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6047 Silsby Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Phone: 603-646-9829
Fax: 603-646-1140
kathleen.muldoon@dartmouth.edu
I am a biological anthropologist specializing in primate evolution and
ecology. In my research, I use the fossil record as a framework for addressing
questions of community change over time. I am primarily interested in the
response of primate communities to environmental change and human impact.
My research focuses on understanding recent extinctions in Madagascar. Since
human colonization 2300 years ago, Madagascar’s native mammal community has
suffered the loss of dozens of species, including the giant subfossil lemurs.
My goal is to understand how primate communities in Madagascar have been
influenced by these extinctions. The subfossil record provides a unique
opportunity to approach this question. By comparing “subfossil communities”
with modern ones, insights can be drawn into the degree of change experienced
by those communities over time. With funding from the National Science
Foundation, Geological Society of America, The Field Museum, Sigma Xi, and
Lambda Alpha, I have applied this comparative approach to reconstruct the
ancient environment of Ankilitelo, a cave site in southwestern Madagascar that
documents the latest survival of the giant lemurs (500 years ago).
With funding from the American Philosophical Society, I am currently
extending this model to the analysis of subfossil assemblages of greater time
depth, to examine patterns of community change over time in western Madagascar.
The results of these comparisons have practical conservation implications,
given the fragile state of living lemur habitats in Madagascar.
I am involved in collaborative projects with Laurie Godfrey and Steve King
(University of Massachusetts, Amherst) to understand the functional anatomy of
teeth, as it relates to diet and life history. In particular, we are using
GIS-based 3D techniques in order to interpret the diet and lifeways of the
mysterious extinct giant lemur, Hadropithecus. I am also developing a
project with Pat Wright (Stony Brook University) and Sarah Karpanty (Virginia
Tech University) to identify primate and other mammal bones in hawk middens and
carnivore scats from Ranomafana National Park, southeastern Madagascar. The
identification of prey material can be used to explore the impact of predation
by diurnal raptors on the evolution of lemur social organization.
I became interested in primate evolution and ecology while I was a student
at the University of Toronto (H.B.Sc., 1999; M.A., 2000) and Washington
University (A.M., 2003, Ph.D., 2006). Over the years, I have participated in
fieldwork and museum research in Canada (Toronto), USA (Wyoming, Utah, Texas),
France, Germany, Hungary, Ethiopia, and Madagascar.
I teach Human Osteology in the Department of Anthropology. I also teach
Human Anatomy and Embryology in the Department of Anatomy at Dartmouth Medical
School.
Publications
- Muldoon KM (in press) Review of Human Remains: Dissection and Its
Histories. By H. MacDonald. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology.
- Muldoon KM and Simons EL (2007) Ecogeographic size variation in
small-bodied subfossil primates from Ankilitelo, SW Madagascar. American
Journal of Physical Anthropology 134, 152-161.
- Muldoon KM (2007) Review of Primate Biogeography: Progress and
Prospects. Edited by S.M. Lehman and J.G. Fleagle. American Journal of
Physical Anthropology 134, 136-137.
- Kelley EA, Sussman RW, and Muldoon KM (2007). The status of lemur species
at Antserananomby: an update. Primate Conservation. 22: 7 pp
(online).
- Kamilar JM, and Muldoon KM (2006) Physical anthropology in the last
frontier. Evolutionary Anthropology 15, 125-126.
- Simons EL, Simons VFH, Chatrath PS, Muldoon KM, Oliphant M, Pistole N,
Savas C (2004) Research on subfossils in southwestern Madagascar and Ankilitelo
Cave. Lemur News 9, 12-16.
- Kappelman J, Rasmussen DT, Sanders WJ, Feseha M, Bown TM, Copeland P,
Crabaugh J, Fleagle JG Glantz M, Gordon A, Jacobs B, Maga M, Muldoon KM, Pan A,
Pyne L, Richmond B, Ryan T, Seiffert ER, Sen S, Todd L, Wiemann MC, and Winkler
A. (2003) New Oligocene mammals from Ethiopia and the pattern and timing of
faunal exchange between Afro-Arabia and Eurasia. Nature 426,
549-552.
- Muldoon KM and Gunnell GF (2002) Omomyid primates (Tarsiiformes) from the
early middle Eocene at South Pass, Greater Green River Basin, Wyoming.
Journal of Human Evolution 43(4), 479-511.
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