With support from the National Science Foundation, the Beard Lab is collaborating with colleagues in Turkey and France on a project that investigates patterns and processes of island biogeography during “Deep Time.” We are uncovering a unique mammalian fauna from the Eocene of Anatolia, dating to an interval when the “lost continent” of Balkanatolia was isolated in the Tethys Sea, with Europe to the northwest, Asia to the northeast, and the island continent of Africa/Arabia far to the south. Our research focuses on the processes (dispersal, vicariance, and in situ diversification) contributing to faunal assembly on Balkanatolia and whether predictions from the theory of island biogeography are upheld across macroevolutionary timescales.
Beard Lab 