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ProfessorJames Crampton

Professor of Paleontology

School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences

Orcid identifier0000-0003-3270-9981 (opens in a new tab)⁠
  • Professor of Paleontology
    School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences
  • +6444636198 (Work)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Patterns and controls of marine biodiversity change, extinction and evolution over geological timescales. For this research, I have employed large datasets that describe the fossil records of marine plankton and New Zealand's outstanding archive of Cenozoic shellfish. Using quantitative methods applied to these datasets, I have generated extremely high-resolution time series of marine evolution and extinction at the global scale, at the scale of the Southern Ocean, and for the isolated continent of Zealandia. 
  • Rates and modes of evolution within and between species. Using quantitative tools, some developed by me, I have studied the rates and modes of evolutionary change within different groups of marine organisms.
  • Tectonic, geographic, and biological evolution of Zealandia during the Cretaceous Period. This research includes taxonomic and biostratigraphic studies of Cretaceous shellfish, especially a group of clams (the inoceramids) that are used to date Cretaceous rocks in New Zealand. As part of this work, I have been closely involved in the development of the New Zealand Cretaceous geological time scale and I am a voting member on the Cretaceous Subcommission of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, which oversees development of the international geological time scale.

RANGAHAU | RESEARCH

  • PROJECT GRANT
    Understanding Zealandia/Te Riu-A-Maui
    GNS Science1 Jul 2023 - 30 Jun 2026
    People funded by this grant:
    • Crampton J
    GNS Science
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Understanding Zealandia / Te Riu-A-Maui
    GNS Science1 Oct 2022 - 30 Jun 2023
    People funded by this grant:
    • Crampton J
  • PROJECT GRANT
    Strontium isotope dating – a fresh look at an old problem for constraining Zealandia's stratigraphic record
    Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington6 Dec 2021 - 1 Dec 2023
    People funded by this grant:
    Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Automated Computer Data Aggregation Techniques in New Zealand Earth Sciences
    ROYAL SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND1 Jan 2020 - 31 Mar 2022
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Taniwha O Te Urewera
    TUHOE TRUST CUSTODIAN TRUSTEE COMPANY LIMITED1 Jun 2016 - 5 Aug 2021
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Turning point between green house and ice house earths: investigation of paleothermometry from Cretaceous at Canadian Pacific Coast
    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science1 Apr 2015 - 31 Mar 2018
    People funded by this grant:
    • Hasegawa T,
    • Horikawa K,
    • Yamamoto M,
    • Moriya K,
    • Kamiya T
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Global Ocean Anoxia during Ancient 'Greenhouse' Climates: Prospects for a Warming World
    UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO1 Jun 2014 - 31 Oct 2017
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Punctuated evolution: is rapid morphological change linked to speciation?
    Royal Society of New Zealand1 Jul 2012 - 1 Jul 2015
    People funded by this grant:
    • Morgan-Richards M,
    • Beu A,
    • Crampton J,
    • Trewick S
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Global seesaw oscillation of botom water redox condition through Cretaceous OAE2
    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science1 Apr 2012 - 31 Mar 2015
    People funded by this grant:
    • HASEGAWA T,
    • FUKUSHI K,
    • MORISHITA T,
    • MORIYA K,
    • Goto A
  • EXTERNAL GRANT
    Biostratigraphic and macroevolutionary study of Antartic Neogene rediolarian faunas
    Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft1 Jan 2008 - 31 Dec 2013
    People funded by this grant:
    • Lazarus D,
    • Crampton J