Biology Seminar Series - Dr Mairin Balisi, Augustyn Family Curator, Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

Forty Million Years of Dogs: Deep-Time Insights on Predator Evolution and Extinction

North America is the evolutionary cradle of the dog family (Canidae), a lineage that has navigated ecological and environmental shifts over the last 40 million years. In this talk, Dr. Mairin Balisi explores the rise and fall of bone-crushing dogs and specialized hunters to find the macroevolutionary patterns that govern predator success. By integrating data from the fossil record with modern ecological theory, Dr. Balisi examines how ecomorphological specialization and environmental change drive extinction and survival. More than just a retrospective, this deep-time lens provides a baseline for understanding how today’s carnivores might respond to the biodiversity challenges of the Anthropocene.