Adam Smith Ph.D. student North Carolina State University Department of Marine, Earth, Atmospheric Sciences Chair:  Dr. Julia Clarke CoChair: Dr. Mary Schweitzer

My dissertation research is focused on resolving the phylogenetic relationships of Alcidae (Aves, Charadriiformes).  I will incorporate published and unpublished material from both extant and extinct taxa, and include both morphological and published molecular data into the largest morphological data-matrix yet assembled for alcids, By incorporating extinct alcids into the data matrix, I will be able to revise existing phylogenetic hypotheses, clarify estimations of  timing and patterns of alcid diversification, and test biogeographical theories of alcid origins. I also will address the geographic origin of alcids (Pacific or the Atlantic) and paleobiogeographic distribution patterns to address the avian evolutionary response to Cenozoic global climate change.  This may have implications for predicting extant pelagic avian responses to current global warming trends.     Analyses to date have resulted in the recognition of two new species of Alca from the Pliocene Yorktown Formation of Aurora, NC (Smith, in prep.), and identification of the first remains referable to Cerorhinca (puffin) from the Atlantic (Smith et al., in press).