David
Dilkes
Assistant Professor
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Course Web Sites
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Contact Information
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- Department of Biology and Microbiology
800 Algoma Boulevard
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh WI, 54901
- Office: HS-158
Phone: 920-424-3074
Fax: 920-424-1101
Email: dilkes@uwosh.edu
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Education
- Ph.D., 1993, University of Toronto (Zoology with primary research in
vertebrate paleontology)
- M.Sc., 1986, University of Toronto (Zoology with primary research in
vertebrate paleontology)
- B.Sc., 1984, University of Toronto (Zoology)
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Academic Appointments
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- 2003- Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, WI
- 1999-2003 Lecturer and Faculty Advisor, University of Toronto at Mississauga,
Mississauga, Ontario Canada
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Research Appointments
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- 1997-1999 Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Palaeobiology,
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario Canada and Biology Department,
University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada
- 1994-1997 Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Associate, Redpath Museum,
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec Canada
- 1993-1994 Postdoctoral Researcher, Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological
Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Courses Taught
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- BIO 211 Human Anatomy
- BIO 308 Comparative Anatomy
- BIO 446 Independent Study
- BIO 766 Advanced Topics in Biology
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Research Interests
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- I am a vertebrate paleontologist which means that I study the fossilized
remains of animals with a backbone. My special area of interest is the
paleobiology and phylogenetic relationships of early amphibians and amniotes
(i.e. vertebrates that lay an amniotic egg for the developing embryo)
during a time period of between 345 and 205 million years ago. During
this period, the first terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods) appeared and
diversified. While my primary research interests deal with very early
amphibians and amniotes, I have also studied dinosaurs.
- My current research has focused upon the two main lineages of amniotes:
Reptilia and Synapsida. In the first group, I have described early reptiles
from Oklahoma and South Africa and am currently involved in a project
on hadrosaurian dinosaurs to document their anatomical diversity, investigate
ontogenetic growth, biogeography, functional morphology and phylogenetic
relationships. The other main group of amniotes, Synapsida, consists of
mammals and their extinct relatives along a lineage that goes back at
least 325 million years. I am collaborating with Professor Robert Reisz
of the University of Toronto to describe the anatomy, analyze functional
morphology and determine phylogenetic relationships of early extinct members
of this group from Kansas.
One particularly extraordinary period during the history of vertebrates
was between 227 and 205 million years ago. Many, often bizarre, vertebrates
evolved to inhabit the land, water and air. One of my ongoing projects
is the restudy of an unusually heavily armored reptile from Virginia.
This reptile was covered by a series of interlocking plates across its
back and sides and extended from the back of the head to the base of the
tail. This project is near completion.
- While much of my research is currently concentrating on
amniotes, I have not lost interest in early amphibians, especially
those from approximately 290 million years ago that include some
species well adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle and possibly included
some distant relatives of modern amphibians. I am curently studying the
morphology and mechanics of the vertebrae and osteoderms of dissorophid
amphibians that were likely related to modern amphibians. I plan
to extend these biomechanical analyses to the remainder of the skeleton
to gain a clearer insight into the location of these early amphibians
on land.
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Recent Publications
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- Dilkes, D. and L.E. Brown. 2007. Biomechanics of the vertebrae and associated osteoderms of the Early Permian amphibian Cacops aspidephorus. Journal of Zoology, 271: 396-407.
- Dilkes, D.W., Hutchinson, J.R., Holliday, C.M., and Witmer, L.M. In
review. The musculature of dinosaurs. The Complete Dinosaur (2nd edition).
M.K. Brett-Surman and J. Farlow (eds.), Indiana University Press.
- Reisz, R. and D. W. Dilkes. 2003. Archaeovenator hamiltonensis, a new
varanopid (Eupelycosauria: Synapsida) from the Upper Carboniferous of
Kansas. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 40: 667-678.
- Kissel, R. A., Dilkes, D. W., and Reisz, R. R. 2002. Captorhinus magnus,
a new captorhinid (Amniota: Eureptilia) from the Lower Permian of Oklahoma,
with new evidence on the homology of the astragalus. Canadian Journal
of Earth Sciences, 39:1363-1372.
- Dilkes, D.W. 2001. An ontogenetic perspective on locomotion in the
Late Cretaceous dinosaur Maiasaura peeblesorum (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae).
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 38:1205-1227.
- Dilkes, D. W. 2000. Appendicular myology of the hadrosaurian dinosaur
Maiasaura peeblesorum from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Montana.
Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 90:87-125.
- Reisz, R. R., D. W. Dilkes, and D. S Berman. 1998. Anatomy and relationships
of Elliotsmithia longiceps Broom, a small varanopseid (Eupelycosauria:
Varanopseidae) from the Late Permian of South Africa. Journal of Vertebrate
Paleontology, 18:602-611.
- Dilkes, D. W. 1998. The Early Triassic rhynchosaur Mesosuchus browni
and the interrelationships of basal archosauromorph reptiles. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences, 353:501-541.
- Dilkes, D. W. and R. R. Reisz. 1996. First record of a basal synapsid
('mammal-like reptile') in Gondwana. Proceedings of the Royal Society
of London: Biological Sciences, 263:1165-1170.
- Dilkes, D. W. 1995. The rhynchosaur Howesia browni from the Early Triassic
of South Africa. Palaeontology, 38:665-685.
- Carpenter, C., D. Dilkes, and D. B. Weishampel. 1995. The dinosaurs
of the Niobrara Chalk Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Kansas). Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology, 15:275-297.