Summary of Research

The evolution of Mesozoic terrestrial paleoenvironments, particularly those that contain dinosaurs and other terrestrial vertrebrates. Many paleobiological questions are uniquely addressed through geological means and here the sedimentary geology of a variety of terrestrial settings – from the Triassic of Arizona, to the Cetaceous of Mongolia, to the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary in the upper Great Plains of the United States – are studied to gain insights about fundamental stratigraphic and paleoecological questions.

Selected Recent Publications

• Fastovsky, D.E., 2008, Ideas in dinosaur paleontology: resonating to social and political context, in, Sepkoski, D., and Ruse, M.J. (eds.), Paleontology at the High Table: A Science Matures: University of Chicago Press (in press).
• Fastovsky, D.E., 2007, Dinosaurs as icons of evolution, in, Regal, B. (ed.), Icons of Evolution: Greenwood Publishing (in press).
• Fastovsky, D.E., and Weishampel, D.B., 2005, Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs (second edition): Cambridge University Press,
• Fastovsky, D.E., Hermes, O.D., Strater, N.H., Bowring, S.A., Montellano, M., and Hernandez, R., 2005, Pre-Late Jurassic, Fossil-Bearing Volcanic and sedimentary red beds of Huizachal Canyon, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in, Anderson, T.H., Nourse, J.A., and McKee, J.W. (eds.), The Mojave-Sonora Megashear Hypothesis: Development, Assessment, and Alternatives, Geological Society of America Special Paper, no. 393, p. 401 – 426.
• Fastovsky, D.E., and Sheehan, P.M., 2005, The Extinction of the Dinosaurs in North America: GSA Today, v. 15, p. 4 – 10.
• Fastovsky, D.E., and Smith, J.B., 2004, Dinosaur Paleoecology, in, Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmolska, H., The Dinosauria (2nd Edition): University of California Press, Berkeley, p. 614 – 626.
• Archibald, J.D., and Fastovsky, D.E., 2004, The extinction of the dinosaurs, in, Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmolska, H., The Dinosauria (2nd Edition): University of California Press, Berkeley, p. 672 – 684.
• Fastovsky, D.E., Huang, Y., Hsu, J., Martin-McNaughton, J., Sheehan, P.M., and Weishampel, D.B., 2004, The shape of Mesozoic dinosaur richness: GEOLOGY, v. 32, p. 877 – 880.

Selected Recent Proposals

• (2006 – 2008), A new and unexpected dinosaur-bearing region from the Late Cretaceous of south-central Mexico (State of Michoacan, Mexico), National Geographic Society
• (2004 – 2005), Collaborative study of dinosaur-bearing paleoenvironments in Coahuila and Chihuahua, Mexico, Fulbright Garcia-Robles Scholar Program (Council for International Exchange of Scholars)
• (2003), Geological Field Trip to the Colorado Plateau, Rhode Island Space Grant (NASA)
• (2000 – 2002) Magnetostratigraphic correlation of Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene vertebrate-bearing deposits, Nemegt Basin, Mongolia, National Science Foundation. With J. Hicks and L. Tauxe, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and M. Watabe, Hayashibara Museum of Natural History (Japan).