Paul Martin recently moved from his office at the Desert Laboratory. He remains active and can be reached by e-mail. He occupied an office on the Hill for more than 50 years. Material was placed at the following sites:
Thanks to all who provided space and guidance.
Paul S. Martin is Emeritus Professor of Geosciences at the Desert Laboratory of the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is a major contributor to the model of prehistoric overkill as the overriding explanation for prehistoric extinctions of large animals in radiocarbon time (last 50,000 years). With H. E. Wright, Jr., Martin edited Pleistocene Extinctions: the Search for a Cause, Yale University Press, 1967; Quaternary Extinctions: a Prehistoric Revolution, University of Arizona Press, l984, 1989; and is an editor of Packrat Middens, University of Arizona Press, 1990 and of Gentry's Río Mayo Plants, University of Arizona Press, 1998. He is completing a trade book on animal extinctions in near time for the University of California Press.
For more than forty years Paul S. Martin has investigated Pleistocene biotic changes in arid regions. He has studied the biogeography of eastern Mexico, the Pleistocene fossil pollen record of Arizona, and the potential for fossil packrat middens to reveal climatic changes. His interest in the extinction chronology of late Pleistocene large animals has taken him to fossil sites in the four corners of the world. His experiences led to the development of extinction models based on human activity as the main cause of extinctions in near time, the last 50,000 years. An Emeritus Professor of Geosciences, he has taught and conducted research at the University of Arizona's Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill in Tucson since 1957.
Born August 22, 1928, Allentown, Pa.; married; three children, two grandchildren.
P.J. Mehringer searching for sloth dung in Rampart Cave.
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. B.A. (Zoology) 1951
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, M.S. (Zoology) 1953; Ph.D. (Zoology) 1956
Yale University, Postdoctoral Research in Biogeography, 1955-1956
University of Arizona: Research Associate, Geochronology Laboratories, 1957-1961;
Assistant Professor, 1961-1962; Associate Professor, 1962-1968; Professor,
Department of Geosciences, 1968-1989; Emeritus Professor, 1989-present
National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships, Research Grants, J.S. Guggenheim Fellowship, 1965-1966; Research grants from National Geographical Society; American Philosophical Society; Honorary Member, American Society of Mammalogy 1999; Distinguished Career Award, American Quaternary Association, 2000
1963 The Last 10,000 Years: A Fossil Pollen Study of the American Southwest; University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 87 pp; (2nd printing 1970).
1967 Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause (P.S. Martin and H.E. Wright, Jr., eds.). Yale University Press, New Haven, 440 pp.
1984 Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution (P.S. Martin and R.G. Klein, eds.), University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 892 pp. Reprinted in paperback 1989.
1990 Packrat Middens: The Last 40,000 Years of Biotic Change (J.L. Betancourt, T.R. Van Devender, and P.S. Martin, eds.), University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 467 pp.
1998 Gentry's Río Mayo Plants (P.S. Martin, D. Yetman, T.R. Van Devender, and P. Jenkins, eds.), University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
2004 ms. Overkill! From Ice Age Extinctions To Resurrections. Univ.of California Press.
1961 Rampart Cave coprolite and ecology of the Shasta ground sloth (PSM, B.E. Sabels and R. Shutler, Jr.). American Journal of Science 259: 102-127.
1967 Pleistocene overkill. Natural History: December: 32-38.
1970 Pleistocene niches for alien animals. Bioscience 20(4): 218-221.
1973 The discovery of America. Science 179(4077): 969-974.
1974 Death of American ground sloths (Austin Long and PSM). Science 186: 638-640.
1975 Simulating overkill by paleoindians (J.E. Mosimann and PSM). American Scientist 63(3): 304-313.
1982 Neotropical anachronisms: the fruits the Gomphotheres ate (D. Janzen and PSM). Science 215: 19-27.
1984 Prehistoric overkill: the global model, pp. 354-403 in Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution (P.S. Martin and R.G. Klein, eds.), University of Arizona Press.
1984 Catastrophic extinctions and late Pleistocene blitzkrieg: two radiocarbon tests, pp. 153-189 in Extinctions (M.H. Nitecki, ed.), University of Chicago Press.
1986 Refuting late Pleistocene extinction models, pp. 106-130 in Dynamics of Extinction (K.D. Elliott, ed.), John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
1986 Extinction of Harrington's mountain goat (J.E. Mead, PSM, R.C. Euler, A. Long, A.J.T. Jull, L.J. Toolin, D.J. Donahue, and T.W. Linick). Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 83: 836-839.
1998 Ground sloth extinction and human occupation at Gruta del Indio, Argentina (Austin Long and PSM). Radiocarbon 40: 693-700.
1999 War zones and game sinks in Lewis and Clark's West (PSM and Christine R. Szuter). Conservation Biology 13: 36-45.
1999 Deep history and a wilder west, pp. 255-290 in Sonoran Desert Ecology and Conservation Biology (R. Robichaux, ed.), Tucson, University of Arizona Press.
1999 Prehistoric extinctions on islands and continents: (PSM and D. W. Steadman), pp. 17-55 in Extinctions in Near Time, (R. MacPhee, ed.), Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publ., N. Y.
1999 Bring back the elephants. Wild Earth Spring issue: 57-64 (PSM and D. A. Burney).
2001 Mammals, (late Quaternary), extinctions of. Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, volume 3: pp. 825-839. San Diego: Academic Press.
2003 Steadman, D. W. and PSM. The late Quaternary extinction and future resurrection of birds on Pacific islands. Earth-Science Reviews 61: 133-147.