Instructional Activities
- Gross and Developmental Anatomy – MS1 & Graduate
- Advanced Gross Anatomy – MS3-PGY4 & Graduate
- Paleomammalogy – Graduate
- Applications of Geographic Information Systems in Evolutionary Biology – Graduate
- Field Techniques in Vertebrate Paleontology - Graduate
- Primary Care Sports Medicine (Elective) – Post Primary Care Residency
Research Interests
My research interests include the evolution, biogeography, systematics, and comparative anatomy of fossil and recent mammals, predominantly insectivores and rodents. My projects use a number of techniques and approaches including multivariate statistical analyses, phylogenetics, field collections, and surveys. I also employ geographic information systems (GIS) to study interacting biotic and physical-environmental patterns (e.g., species patterns and physiographic features) and tooth and bacula morphology. Currently, my projects involve field studies of fossil mammals in the Great Basin (California and Nevada), western and panhandle counties of Oklahoma, and the Wasatch Range in south-central Utah. In Oklahoma, I collect recent mammals to improve the State’s record of county distributions and population dynamics, which is an ongoing project.
My research efforts for fossil mammals in the Great Basin are two fold: 1) long-term, field oriented study of middle Miocene biostratigraphy, biogeography, geochronology and paleontology and 2) comprehensive studies of the phylogenetic relationships among select groups of mammals (especially Rodentia: Eomyidae) and their paleoecological implications. This project involves field work at two fossil-rich formations in the Great Basin: 1) the Monarch Mill Formation in the Middlegate Basin near the town of Middlegate, Nevada and 2) the Barstow Formation near the town of Barstow, California. In the Middlegate Basin a very diverse Miocene-age mammalian fauna affords an opportunity to investigate the biogeographic and systematic relationships of several insectivore and rodent groups, in particular soricids, heterosoricids, talpids, castorids, eomyids, sciurids, and cricetids. The geologic and fossil data gathered from these formations is instrumental in defining the Hemingfordian/Barstovian boundary for the Great Basin.
In 1996, Donald Savage of the University of California at Berkeley introduced me to the fossils of the Middlegate Basin. I collected fossil vertebrates during two field seasons from this basin. The next part of the project involves obtaining geochronological data and more precisely placing the Eastgate local fauna stratigraphically. In the summer of 2008, I began collecting samples of rock matrix from known and new localities in the lower stratigraphic sections of the Barstow Formation. The samples are revealing small mammal remains (e.g., Heteromyidae and Cricetidae) where previously only large mammals like equids and canids have been reported.
In Oklahoma, my research efforts for mammals are two fold: 1) long-term, field oriented study of distributions and natural history of recent mammals, and 2) comprehensive surveys and field studies of the Pleistocene mammalian fauna and its paleoecological implications. Field studies in Utah (Wasatch Plateau) of recent and Quaternary age montane mammals pursues investigations of immigration and extinction events on high-altitude refugia.
Recent Publications
Smith, K. S., Cifelli, R. L., and Czaplewski, N. J. 2006. A new genus of eomyid rodent from the Miocene of Nevada. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51(2): 385-392.
Smith, K. S. 2005. First record of Leptodontomys (Rodentia: Eomyidae) in the late Miocene (Clarendonian) of the Southern Great Plains. Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science 85: 47-53.
Czaplewski, N. J. and Smith, K. S. 2003. The gomphothere Stegomastodon (Mammalia: Proboscidea) in the early Pleistocene of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey Notes 63: 104-111.
Cifelli, R. L., Smith, K. S., and Grady, F. V. 2002. Dire wolf in the Pleistocene of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey Notes 62: 92-96.
(abstract) Smith, K. S. and Czaplewski, N.J. 2008. A preliminary analysis of phylogenetic relationships within the genus Copemys (Rodentia: Cricetidae) with emphasis on Barstovian species. Vertebrate Paleontology, Abstracts of Papers, 68th Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28 (supplement to number 3): 144A.
(abstract) Smith, K. S., Cifelli, R.L., and Czaplewski, N.J. 2007. Pseudotrimylus (Soricomorpha, Heterosoricidae) from the Eastgate Fauna, Nevada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Abstracts of Papers, 67th Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 27 (supplement to number 3): 149A.
(abstract) Smith, K. S. 2007. A new Miocene beaver from the Eastgate fauna, Churchill County, Nevada. Geological Association of America, Joint South-Central and North-Central Sections, 41st Annual Meeting at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
(abstract) Evans, C. A., Smith, K. S., and Jarolim, K. L. 2007. Observations of two uncommon variations for proximal branches of the femoral artery. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Abstracts Part II, 21(6):A968.
(abstract) Smith, K. S. 2005. Mammals of the Monarch Mill Formation at Eastgate, Churchill County, Nevada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Abstracts of Papers, 65th Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 25 (supplement 3): 1165A.
(abstract) Smith, K. S., Cifelli, R. L., and Czaplewski, N. J. 2005. Apeomyoides savagei (Rodentia: Eomyidae) from the Eastgate Local Fauna, Churchill County, Nevada. American Society of Mammalogists, 85th Annual Meeting, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri.
