Curators

I am the Curator of Biosciences at the NM Museum of Natural History and Science and an and Associate Curator and Associate Research Professor at the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico where I am part of the CUERVO Lab (Center for Understanding Evolutionary Relationships of Various Organisms). At the NMMNH&S I oversee the research, educational activities, and exhibits using specimens of six research collections (Amphibians and Reptiles, Birds, Fish, Insects, Invertebrates, and Mammals).

 I do research on two distinct topical areas, volcanology and planetary geology. My volcanology research makes use of the diverse, abundant, and young volcanoes and volcanic landforms of New Mexico to understand how volcanoes work. My research in planetary geology focuses on solar system exploration using the field geologic methods we use here on Earth and geologic analogs here in New Mexico. I am an active member of the Mars Exploration Rover Science Team where I am pioneering the use of field geology on Mars. I have participated in other NASA planetary missions over the years, including Viking, Pathfinder, and Mars Exploration Rover missions and Magellan synthetic aperture radar mapping missions to Venus.

Gary's primary area of interest is fossil mammals from the younger half of the Cenozoic Era, about the last 35 million years of geologic time. His field and research program in New Mexico concentrates on faunal and biostratigraphic studies of Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene vertebrate sites throughout the state.

I am a vertebrate paleontologist and my research focuses on the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene fossil record of the San Juan Basin, northwestern New Mexico. I am involved in collaborative research that seeks to understand how terrestrial animals, especially mammals, responded to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction and to volatile climate shifts in the first few million years at the beginning of the Age of Mammals. 

I am a paleontologist and stratigrapher who specializes in the study of late Paleozoic, Mesozoic and early Cenozoic vertebrate fossils and continental deposits, particularly in the American Southwest.