Leigh Van Valen, Ph.D. Professor Department of Ecology and Evolution Committee on Evolutionary Biology Committee on the Conceptual Foundations of Science Committee on Genetics Biological Sciences Collegiate Division Office: Zoology 403 | Phone: 773-702-9475| Fax: 773-702-9740 | email: leigh(at)uchicago(dot)edu Subjects: Macroevolution, macroecology, fossil mammals, evolution of biotas, energy in ecology and evolution, ecological genetics, evolution of development and adaptation, organization and evolution of phenotype, conceptual analysis

Research Interests

I am a generalist and tend to open new approaches more than fill them in. What I work on changes irregularly and unpredictably with the progress of theory and knowledge. Some recent topics: (1) The evolution of biotas can be approached through changes in patterns of energy flow and their control. I am looking at the basal Cenozoic radiation of placental mammals from this perspective; there are surprisingly large changes in the group selection causing the changes, and in its components; (2) Single-species populations of birds decrease in density with body size at the same rate as the total energy flow through single individuals increases. A student found a similar pattern for mammals. This implies a community regulation of absolute fitnesses, if one accepts my heretical (ecological) view of the nature of fitness; (3) In systematics, I am revising the basal ungulates, the dominant group of Paleocene mammals. The phylogenies coming from this help with detecting relationships among mammalian orders and with closer correlation of faunas among continents. One result, with work of others, is recognition of a completely separate evolution of mammals between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres through the Cretaceous; (4) Interrelations among fitness components and other phenotypic characters in Drosophila have several theoretical implications; (5) Set theory and thereby mathematics overall can apparently be grounded in a way which removes existing problems; (6) Origination and extinction rates of marine invertebrates show striking patterns, over orders of magnitude, which are interpretable in a unifying framework involving large-scale biotically controlled equilibria; (7) There is generally applicable evidence that almost all phenotypic features of all organisms are adaptive. 

Work of my students has also been diverse. Some examples: norm of reaction, biogeography, allometry, history of eugenics, fossil mammals, mathematical anthropological genetics, body size, sloth limbs, evolution and human behavior, character analysis in systematics, natural selection. My interests go beyond what the blurb indicates.

Representative Publications, Lothlorien Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology

Van Valen, L., and R.E. Sloan. 1966. The extinction of the multituberculates. Systematic Zoology 15: 261-278.

Van Valen, L., and G.W. Mellin. 1967. Selection in natural populations. 7. New York Babies (Fetal Life Study). Annals of Human Genetics 31: 109-127.

Van Valen, L. 1970. An analysis of developmental fields. Developmental Biology 23: 456-477.

Van Valen, L. 1971. Adaptive zones and the orders of mammals. Evolution 25: 523-529.

Van Valen, L. 1971. Group selection and the evolution of dispersal. Evolution 25: 591-598.

Van Valen, L. 1974. Multivariate structural statistics in natural history. Journal of Theoretical Biology 45: 235-247.

Van Valen, L. 1975. Group selection, sex, and fossils. Evolution 29: 87-94.

Van Valen, L. 1975. Life, death, and energy of a tree. Biotropica 7: 259-269.

Van Valen, L. 1976. Domains, deduction, the predictive method, and Darwin. Evolutionary Theory 1: 231-245.

Van Valen, L, and V. C. Maiorana. 1980. The Archaebacteria and eukaryotic origins. Nature 287: 248-250.

Van Valen, L. 1982. Homology and causes. Journal of Morphology 173: 305-312.

Damuth, J. 1983. Analysis of the preservation of community structure in assemblages of fossil mammals. Paleobiology 8 (for 1982): 434-446.

Van Valen, L. 1984. A resetting of Phanerozoic community evolution. Nature 307: 50-52, 660.

Van Valen, L. 1987. Species, sets, and the derivative nature of philosophy. Biology and Philosophy 3: 49-66.

Maiorana, V. C. 1989. A selfish theory of human origins. Evolutionary Theory 9: 19-36.

Wood, A. M., and L. Van Valen. 1990. Paradox lost? On the release of energy-rich compounds by phytoplankton. Marine Microbial Food Webs 4: 103-116.

Van Valen, L. 1990. Levels of selection in the early Cenozoic radiation of mammals. Evolutionary Theory 9: 171-180.

McShea, D.W. 1993. Evolutionary change in the morphological complexity of the mammalian vertebral column. Evolution 47: 730-740.

Van Valen, L. 1994. (Concepts and) The nature of selection by extinction: is generalization possible? In: The Mass-Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis (W. Glen, ed.), pp. 200-216, 336-341. Stanford Univ. Press.

Masterson, J. 1994. Stomatal size in fossil plants: evidence for polyploidy in majority of angiosperms. Science 264: 421-424.

Van Valen, L. 1994. The origin of the plesiadapid primates and the nature of Purgatorius. Evolutionary Monographs 15: 1-79.

Hallgrímsson, B. 1999. Ontogenetic patterning of skeletal fluctuating asymmetry in rhesus macaques and humans: evolutionary and developmental implications. International Journal of Primatology 20: 121-151.

Van Valen, L. 2002. How did rodents and lagomorphs (Mammalia) originate? Evolutionary Theory 12: 101-128.