Anjali Goswami

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Anjali Goswami
FRS
Alma mater
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis The evolution of morphological integration in the mammalian skull  (2005)
Doctoral advisor John Flynn
Website www.goswamilab.com

Anjali Goswami FRS is a Resesarch Leader and Dean of the Graduate Centre at the Natural History Museum. She is an Honorary Professor of Paleobiology at University College London (UCL) in the Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment. She was elected President of the Linnean Society of London, in 2022 and is the first person of colour elected to this role since its founding in 1788. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2024. [1] Goswami's expertise is in vertebrate evolution and development, particularly using high-resolution 3D images of specimens to quantify and reconstruct the evolution of biodiversity and understand how development, ecology and large-scale environmental effects have shaped animal evolution through deep time.

Contents

Education and early career

Goswami spent her undergraduate years (1998) at the University of Michigan, where she focused on how early whales transitioned from the land to the water. [2] After this, she spent time in India at the Bandhavgarh National Park conducting field work in tiger conservation and ecotourism. [3]

In 2005 Goswami earned her doctorate at the University of Chicago and Field Museum of Natural History from the Committee on Evolutionary Biology. [4] Her thesis, titled The Evolution of Morphological Integration In the Mammalian Skull, studied the morphological integration, phenotypic modularity, and developmental trait correlations in 107 species of mammals. These 107 species (98 are extant and 9 are fossil based) include representatives of the monotremes, placentals, and marsupials. [5] During her PhD work, she also conducted field work in Madagascar, India, Chile, Peru, and Western U.S. [6]

Career

After completing her PhD, Goswami began a National Science Foundation international postdoctoral fellowship at the Natural History Museum, London, and then undertook a lectureship position in the Earth Sciences department at the University of Cambridge from 2007 to 2009, where she was a fellow of King's College Cambridge. [3] In 2009 Goswami became a lecturer of Palaeobiology at University College London (UCL) in the Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment and the Department of Earth Sciences. [7] She was promoted to Reader in 2013 and Professor of Palaeobiology in 2016. At UCL Goswami was also affiliated with the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. [8] In 2017, she became principal investigator and research leader at the Natural History Museum in the Life Sciences. [9] and Honorary Professor of Palaeobiology at University College London.

Outside of her roles at Natural History Museum, Goswami is a member of several other committees, projects, and societies. Goswami served as Chair of the Program Committee, 'member at large' on the Executive Committee, and as Chair of the Development Committee for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. [10] Goswami was co-director of the London Centre for Ecology and Evolution from 2014 to 2022 and is currently on the Executive Committee for the International Society for Vertebrate Morphology and on the Board of Visitors for the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. [11] She has served on the editorial boards for PLOS One, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Biology Letters, Evolution Letters, Integrative and Comparative Biology, and Paleobiology and is currently on the editorial board of Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. [12] [13] [14]

Goswami's expertise is in vertebrate evolution and development, particularly using high-resolution 3D images of specimens to quantify and reconstruct the evolution of biodiversity and understand how development, ecology and large-scale environmental effects have shaped animal evolution through deep time . [15] She has searched for fossils all over the world, from Svalbard to Madagascar, and currently leads expeditions in Argentina and India with the aim to improve understanding of the huge change in global biodiversity as a result of the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction 66 million years ago, which ended the dominance of non-avian dinosaurs. Anjali also created and manages www.phenome10k.org, a free online database for 3D biological images for research and education. Her work has been supported by the European Research Council, Leverhulme Trust, National Science Foundation, Natural Environment Research Council, Royal Society, and National Geographic.

She has published more than 130 scientific articles on the evolution of different groups from insects to dinosaurs, but her main interest is in the evolution of mammals. [16] Goswami has authored and edited Carnivoran Evolution, a volume which explores the latest scientific understanding of carnivoran relationships, ecomorphology and macroevolutionary patterns. [17]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnivora</span> Order of mammals

Carnivora is an order of placental mammals that have specialized in primarily eating flesh, whose members are formally referred to as carnivorans. The order Carnivora is the sixth largest order of mammals, comprising at least 279 species on every major landmass and in a variety of habitats, ranging from the cold polar regions of Earth to the hyper-arid region of the Sahara Desert and the open seas. Carnivorans exhibit a wide array of body plans, varying greatly in size and shape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ailuridae</span> Family of carnivores

Ailuridae is a family in the mammal order Carnivora. The family consists of the red panda and its extinct relatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creodonta</span> Former order of extinct flesh-eating placental mammals

Creodonta is a former order of extinct carnivorous placental mammals that lived from the early Paleocene to the late Miocene epochs in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Originally thought to be a single group of animals ancestral to the modern Carnivora, this order is now usually considered a polyphyletic assemblage of two different groups, the oxyaenids and the hyaenodonts, not a natural group. Oxyaenids are first known from the Palaeocene of North America, while hyaenodonts hail from the Palaeocene of Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferae</span> A clade of mammals consisting of carnivorans and pholidotes

Ferae is a mirorder of placental mammals in grandorder Ferungulata, that groups together clades Pan-Carnivora and Pholidotamorpha.

