education and training
- Ph.D., University of Illinois 1979
- M.S., University of Illinois 1976
- B.A., Drexel University 1974
- Websites
DiMichele, William
Research Geologist and Curator of Paleobotany
Positions
Paleoecology, morphology, and systematics of late Paleozoic plants (240-350 million years old), particularly the structure of late Paleozoic ecosystems and the relationship between long-term ecological and evolutionary patterns
Geographic Focus
- Central Appalachian Basin Geographic Region
- Illinois Basin Geographic Region
- New Mexico State or Province
- North-Central Texas Geographic Region
Background And Education
awards and honors
- Gilbert H. Cady Award , conferred by The Geological Society of America, 2011
Research And Grants
Publications
selected publications
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article
- Atlas of Selected Kinney Quarry Plant Fossils, Late Pennsylvanian, Central New Mexico 2021
- Dominance-diversity architecture of a mixed hygromorphic-to-xeromorphic flora from a botanically rich locality in western equatorial Pangea (lower Permian Emily Irish site, Texas, USA 2021
- Escaping the voluntary constraints of "tyre-track" taxonomy 2021
- Modeled physiological mechanisms for observed changes in the late Paleozoic plant fossil record 2021
- Plant-Fossil Taphonomy, Late Pennsylvanian Kinney Quarry, New Mexico, USA 2021
- The Kinney Brick Quarry Lagerstätte, Late Pennsylvanian of New Mexico, Usa: Introduction and Overview 2021
- A Process-Based Ecosystem Model (Paleo-Bgc) to Simulate the Dynamic Response of Late Carboniferous Plants to Elevated O-2 and Aridification 2020
- Better together: Joint consideration of anatomy and morphology illuminates the architecture and life history of the Carboniferous arborescent lycopsid Paralycopodites 2020
- Carboniferous plant physiology breaks the mold 2020
- Evolution of a PeatContemporaneous Channel: The Galatia Channel, Middle Pennsylvanian, of the Illinois Basin 2020
- Facies variability within a mixed carbonate–siliciclastic sea-floor fan (upper Wolfcamp Formation, Permian, Delaware Basin, New Mexico) 2020
- Influence of temporally varying weatherability on CO2-climate coupling and ecosystem change in the late Paleozoic 2020
- Uplands, lowlands, and climate: Taphonomic megabiases and the apparent rise of a xeromorphic, drought-tolerant flora during the Pennsylvanian-Permian transition 2020
- Paleoecological and paleoenvironmental interpretation of three successive macrofloras and palynofloras from the Kola Switch locality, lower Permian (Archer City Formation, Bowie Group) of Clay County, Texas, USA 2019
- Tiny Rhizomorphic Rooting Systems from the Early Permian Abo Formation of New Mexico, USA 2019
- A hidden cradle of plant evolution in Permian tropical lowlands 2018
- An exhumed fine‐grained meandering channel in the lower Permian Clear Fork Formation, north‐central Texas: Processes of mud accumulation and the role of vegetation in channel dynamics 2018
- Early Permian Flora, Doña Ana Mountains, Southern New Mexico, with Special Consideration of Taxonomic Issues and Arthropod Damage 2018
- Fast or slow for the arborescent lycopsids? Response to Thomas & Cleal (2017) 'Arborescent lycophyte growth in the late Carboniferous coal swamps' 2018
- New insights on the stepwise collapse of the Carboniferous Coal Forests: Evidence from cyclothems and coniferopsid tree-stumps near the Desmoinesian-Missourian boundary in Peoria County, Illinois, USA 2018
- Carboniferous-Permian Transition in Socorro County, New Mexico, USA: An Overview 2017
- Dynamic Carboniferous tropical forests: new views of plant function and potential for physiological forcing of climate 2017
- Floras characteristic of Late Pennsylvanian peat swamps arose in the late Middle Pennsylvanian 2017
- Impact of an icehouse climate interval on tropical vegetation and plant evolution 2017
- Middle and Late Pennsylvanian Fossil Floras from Socorro County, New Mexico, U.S.A 2017
- Reevaluation and taxonomic clarification of Gigantopteridium and Cathaysiopteris of western equatorial Pangea and their biogeographical significance 2017
- The First Specimen of Annularia spinulosa Sternberg from the Lower Permian Abo Formation, New Mexico, and Implications for Rarity in the Plant Fossil Record 2017
- Vegetational zonation in a swamp forest, Middle Pennsylvanian, Illinois Basin, U.S.A., indicates niche differentiation in a wetland plant community 2017
- A Middle Pennsylvanian (early Asturian) tropical dry forest, Atokan-Desmoinesian boundary, Illinois Basin, USA 2016
- A Middle Pennsylvanian macrofloral assemblage from wetland deposits in Indiana (Illinois Basin): a taxonomic contribution with biostratigraphic, paleobiogeographic, and paleoecologic implications 2016
