Timothy J. Gaudin, Ph. D.

Educational Background

Ph.D. 1993. Organismal Biology & Anatomy
University of Chicago.

Thesis Title: The Phylogeny of the Tardigrada (Mammalia, Xenarthra) and the Evolution of Locomotor Function in the Xenarthra.

B.S. 1987. Zoology
University of Georgia

Research Interests

My primary research interests lie in the field of vertebrate systematics and morphological evolution. Although in the past I have worked on such diverse vertebrate taxa as chondrichthyan fish (i.e., the cartilaginous fishes, including the living sharks and rays) and synapsid (i.e., "mammal-like") reptiles, my current research focuses on the paleobiology, evolutionary relationships, diversity, functional morphology, and adaptive radiation of mammals. Questions that figure importantly in my research include: what is the historical pattern of diversification of mammalian orders?, and, how can one use functional and systematic analyses in combination to understand anatomical adaptations in mammalian lineages?

I have been particularly concerned in my research with the mammalian order Xenarthra (including the living Neotropical sloths, anteaters, and armadillos). This group, though small in terms of the number of living species, is tremendously diverse in terms of its morphological and ecological variability, and has an extraordinarily rich fossil history. Its membership includes some of the most bizarre mammmals known; e.g., armored armadillos and glyptodonts (the latter an extinct group with members the size of a Volkswagen wielding a spiked, club-like defensive tail); toothless anteaters with enormously elongate sticky tongues; and sluggish, hairy, herbivorous sloths, some small like living tree sloths (which spend their days suspended beneath tree branches), others (extinct "ground sloths") the size of modern-day elephants. My past work on this group has involved systematic investigations into the evolutionary relationships among living and extinct sloths and the relationships of the Xenarthra as a whole to other orders of mammals (in particular the pangolins or scaly anteaters, order Pholidota), as well as paleontological studies of various fossil sloths and functional investigations of the vertebral column and vertebral musculature of armadillos. Research into these areas continues in my laboratory.

In addition, I have recently embarked upon a research program investigating the diversity of living mammals in the southeastern Tennessee area. The purpose of this research is two-fold: 1) to provide basic information on local mammalian diversity, information sorely lacking in this part of the country; and, 2) to augment the collections of the UTC Natural History Museum, in furtherance of its educational, research, and archival goals. Finally, I am currently working on a project involving the recovery and analysis of Late Pleistocene vertebrate faunas from Lookout Mountain,Tennessee.  This study should yield important insights into the historical biodiversity and biogeography of southeastern Tennessee vertebrates.