Dr. Charles E. Mitchell

Office: 771 Natural Sciences Complex Phone: 716.645.6800 ext 3991 Email: cem@geology.buffalo.edu Website: STRATIGRAPHY AND PALEONTOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP Title: SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, Departmental Chair Degree: PhD, Geology, Harvard University, 1983 Specialty: Paleobiology, biostratigraphy, Appalachian Basin history, Ordovician geology

Department Chairman

Courses Offered

GLY 216 Soft Rocks II
GLY 400/500 Comparative Paleobiology
GLY 407 Field Training
GLY 458/558 Macroevolution
GLY 480/580 Geological Evolution of North America

GLY 555 Evolution Colloquium

Research Interests

My research is motivated by a desire to understand the evolutionary processes that have formed the world in which we live and that have given shape to its history.  Graptolites are the fossils on which I specialize. The particular segment of Earth history in which I work is the Ordovician Period.  My work employs the principles of comparative morphological analysis, phylogenetic systematics, taphonomy, and quantitative stratigraphy. I am also engaged in studies of the geologic and stratigraphic history (basin analysis) of the regions in which my favorite fossils occur.  My approach in all of these is to test specific hypotheses by quantitative means when ever possible but also to keep sight of the unique properties of biological and geological phenomena. 

Recent Publications

Mitchell, C.E., Soumava Adhya, Stig M. Bergström, Michael P. Joy, and John W. Delano. 2004. Discovery of the Ordovician Millbrig K-bentonite Bed in the Trenton Group of New York State: Implications for regional correlation and sequence stratigraphy in Eastern North America. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Paleoecology, 210: 331-346.

Chen, Xu, Fan Jun-xuan, M. J. Melchin and C. E. Mitchell. 2005. Graptolites of the Hirnantian (uppermost Ordovician) from the Upper Yangtze region, China. Palaeontology, 46: 235-280

Chen, Xu, M. J. Melchin, H.D. Sheets, C. E. Mitchell and Fan Jun-xuan, 2005. Patterns and Processes of Latest Ordovician Graptolite Extinction and Recovery based on data from South China. Journal of Paleontology. 79 (5):842-861.

Kim, Keonho, Sheets, H.D., Haney, R.A., and Mitchell, C.E. 2002. Morphometric analysis of ontogeny and allometry of the Middle Ordovician trilobite, Triarthrus becki. Paleobiology, 28(3), 364-377.

Sheets, H. David, and Mitchell, Charles E., 2001. Why the null matters: statistical tests, random walks and evolution. Genetica 112-113: 105-125, 2001.

Sheets, H. David, and Mitchell, Charles E., 2001. Uncorrelated change produces the apparent dependence of evolutionary rate on interval. Paleobiology, 27(3): 429-445.

Haney, Robert A., Mitchell, Charles E., and Keon-ho Kim. 2001. Geometric morphometric analysis of patterns of shape change in the Ordovician brachiopod Sowerbyella. Palaios, 16(2): 115-125.