- An Abandoned-Channel Fill With Exquisitely Preserved Plants In Redbeds of the clear Fork Formation, Texas, USA: An Early Permian Water-Dependent Habitat On the Arid Plains of Pangea 2016
- An early Permian coastal flora dominated by Germaropteris martinsii from basinal sediments in the Midland Basin, West Texas 2016
- Arborescent lycopsid productivity and lifespan: Constraining the possibilities 2016
- Climate, pCO2 and terrestrial carbon cycle linkages during late Palaeozoic glacial-interglacial cycles 2016
- Delayed fungal evolution did not cause the Paleozoic peak in coal production 2016
- Dryland vegetation from the Middle Pennsylvanian of Indiana (Illinois Basin): the dryland biome in glacioeustatic, paleobiogeographic, and paleoecologic context 2016
- Holocene shifts in the assembly of plant and animal communities implicate human impacts 2016
- Lyons et al. reply 2016
- Megaflora and palynoflora associated with a Late Pennsylvanian coal bed (Bursum Formation, Carrizo Arroyo, New Mexico, U.S.A.) and paleoenvironmental significance 2016
- Questioning Holocene community shifts Reply 2016
- A compositionally unique voltzian conifer-callipterid flora from a carbonate-filled channel, Lower Permian, Robledo Mountains, New Mexico, and its broader significance 2015
- Carboniferous-Permian Transition in the Robledo Mountains, Southern New Mexico: An Overview 2015
- Early Permian (Asselian) vegetation from a seasonally dry coast in western equatorial Pangea: Paleoecology and evolutionary significance 2015
- Early Permian Fossil Floras from the Red Beds of Prehistoric Trackways National Monument, Southern New Mexico 2015
- Plant architecture and spatial structure of an early Permian woodland buried by flood waters, Sangre de Cristo Formation, New Mexico 2015
- Progress Report on Correlation of Nonmarine and Marine Lower Permian Strata, New Mexico, USA 2015
- Reconstructing extinct plant water use for understanding vegetation-climate feedbacks: methods, synthesis and a case study using the Paleozoic era medullosan seed ferns 2015
- The Upper Paleozoic Sangre de Cristo Formation, Southwestern San Miguel County, New Mexico: Stratigraphy, Age and Sedimentology 2015
- Middle and Late Pennsylvanian cyclothems, American Midcontinent: Ice-age environmental changes and terrestrial biotic dynamics 2014
- Palaeozoic co-evolution of rivers and vegetation: a synthesis of current knowledge 2014
- The Okmulgee, Oklahoma fossil flora, a Mazon Creek equivalent: Spatial conservatism in the composition of Middle Pennsylvanian wetland vegetation over 1100 km 2014
- The late Paleozoic ecological-evolutionary laboratory, a land-plant fossil record perspective 2014
- Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics 2014
- An update on the flora of the Kinney Quarry of Central New Mexico (Upper Pennsylvanian), its preservational and environmental significance 2013
- Callipterid peltasperms of the Dunkard Group, Central Appalachian Basin 2013
- Conservatism of Late Pennsylvanian vegetational patterns during short-term cyclic and long-term directional environmental change, western equatorial Pangea 2013
- Field guide to the Carboniferous-Permian transition in the Cerros de Amado and vicinity, Socorro County, Central New Mexico 2013
- Flora of the Lower Permian Abo Formation redbeds, western equatorial Pangea, New Mexico 2013
- Growth habit of the late Paleozoic rhizomorphic tree-lycopsid family Diaphorodendraceae: Phylogenetic, evolutionary, and paleoecological significance 2013
- Late Paleozoic continental warming of a cold tropical basin and floristic change in western Pangea 2013
- On the fundamental difference between coal rank and coal type 2013
- The Lower Permian Abo Formation in Central New Mexico 2013
- The “Seeds” on Padgettia readi are Insect Galls: Reassignment of the Plant to Odontopteris, the Gall to Ovofoligallites N. Gen., and the Evolutionary Implications Thereof 2013
- Calamitalean "pith casts" reconsidered 2012
- Eccentricity-paced late Paleozoic climate change 2012
- Lithostratigraphy, Paleontology, Biostratigraphy, and Age of the Upper Paleozoic Abo Formation Near Jemez Springs, Northern New Mexico, Usa 2012
- Palaeoecology of Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri, and its implications for resolving the paradox of 'xeromorphic' plants in Pennsylvanian wetlands 2012
- Permian Coal Forest Offers a Glimpse of Late Paleozoic Ecology 2012
- Vertebrate Trackways Among a Stand of Supaia White Plants on An Early Permian Floodplain, New Mexico 2012
- A New Genus of Gigantopterid from the Middle Permian of the United States and China and its Relevance to the Gigantopterid Concept 2011
