Research vertebrate paleontology

The Dundas lab specializes in Quaternary mammals of North America.

The primary research focus of the Dundas lab is faunal analysis, taxonomy, biostratigraphy, paleoecology and extinction of Quaternary mammals of North America. Research includes both field and collections based projects.

current projects

Fairmead Landfill

In May 1993, vertebrate fossils were discovered at Madera County's Fairmead Landfill, located a few miles north of Madera California. Paleontological monitoring has occurred at the landfill ever since, yielding thousands of late Irvingtonian age specimens. The Fairmead Landfill biota consists of several dozen taxa, providing a glimpse of San Joaquin Valley life in the late middle Pleistocene.

Rancho La Brea Collection of the University of California Museum of Paleontology

Under the direction of vertebrate paleontologist Dr. John C. Merriam, the University of California at Berkeley excavated intermittently at the tar seeps of Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles, California from 1906-1913. Hundreds of thousands of specimens were collected, making it the second largest Rancho La Brea collection in the world, after the Page Museum collection. Dr. Dundas is completing a history of the UCMP Rancho La Brea collection, including sections on excavation, preparation, collections management, fossil exchanges/loans, research and a census of mammals.

Broach Bison Locality

During late December 2006, while jogging along the San Joaquin River Parkway trail in Fresno, California, United States Army Colonel Thomas C. Broach discovered a Bison bone eroding from an outcrop. Broach alerted the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust about the find. Subsequently, the Parkway and Conservation Trust asked California State University, Fresno for assistance and the University excavated the remains in May 2007. The specimen is a large radius and compares best with Giant Bison (Bison latifrons). Charcoal associated with the specimen yielded a date of 19,230 ± 80 RCYBP (Beta-244983).

past projects

Merrell Locality, Centennial Valley, southwest Montana

The Merrell locality is a late Pleistocene fossil site in Beaverhead County, Montana. Twenty-one taxa were recovered, including bivalves, snails, bony fish, frog, duck, Trumpeter swan, sagebrush vole, muskrat, beaver, ground squirrel, coyote, wolf, scimitar cat, bear, antelope, deer, bison, camel, horse and Columbian mammoth.