The final exchanges
Marine fossils unearth storyabout Panama’s deep past
July 12, 2023
New fossil mammals in Caribbean Panama suggest ongoing marine interchange during the final stages of formation of the isthmus.
New fossil mammals in Caribbean Panama suggest ongoing marine interchange during the final stages of formation of the isthmus.
The first winner of the D. Ross Robertson Postdoctoral Fellowship for Field Studies on Neotropical Reef Fishes, Floriane Coulmance, tests a new, underwater camera system to study the connection between hamlet color patterns and genetics in fish from four countries around the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
Paleontologists discover possible DNA remains in fossil turtle that lived 6 million years ago in Panama, where continents collide
A 13-million-year-old saber-toothed marsupial skeleton discovered during paleontological explorations in Colombia is the most complete specimen recovered in the region
Based on clues ranging from microscopic pollen samples to massive petrified trees and larger-than-life-sized turtle and crocodile fossils, my lab pieces together millions of years of evidence to reconstruct the deep-time history of tropical ecosystems. I help to build international networks of...
Exploring the tropical peoples
and ecosystems of the past
Thousands of years of hunting has turned a substantial meal into a bite-sized snack.
A Smithsonian emeritus scientist takes a field trip to some of Panama’s most important known marine fossil deposits for a quick lesson the age of the Ithsmus of Panama.
20-million-year-old fossil seeds shed light on origins of plant biodiversity in Panama.
Fossil reefs from around the Caribbean show how biologically rich these ecosystems once were — and provide goalposts for conservationists hoping to restore them.