David
Dilkes
Associate 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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- 2009 - Associate Professor of Anatomy, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, WI
- 2003- 2009 Assistant Professor of Anatomy, 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 at UWO
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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. A long awaited publication in
the new edition of The Complete Dinosaur from Indiana University Press finally appeared in 2012.
My 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 have published and
currently working on projects with Late Triassic reptiles of South
America. 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 have collaborated 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 during the Late Triassic between 227 and 205 million years ago.
Vertebrates, often quite bizarre in anatomy, evolved to inhabit the
land, water and air. With the recent
completion of a project on a unusual armored reptile from Virginia and
another project on a unique group of South American reptiles called
Proterochampsia, I
am continuing to work with a colleague Dr. Andrea Arcucci from
Argentina on a redescription of the proterochampsian Gualosuchus. Our new data on this reptile will be incorporated into our previously published phylogenetic analysis of Proterochampsia.
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 continuing my studies
of the
morphology and mechanics of the vertebrae and osteoderms of dissorophid
amphibians, and a project on the anatomy, function, and evolution of the wrist
and ankle morphology of temnospondyl amphibians was recently published. I am also redescribing the dissorophid amphibian 'Dissorophus' angustus which has perhaps the most anatomically complex vertebrae and osteoderms of any dissorophid. These studies will
hopefully provide a clearer insight into the locomotion of early
amphibians
on land.
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Recent Publications
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- Dilkes, D. 2015. Carpus and tarsus of Temnospondyli. Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology, 1:51-87.
- Dilkes, D.W. and A. Arcucci. 2012. Proterochampsa barrionuevoi
(Archosauriformes: Proterochampsia) from the Late Triassic (Carnian) of
Argentina and a phylogenetic analysis of Proterochampsia. Palaeontology, 55:853-885.
- Dilkes, D.W., Hutchinson, J.R., Holliday, C.M., and Witmer,
L.M. 2012. Reconstructing the Musculature of Dinosaurs. The Complete Dinosaur (2nd
edition). M.K. Brett-Surman. T.R. Holtz, Jr. and and J. Farlow (eds.), Indiana University
Press, pages 151-190.
- Dilkes, D.W. 2009. Comparison and biomechanical interpretations of the vertebrae and osteoderms of Cacops aspidephorus and Dissorophus multicinctus (Temnospondyli, Dissorophidae). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29:1013-1021.
- Dilkes, D. and H.-D. Sues. 2009. Redescription and phylogenetic relationships of Doswellia kaltenbachii (Diapsida: Archosauromorpha) from the Uppr Triassic of Virginia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2:58-79.
- 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.
- 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.