Assistant Professor
Educational Background
Ph.D. Anatomical Sciences, 2006, Stony Brook University
M.S. Anatomical Sciences & M.Phil. Health Sciences, 2002, Stony Brook University
B.S. Biology & B.A. Anthropology, 1996, University of Massachusetts
Field of Interest: Anatomy, Paleontology, Skeletal Biology, Paleobiogeography
Contact
Karen E. Samonds
Department of Biological Sciences
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
Office/Lab: MO 406
Phone: 815-753-3201
FAX: 815-753-0461
Email: ksamonds@niu.edu
Research Interests
My research integrates comparative anatomy, systematics, and biogeography with field paleontology to address topics in vertebrate evolution. My paleontological field research aims to shed light on the origin and evolutionary history of Madagascar’s modern fauna, one of the most unique and endemic on the planet. How, when, and from where the island’s animals came from has remained largely unknown due to a 65 million year gap in the fossil record that occurs during the time when the modern animals are thought to have arrived. By traveling to remote and previously unexplored regions of the island, I have started to elucidate this unknown period of Madagascar’s history by collecting and describing the first fossils from this time period.
In addition to studying extinct animals, my research has also examined dental development, life history, and growth in non-human primates. My colleagues and I have also used new tools to examine life-history variation among extinct primates (including electron microscopy and ontogenetic studies of dental eruption and root formation). Finally, I work on a collaborative project examining morphometrics (including somatic growth and development) in the endangered lemur Propithecus diadema, and investigating the impacts of forest degradation on development and physiologic health.
In association with my research, in 2008 I co-founded the NGO Sadabe to help promote the coexistence of people and wildlife in Madagascar. Sadabe is currently initiating and expanding education, conservation and development activities, as well as the creation of a protected area at Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar.
Selected Publications
Samonds KE, Godfrey LR, Ali JR, Goodman SM, Vences M, Sutherland MR, Irwin MT, Krause DW (2012). Spatial and temporal arrival patterns of Madagascar's vertebrate fauna explained by distance, ocean currents, and ancestor type. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 109, 5352-5357.
Samonds KE, Parent SN, Muldoon KM, Crowley BE, and Godfrey LR (2010). Rock matrix surrounding subfossil lemur skull yields diverse collection of mammalian subfossils: Implications for reconstructing Madagascar’s paleoenvironments. Malagasy Nature 4, 1-16.
Irwin MT, Junge RE, Raharison JL, Samonds KE (2010). Variation in physiological health of diademed sifakas across intact and fragmented forest at Tsinjoarivo, eastern Madagascar. American Journal of Primatology 72, 1013-1025. (featured article)
Samonds KE, Zalmout I, Irwin MT, Krause DW, Rogers RR and Raharivony LL (2009). Eotheroides lambondrano, new Middle Eocene seacow (Mammalia, Sirenia) from the Mahajanga Basin, Northwestern Madagascar. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29, 1233-1243.
Blanco MB, Godfrey LR, Rakotondratsima M, Samonds KE, Raharison JL, Irwin MT (2009). Discovery of sympatric dwarf lemur species in the high-altitude rainforest of Tsinjoarivo, eastern Madagascar: Implications for biogeography and conservation. Folia Primatologica 80, 1-17.
Samonds, KE (2007). Late Pleistocene bat fossils from Anjohibe Cave, northwestern Madagascar. Acta Chiropterologica 9, 39–65.
Godfrey LR, Schwartz GT, Samonds KE, Jungers WL, and Catlett K (2006). The secrets of lemur teeth. Evolutionary Anthropology 15, 142-154.
Heesy, CP, Stevens NJ, and Samonds KE (2006). Biogeographic origins of primate higher taxa. In (JG Fleagle and S Lehman eds.). Primate Biogeography.Springer Press, New York. Pp. 419-438.
Krause DW, O’Connor PM, Rasoamiaramanana AH, Buckley GA, Chatrath PS, Burney DA, Carrano MT, Flynn JJ, Forster CA, Godfrey LR, Jungers WL, Rogers RR, Samonds KE, Simons EL, and Wyss AR (2006). Preserving Madagascar’s natural heritage: The importance of keeping the islands’s fossils in the public domain. Madagascar Conservation and Development 1, 43-47.
Godfrey LR, Samonds KE, Wright PC and King SJ (2005).
Schultz’s unruly rule: dental developmental sequences and schedules in
small-bodied folivorous lemurs. Folia Primatologica 76, 77-99.
Irwin MT, Samonds KE,
Wright PC and Raharison J-L (2004). Lemur latrines: Observations of
latrine behaviour in wild primates and possible ecological significance.
Journal of Mammalogy 85, 420-427.
Godfrey LR, Samonds KE,
Jungers WL, Sutherland MR and Irwin MT (2004). Ontogenetic correlates
of diet in Malagasy lemurs. American Journal of Physical Anthropology
123, 250-276.
Schwartz GT, Samonds KE, Godfrey
LR, Jungers WL and Simons EL (2002). Dental microstructure and life
history in subfossil lemurs. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences 99, 6124-6129.
Irwin MT and Samonds KE
(2002). Range extension of the Madagascar Red Owl (Tyto soumagnei) in
Madagascar: The case of a rare, widespread species? Ibis 144, 680-683.
Godfrey LR, Samonds KE,
Jungers WL and Sutherland MR (2001). Teeth, brains, and primate life
histories.American Journal of Physical Anthropology 114, 192-214.