Ross D. E. MacPhee

(PhD, Anthropology, University of Alberta, 1977) Curator, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History; Adjunct Professor, City University of New York, PhD Program in Anthropology; Adjunct Associate Professor, State University of New York, Stony Brook; Research Associate, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Fields of Study

Primate and other mammalian systematics; extinction biology; primate and comparative morphology; island biogeography; ontogeny and phylogeny.

Current Research Interests

I am currently involved in paleomammalogical research on islands throughout the world, particularly Madagascar and the West Indies. I am also performing research on how extinctions occur, particularly those in which humans have been implicated. My comparative morphological studies have focused on the neurocranium, including recent studies on Eocene primates from China and the American west.

Recent Selected Publications

• In press: "Domo de Zaza, an Early Miocene vertebrate locality in south-central Cuba, with notes on the tectonic evolution of Puerto Rico and Mona Passage" [with M. Iturralde-Venent and E.S. Gaffney], American Museum Novitates.
• 2002 "Radiocarbon chronologies and extinction dynamics of the late Quaternary mammalian megafauna of the Taimyr Peninsula, Russian Federation" [with A.N. Tikhonov, D. Mol, C. de Marliave, H. van der Plincht, A.D. Greenwood, C. Flemming, and L. Agenbroad], Journal of Archaeological Science 29:1017-1042.
• 2002 "Extinct Quaternary platyrrhines of the Greater Antilles and Brazil" [with I. Horovitz], pp. 189-200 in The Primate Fossil Record, W. Hartwig, ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• 2001 "Evolution of endogenous retroviral-like elements of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius and its relatives" [with A.D. Greenwood, F. Lee, C. Capelli, R. DeSalle, and P.A. Marx], Mol. Biol. Evol. 18:840-847.
• 2001 "Extinction: complexity of assessing risk" [with C. Flemming], Science 292:217.
• 2000 "A short history of Greater Antillean land mammals: biogeography, paleogeography, radiations, and extinctions" [with M.A. Iturralde-Vinent], Tropics 10:145-154.
• 2000 "Late Cenozoic fossil mammals from Grenada, Lesser Antilles Island-Arc" [with R. Singer and M. Diamond], Amer. Mus. Novitates 3302:1-20.
• 2000 "New species of Megalonychidae (Xenarthra, Phyllophaga) from the Quaternary of Hispaniola" [with J. White and C.A. Woods], Amer. Mus. Novitates 3303:1-32.
• 1999 "The Quaternary Cuban platyrrhine Paralouatta varonai and the origin of Antillean monkeys" [with I. Horovitz], J. Hum. Evol. 36:33-68
• 1999 Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences, R.D.E. MacPhee, ed. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
• 1999 "Requiem aeternum: the last five hundred years of mammalian species extinctions" [with C. Flemming], in Extinctions in Near Time: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences, R.D.E. MacPhee, ed. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
• 1999 "Paleogeography of the Caribbean region: implications for Cenozoic biogeography" [with M.A. Iturralde-Vinent], Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 238:1-95.
• 1999 "Cranium of Early Eocene Cantius abditus (Primates: Adapiformes) and its phylogenetic implications, with a re-evaluation of 'Hesperolemur' actius" [with K.D. Rose and J.P. Alexander], Amer. J. Phys. Anthrop. 109:523-539.

PhD Program in Anthropology - The CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016-4309
phone: 212.817.8005 fax: 212.817.1501 email:

This departmental publication supplements the official Bulletin of The Graduate School as well as the current Graduate Center Student Handbook and "Announcement of Courses."