<i>Miacis</i> Extinct genus of carnivores

Miacis is an extinct genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Benton</span> British palaeontologist

Michael James Benton is a British palaeontologist, and emeritus professor of vertebrate palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. His published work has mostly concentrated on the evolution of Triassic reptiles but he has also worked on extinction events and faunal changes in the fossil record.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleobiology</span> Study of organic evolution using fossils

Paleobiology is an interdisciplinary field that combines the methods and findings found in both the earth sciences and the life sciences. Paleobiology is not to be confused with geobiology, which focuses more on the interactions between the biosphere and the physical Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnivoramorpha</span> Clade of carnivores

Carnivoramorpha is a clade of placental mammals of clade Pan-Carnivora from mirorder Ferae, that includes the modern order Carnivora and its extinct stem-relatives.

<i>Vulpavus</i> Extinct genus of carnivores

Vulpavus is an extinct paraphyletic genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene.

<i>Palaearctonyx</i> Extinct genus of carnivores

Palaearctonyx is an extinct genus of omnivorous placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene.

Susan Elizabeth Evans is a British palaeontologist and herpetologist. She is the author or co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Vickers-Rich</span> Australian palaeontologist and ornithologist

Patricia Arlene Vickers-Rich, also known as Patricia Rich, is an Australian Professor of Palaeontology and Palaeobiology, who researches the environmental changes that have impacted Australia and how this shaped the evolution of Australia’s fauna and flora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyaenodonta</span> Extinct order of mammals

Hyaenodonta is an extinct order of hypercarnivorous placental mammals of clade Pan-Carnivora from mirorder Ferae. Hyaenodonts were important mammalian predators that arose during the early Paleocene in Europe and persisted well into the late Miocene.

Blaire Van Valkenburgh is an American paleontologist and holds the Donald R. Dickey Chair in Vertebrate Biology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of California Los Angeles. She is a former president of Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Paul David Polly is an American paleontologist and the Robert R. Shrock Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University as well as the sitting chair of the department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Janis</span> British palaeontologist

Christine Marie Janis is a British palaeontologist who specialises in mammals. She is currently based at the University of Bristol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susannah Maidment</span> English palaeontologist

Susannah "Susie" Catherine Rose Maidment is a British palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, London. She is also an honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham. She is internationally recognised for her research on ornithischian dinosaur evolution, and was awarded the 2016 Hodson Award of the Palaeontological Association and the 2017 Lyell Fund of the Geological Society of London. She was featured as a 2019 National Geographic Women of Impact.

Sharlene E. Santana is a Venezuelan–American biologist, currently serving as the Curator of Mammals at the Burke Museum of Natural History and as a professor of Evolutionary biology at the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington. Her research primarily focuses on the order Chiroptera (bats), and her work often engages with a diverse range of biological disciplines, including evolution, systematics, biomechanics, behavioral studies, and ecology. Santana has worked to expand opportunities for underrepresented minorities in STEM fields and has relied on innovative applications of technology to increase the amount of high-quality scientific information that is available to the general public.

Ian Barnes is an evolutionary geneticist notable for his work on ancient DNA, human and animal migration, and phylogenetics. Barnes is a Research Leader in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum in London.

Emily A. Buchholtz is a vertebrate paleontologist, interested in morphology, evolution, and development at Wellesley College. She is best known for her published journal of The therian sternum at the lateral somitic frontier: Evolution of a composite structure alongside recognition as a AAAS fellow in 2015 and a current Gordon P. Lang and Althea P. Lang ‘26 Professor Emerita of Biological Sciences.

References

  1. 1 2 "Fellow Detail Page, Professor Anjali Goswami FRS | Royal Society". royalsociety.org.
  2. ↑ Becky (ed.). "Anjali Goswami". trowelblazers.com. Submitted by Dean Veall and additional content by Becky. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  3. 1 2 Dean W Veall (2014-11-14). "18th Grant Lecturer: Anjali Goswami". blogs.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  4. ↑ "Alumni". evbio.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  5. ↑ Goswami, Anjali. The evolution of morphological integration in the mammalian skull. OCLC   61883172.
  6. ↑ "2004-(Predoctoral-Fellowship-Grant)-Anjali-Goswami". Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Archived from the original on 2022-11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  7. ↑ "Prof Anjali Goswami". ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2022-11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  8. ↑ "People". ucl.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2017-01-30.
  9. ↑ "Prof Anjali Goswami". nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  10. ↑ "Committees". vertpaleo.org. Archived from the original on 2022-11-03. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  11. ↑ "About Us". ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  12. ↑ "Editorial Board | Biology Letters". rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  13. ↑ "Evolution Letters". onlinelibrary.wiley.com. doi:10.1002/(ISSN)2056-3744 . Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  14. ↑ "Editorial board". Cambridge Core. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  15. ↑ "Anjali Goswami". New Scientist Live 2018. Archived from the original on 2018-11-20. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  16. ↑ "The framing of the shrew as placental mammals last common ancestor". Guardian. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  17. ↑ Carnivoran evolution : new views on phylogeny, form, and function. Goswami, Anjali., Friscia, Anthony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. ISBN   9780521515290. OCLC   612963963.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  18. ↑ "The Bicentenary Medal". The Linnean Society. Archived from the original on 2016-09-15.
  19. ↑ "Medal and Award Winners List | The Palaeontological Association". www.palass.org. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
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