Dr. Robert Feranec

Director of Research and Collections, Curator of Pleistocene Vertebrate Paleontology
robert.feranec@nysed.gov
518-474-5819

While my interests encompass a broad scope of topics including influences on biogeography, causes of speciation and adaptive radiation, and triggers of extinction, my research has been focused at describing the evolution of ecology in mammals.  My research concentrates on examining ecology in mammals from short time scales (seasons) to very long time scales (millions of years). 

In order to understand ecology of fossil mammals, the modern quantitative and analytical techniques I employ include stable isotope geochemistry, utilization of bioinformatics databases, and computer-based imaging of fossils which permits quantitative analysis of various morphological features.  Fieldwork is also an important aspect of my research program, and I have conducted or participated in excavations in the U.S. and Spain. 

Typical questions addressed in my research include:

How does climate change effect ecology?
Does ecology change during development?
Does immigration/dispersal of new species affect ecology?
Does extinction/extirpation of species affect ecology?

I am interested and open to collaboration within and beyond North America.  Potential collaborators, including current or potential graduate students, are encouraged to email me.

Publications

2020

J. Hart, R. Feranec 2020, Using Maize δ15N values to assess soil fertility in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century AD Iroquoian agricultural fields, PLOS ONE 15, e0230952. 10.1371/journal.pone.0230952
R. Feranec, Brandon McDonald, Troi Perkins, Robert Dunn, Jennifer McDonald, Holly Cole, Roland Kays 2020, High variability within pet foods prevents the identification of native species in pet cats’ diets using isotopic evaluation, PeerJ 8, e8337. 10.7717/peerj.8337
R. Feranec, L. DeSantis, T. Tung, T. Dillehay 2020, Early specialized maritime and maize economies on the north coast of Peru, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009121117. 10.1073/pnas.2009121117

2019

R. Feranec, Kena Fox-Dobbs, John Harris, Thure Cerling, Jonathan Crites, Aisling Farrell, Gary Takeuchi, Larisa DeSantis 2019, Causes and Consequences of Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions as Revealed from Rancho La Brea Mammals, Current Biology 29, 2488-2495. 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.059
J. Hart, R. Feranec 2019, Fish and maize: Bayesian mixing models of fourteenth- through seventeenth-century AD ancestral Wendat diets, Ontario, Canada, Scientific Reports 9, 16658. 10.1038/s41598-019-53076-7
R. Feranec, S. Fiedel, T. Marino, D. Driver 2019, A New AMS Radiocarbon Date for the Ivory Pond Mastodon, Eastern Paleontologist 3, 1-15.
J. Hart, R. Feranec 2019, The Dog That Wasn’t: An Historical Pig Burial on the Sixteenth-Century AD Klock Site, Fulton County, New York, Archaeology of Eastern North America 47, 1-6.
J. Hart, R. Feranec, T. Abel, J. Vavrasek 2019, Freshwater reservoir offsets on radiocarbon-dated dog bone from the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River, USA, PeerJ 7, e7174. 10.7717/peerj.7174
R. Feranec, S. Ledogar, J. Karsten, G. Madden, R. Schmidt, M. Sokohatskyi 2019, New AMS Dates for Verteba Cave and Stable Isotope Evidence of Human Diet in the Holocene Forest-Steppe, Ukraine, Radiocarbon 61, 141-158. 10.1017/RDC.2018.52
R. Feranec, H. McDonald, N. Miller 2019, First record of the extinct ground sloth, Megalonyx jeffersonii, (Xenarthra, Megalonychidae) from New York and contributions to its paleoecology, Quaternary International 530-531, 42-46. 10.1016/j.quaint.2018.11.021