Research Interests

I am a paleontologist and stratigrapher interested in the long-term response of marine invertebrate communities and sedimentary environments to sea-level change and climate change. I use a combination of field work and computer simulation in my research. In my field work, I've concentrated on the extraordinarily fossiliferous Ordovician (445-466 million year old) deposits of North America and am currently working in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. My graduate students study the paleoecology of marine invertebrate communities of a variety of ages, as well as the stratigraphy and sedimentology of the rocks in which they are found.

Awards

Charles Schuchert Award, Paleontological Society, 2003
James Lee Wilson Award, Society for Sedimentary Geology, 2000

Selected Recent Publications

Holland, S.M., and M.E. Patzkowsky, 2007, Gradient ecology of a biotic invasion: biofacies of the type Cincinnatian Series (Upper Ordovician), Cincinnati, Ohio region, USA. Palaios v. 22,p. 392-407.

Patzkowsky, M.E., and S.M. Holland, 2007, Diversity partitioning of a Late Ordovician marine biotic invasion: controls on diversity in regional ecosystems. Paleobiology v. 33, p. 295-309.

Holland, S.M., 2005. The signatures of patches and gradients in ecological ordinations. Palaios v. 20, p. 573-580.

Allulee, J.L., and S.M. Holland, 2005. The sequence stratigraphic and environmental context of primitive vertebrates: Harding Sandstone, Upper Ordovician, Colorado, USA. Palaios v. 20, p. 518-533.

Holland, S.M., and M.E. Patzkowsky, 2004. Ecosystem structure and stability: middle Upper Ordovician of central Kentucky, USA. Palaios v. 19, p. 316-331.

Holland, S.M., 2003. Confidence limits on fossil ranges that account for facies changes. Paleobiology v. 29, p. 468-479.

Kidwell, S.K., and S.M. Holland, 2002. The quality of the fossil record: implications for evolutionary analyses. Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics, v.33, p. 561-588.

Holland, S.M., and M.E. Patzkowsky, 2002. Stratigraphic variation in the timing of first and last occurrences. Palaios, v. 17, p. 134-146.

Holland, S.M., 2001. The detection and importance of subtle biofacies in monotonous lithofacies: the Upper Ordovician Kope Formation of the Cincinnati, Ohio region. Palaios, v. 16, p. 205-217.

Holland, S.M., 2000, The quality of the fossil record: a sequence stratigraphic perspective. In D.H. Erwin and S.L. Wing, eds., Deep Time: Paleobiology’s Perspective. Lawrence, Kansas: The Paleontological Society, p. 148-168. Holland, S.M., D.L. Meyer, and A.I. Miller, 2000. High-resolution correlation in apparently monotonous rocks: Upper Ordovician Kope Formation, Cincinnati Arch. Palaios, v. 15, p. 73-80.