Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences

TEACHING
Dr. Dundas teaches a wide range of courses, including Stratigraphy (Geol 122), Paleontology Geol 110), Advanced Field Methods in Geology (Geol 107), Planet Earth Through Time (Geol 112), Scientific Writing (Geol 104), California Geology (Geol 168), Dinosaurs (Geol 150T), Planetary Geology (Geol 150T), Natural Disasters & Earth Resources (Geol 1), Science & Nonsense (Nat Sci 4), Introductory Earth & Life Science (Nat Sci 1B), Nature of Science (Biol 106), and Human Ecology (Biol 110). Also, he has taught Ecological & Social Effects of the Industrial Revolution on the Third World (Honors 103) for the Smittcamp Family Honors College .

RESEARCH
Dr. Dundas is a vertebrate paleontologist whose current research focuses on faunal analysis, paleoecology, biogeography, biostratrigraphy and extinction of Quaternary mammals.  He has an active field program in Montana and California .  In Montana he is describing a fauna from the late Pleistocene Merrell locality near Lima .  This project is conducted in association with archaeology colleagues at the Museum of the Rockies , Montana State University , Bozeman , Montana and Boise State University , Boise , Idaho .  In California , he is documenting a middle Pleistocene fauna from Fairmead Landfill in Madera County .  The Fairmead Landfill site is among the largest Irvingtonian age fossil discoveries in North America . There has been a year around monitoring and excavation program at Fairmead Landfill since May 1993.

Dr. Dundas' research interests are not limited to Quaternary vertebrates.  Another research program underway is investigation of the late Cretaceous - early Tertiary Moreno Formation vertebrate fauna.  Preserved in the Panoche and Tumey Hills of central California , west of Interstate 5, is a wealth of marine fossils, particularly mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.  Of the few dinosaur fossils found in California , most are from the Moreno Formation.  Presently, he is working with former graduate student Kerry Ford on a research project to determine the stratigraphic relationships of marine reptile and dinosaur specimens from the Moreno Formation.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Dundas, Robert G. 2005. The Late Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna pp.79-90 in The Merrell Locality & Centennial Valley, Southwest Montana, Pleistocene Geology, Paleontology & Prehistoric Archaeology (Hill, Christopher and Davis, Leslie B., eds.), Bureau of Land Management Cultural Resources Series No.4, Montana State Office.

Dundas, Robert G. 2005. Heron Lumber Company, Flathead Indian Reservation Logging Operations 1917-1930. Tall Timber Short Lines, n.79, pp.12-28.

Dundas, Robert G. 2003. The Lumberman's Library, An account of the ACM's rolling reading room. Tall Timber Short Lines, n.73, pp.30-36.

O'Gara, Bart W. and Robert G. Dundas .  2002.  Chapter 2.  Distribution: Past and Present pp.67-119 in North American Elk:  Ecology and Management (Dale E. Toweill & Jack Ward Thomas, eds.), Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.

Bartholomew, Mervin J., Michael C. Stickney, Edith M. Wilde, and Robert G. Dundas.   2002. Late Quaternary paleoseismites:  Syndepositional features and section restoration used to indicate paleoseismicity and stress-field orientations during faulting along the main Lima Reservoir fault, southwestern Montana pp.29-47 in Ancient Seismites (Ettensohn, F.R., Rast, N., and Brett, C.E., eds.), Geological Society of America, Special Paper 359.

Dundas, Robert G.   1999.  Quaternary records of the dire wolf, Canis dirus , in North and South America.  Boreas, v.28, n.3, pp.375-385.

Dundas , Robert G. , Christopher L. Hill, and David C. Batten. 1996. Late Pleistocene Fauna from the Merrell Locality, Centennial Valley , Montana : Summary of the Vertebrate Remains from the 1994 and 1995 Excavations. Current Research in the Pleistocene, v.13, pp.103-105.

Dundas , Robert G. , Randall B. Smith, and Kenneth L. Verosub. 1996. Fairmead Landfill Locality (Pleistocene, Irvingtonian), Madera County , California : Preliminary Report and Significance. Pages 50-58 in The Uses of Vertebrate Fossils in Biostratigraphic correlation (C. J. Bell and S. S. Sumida, eds.), PaleoBios, v.17, n.2-4.

Bell , Christopher J. and Robert G. Dundas . 1993. Fossil lizards from Rancho La Brea in the collections of the University of California Museum of Paleontology. Pages 14-17 in New Additions to the Pleistocene Vertebrate Record of California (R. G. Dundas and D. J. Long, eds.), PaleoBios, v.15, n.2.

Dundas , Robert G. and Laura M. Cunningham. 1993. Harlan's Ground Sloth ( Glossotherium harlani ) and Columbian Mammoth ( Mammuthus columbi ) from Stevenson Bridge , Yolo County , California . Pages 47-62 in New Additions to the Pleistocene Vertebrate Record of California (R. G. Dundas and D. J. Long, eds.), PaleoBios, v.15, n.3.

Dundas, Robert G. 1992. A Scimitar Cat ( Homotherium serum ) From the Late Pleistocene Merrell Locality, Southwestern Montana . PaleoBios, v.14, n.1, pp.9-12.

Dundas, Robert G. 1991. A Late Pleistocene Occurrence of Equus and Camelops hesternus From the Flint Creek Area, Western Montana . PaleoBios, v.13, n.51, pp.7-11.

Dundas, Robert G. 1990. Paleontology and Geology of the Late Pleistocene Hoover Creek Terrace, Granite and Powell Counties , Montana . Northwest Geology, v.19, pp.31-37.