James Boyle

PhD (he/him/his)

James Boyle.

James Boyle

PhD (he/him/his)

James Boyle

PhD (he/him/his)

Director of Undergraduate Studies
Assistant Teaching Professor

Specialties

Extinction risk, quantitative biostratigraphy, geographic range, graptolite paleobiology, arthrodire placoderms.

Education

PhD, Graptolite Paleobiology, University at Buffalo – 2018

Research Interests

I am interested in using the fossil record to study patterns of extinction and determining which features of species are most strongly correlated with the risk of extinction. Doing this requires being able to place the timing of events in geologic time precisely and so some of my research involves developing automated biostratigraphic techniques. I am also interested in understanding the paleobiology of arthrodire placoderms, a diverse group of armored fishes which abruptly went extinct at the end of Devonian Period.

Course Offerings

  • GLY 101 - Natural Hazards
  • GLY 199 - Mass Extinction Seminar
  • GLY 205 - Earth Materials
  • GLY 206 - Geological Mapping Techniques & Communications
  • GLY 308 - Into to Geochemistry
  • GLY 312 - Surface Processes & Hydrology
  • GLY 315 - Sedimentary Geology & Paleontology
  • GLY 458/558 - Macroevolution
  • GLY 495 - Supervised Teaching
  • GLY 498 - Undergraduate Research
  • GLY 499 - Independent Study

Recent Publications

Boyle, J., H.D. Sheets, S.-Y. Wu, D. Goldman, M.J. Melchin, R.A. Cooper, P.M. Sadler, and

C.E. Mitchell. 2017.  The Impact of Geographic Range, Sampling, Ecology, and

Time on Extinction Risk in the Volatile Clade Graptoloida. Paleobiology 43:85-113.

Boyle, J. and M.J. Ryan. 2017. New information on Titanichthys (Placodermi:Arthrodira)

from the Cleveland Shale (Upper Devonian) of Ohio, USA. Journal of Paleontology

91:318-336.

Boyle, J.T. 2017. Minimum spanning tree distance and other geographic range measures as

proxies for extinction risk – Abstract with Programs – Geological Society of America

49(6).