ProfessorJames Crampton

My research and teaching interests centre on paleontology - the study of life on Earth over the past half billion years. In particular, in recent years I have focussed on the development of, and controls on, marine biodiversity through time. One motivation has been the observaton that extinction can only truly be understood in hindsight, once a group of organisms has become extinct and it is too late to save them. The fossil record is a history of countless 'natural experiments' in extinction and we can, therefore, use these experiments to understand the drivers and rates of extinction. This knowledge may help us to mitigate modern, human-caused extinction.

Throughout my career I have employed and developed quantitative methods in paleontology, including tools for the mathematical description of biological shape as used in evolutionary studies, and tools to identify the true order of species evolution and extinction from the incomplete fossil record. 

I also have long-standing interest in New Zealand geological and biological history during the Cretaceous Period - the last phase of the ‘Age of Dinosaurs’ (145-66 million years ago).

Long-term collaborators have included Michael Foote (University of Chicago), Pete Sadler (University of California, Riverside), Steve Meyers (University of Wisconsin), Roger Cooper (formerly of Earth Sciences NZ), Alan Beu (formerly of Earth Sciences NZ), and Mary Morgan Richards (Massey University).