- Does extinction wield an axe or pruning shears? How interactions between phylogeny and ecology affect patterns of extinction 2011
- No Major Stratigraphic Gap Exists Near the Middle-Upper Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian-Missourian) Boundary in North America 2011
- Pennsylvanian 'fossil forests' in growth position (T0 assemblages): origin, taphonomic bias and palaeoecological insights 2011
- Pennsylvanian coniferopsid forests in sabkha facies reveal the nature of seasonal tropical biome 2011
- Precise age and biostratigraphic significance of the Kinney Brick Quarry Lagerstatte, Pennsylvanian of New Mexico, USA 2011
- Reply: no major stratigraphic gap exists near the middle–upper Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian-Missourian) boundary in North America: Palaios, v. 26, no. 3, p. 125–139, 2011 2011
- Cyclic changes in Pennsylvanian paleoclimate and effects on floristic dynamics in tropical Pangaea 2010
- Late Pennsylvanian floras in Western Equatorial Pangea, Cañon del Cobre, New Mexico 2010
- What happened to the coal forests during pennsylvanian glacial phases? 2010
- Auritifolia gen. nov., Probable Seed Plant Foliage with Comioid Affinities from the Early Permian of Texas, U.S.A 2009
- Comia, a seed plant possibly of peltaspermous affinity: a brief review of the genus and description of two new species from the Early Permian (Artinskian) of Texas, C. greggii sp. nov. and C. craddockii sp. nov 2009
- Catastrophically Buried Middle Pennsylvanian Sigillaria and Calamitean Sphenopsids from Indiana, Usa: what Kind of Vegetation was This? 2009
- Climate and vegetational regime shifts in the late Paleozoic ice age earth 2009
- Critical Issues of Scale in Paleoecology 2009
- Going underground: in search of Carboniferous coal forests 2009
- Incised channel fills containing conifers indicate that seasonally dry vegetation dominated Pennsylvanian tropical lowlands 2009
- Pennsylvanian tropical floras of the United States as a record of changing climate 2008
- Plant paleoecology in deep time 2008
- Plants as a force of nature 2008
- The so-called "Paleophytic-Mesophytic" transition in equatorial Pangea: Multiple Biomes and Vegetational Tracking of Climate Change through Geological Time 2008
- A low diversity, seasonal tropical landscape dominated by conifers and peltasperms: Early Permian Abo Formation, New Mexico 2007
- CO2-forced climate and vegetation instability during Late Paleozoic deglaciation 2007
- Ecological gradients within a Pennsylvanian mire forest 2007
- Paleobotany of the classic redbeds (Clear Fork Group - Early Permian) of north central Texas 2007
- Paleoecology of the Late Pennsylvanian-Age Calhoun coal bed and implications for long-term dynamics of wetland ecosystems 2007
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book
-
chapter
- The Coal Farms of the Late Paleozoic 2020
- The non-analog vegetation of the Late Paleozoic icehouse–hothouse and their coal-forming forested environments 2020
- Lower Permian flora of the Sanzenbacher Ranch, Clay County, Texas. 2018
- Cataclysmic burial of Pennsylvanian Period coal swamps in the Illinois Basin 2016
- Lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and sedimentology of the Upper Paleozoic Sangre De Cristo Formation, southwestern San Miguel County, New Mexico 2015
- Fossil floras from the Pennsylvanian-Permian Cutler Group of southeastern Utah 2014
- Xiphosurid fossils from the Pennsylvanian Beeman formation, Otero County, New Mexico 2014
- The Lower Permian Abo Formation in the Fra Cristobal and Caballo Mountains, Sierra County, New Mexico 2012
- Autocyclic and allocyclic controls on the origin of the Dunkard Group 2011
- Callipterids of the Dunkard Group of the Appalachian Basin: Their identity and paleoenvironmental significance 2011
- Pennsylvanian-Permian vegetational changes in tropical Euramerica 2011
- Pleasant Hill Gap 2011
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conference paper
Activities
Responsible Collections Areas
- Pennsylvanian and Permian plant fossils
professional service activities
- Journal of Paleontology Associate Editor
- New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin Member, Editorial Board
- Palaeogeography, Palaeclimatology, Palaeoecology Editorial Board Member
- Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology Member, Editorial Board
Affiliation
member of
- Botanical Society of America, Paleobotanical Section Member
- International Organization of Paleobotany Member
- NMNH - Dept. of Paleobiology Curator and Research Paleontologist
- Paleontological Society Member and President
- Society for Sedimentary Geology Member
Other
Location
- National Museum of Natural History Academic Department
