis. Spiny Norman in the Garden of Eden? (2006) (pending publication).Ausktribosphenos and the biogeography of eutherian origins. Journal of Mammlian Evolution.(2006)
• Gröcke, D. R., P. Palmqvist, and C. M. Janis (2006) (pending publication). Tracing the feeding ecology of terrestrial vertebrates using stable-isotopes from bone collagen, palaeoautocology and palaeosynecology in an early Pleistocene assemblage of larger mammals. Quarternary Science Reviews.(2006)
• Mendoza, M, C.M. Janis and P. Palmqvist. (2006) (pending publication).Estimating the body mass of extinct ungulates: a study on the use of multiple regression. Journal of Zoology(2006)
• Lane, A., C. M. Janis, and J. J. Sepkoski, Jr. (2005). Estimating paleodiversities: a test of the taxic and phylogenetic methods? Paleobiology 31:21-34.(2005)
• Mendoza, M., C. M. Janis, and P. Palmqvuist (2005). Ecological patterns in the tropic-size structure of large mammal communities: at taxon-free characterization. Evolutionary Ecology Research, 7: 1-26.(2005)
• Semprebon, G., C. M. Janis, and N. Solounias (2004). The diets of the Dromomerycidae (Mammalia; Artiodactyla) and their response to Miocene climatic and vegetational change. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 24:430-447.(2004)
• Tellegren, A., A.-C. Berglund, P. Savolainen, P., C.M. Janis, and D. A. Liberles (2004}. Myostatin rapid sequence evolution in ruminants predates domestication. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33:782-790.(2004)
• Gaucher , E. A., L. G. Graddy, T. Li, R. C. M. Simmen, F.A. Simmen, D. R. Schreiber, D. A. Liberles, C. M. Janis, and S. A. Benner (2004). The planetary biology of cytocrhome P450 aromatases. BMC Biology 2: 19 (published on line). (Paper rated as "exceptional" by the Faculty of 1000.)(2004)
• Janis, C. M., J. Damuth and J. M. Theodor (2004). The species richness of Miocene browsers, and implications for habitat type and primary productivity in the North American grassland biome. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 207:371-398.(2004)
• Janis, C. M. (2003): Tectonics, climatic change and atmospheric carbon dioxide in the evolution of mammalian ecosystems. In Evolution on Planet Earth: the Impact of the Physical Environment, eds. L. J. Rothschild and A. Lister, Elsevier, London. Pp. 319-338.(2003)
• Janis, C.M., J. Damuth and J.M. Theodor. (2002). The origins and evolution of the North American grassland biome: the story from the hoofed mammals. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 117: 183-198.(2002)
• Mendoza, M., C. M. Janis, and P. Palmqvist. (2002). Characterizing complex craniodental patterns related to feeding behaviour in ungulates: a multivariate approach. Journal of Zoology, London 258: 223-246.(2002)
• Janis, C.M., J. M. Theodor, and B. Boisvert. (2002). Locomotor evolution in camels revisited: a quantitative analysis of pedal morphology and the acquisition of the pacing gait. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22:110-120.(2002)
• Janis, C.M. and J.C. Keller (2001). Modes of ventilation in early tetrapods: costal ventilation as a key feature of amniotes. In Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 46(2), Special Issue on Biomechanics and Palaeobiology, ed. S.F. Viscaiño, R.A. Fariña and C.M. Janis. Pp. 137 – 170.(2001)
• Janis, C.M. (2001). The Tertiary Radiation of Mammals. In Palaeobiology II, ed. D. Briggs, Blackwell Science Publications. Pp 109-112.(2001)
• Janis, C.M. (2000). Patterns in the evolution of herbivory in large terrestrial mammals: the Paleogene of North America. In Origin and Evolution of Herbivory in Terrestrial Vertebrates, ed. H.-D. Sues and C. Labanderia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. Pp. 168-221.(2000)
• Janis, C.M., J. Damuth, and J.M. Theodor (2000). Miocene ungulates and terrestrial primary productivity: Where have all the browsers gone? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 97: 7899-7904.(2000)
• Janis, C.M. (2000). The radiation of the North American endemic ruminants. In Antelopes, Deer, and Relatives: Fossil Record, Behavioral Ecology, Systematics, and Conservation, ed. E.S. Vrba and G.B. Schaller, Yale University Press. Pp. 26-37.(2000)