Paul David Polly is an American
paleontologist and the Robert R. Shrock Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at
Indiana University as well as the sitting chair of the department.[1][2]
Polly's research focuses on quantitative evolution, phylogeny, and paleoecology of vertebrates.[3] Much of his work has been on the
phylogenetics and functional evolution of
mammals, especially
Carnivora[4][5] and
Creodonta,[6] on the correspondence between phenotypic and genetic differentiation,[7] on the role of functional traits in structuring mammalian communities,[8] and on the evolution of multivariate quantitative morphological traits.[9] With lead author Jason Head and other co-authors, he helped describe the giant fossil snake Titanoboa and the associated methods for estimating paleotemperature from the size of extinct reptiles.[10][11]
With Robert P. Guralnick and Allen Collins, Polly started one of the first 50 websites in the world in 1993, the
University of California Museum of Paleontology site.[16] In 2001, Polly received the Joseph T. Gregory Award from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for putting the society on the web and developing an online abstract submission system.[17]
Polly served as president of the
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology from 2016 through 2018.[18] During Polly's term as SVP president, US President
Donald J. Trump and Interior Secretary
Ryan Zinke downsized two national monuments that protect vertebrate paleontological resources,
Grand Staircase–Escalante and
Bears Ears national monuments. Polly was involved in lawsuits by SVP to reverse those actions, which are currently ongoing.[19]
^Polly, P. D. (1997). "Ancestry and Species Definition in Paleontology: A Stratocladistic Analysis of Paleocene-Eocene Viverravidae (Mammalia, Carnivora) from Wyoming". Contributions from the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology. 30: 1–53.
hdl:
2027.42/48638.
^Caumul, R.; Polly, P. D. (2005). "Phylogenetic and environmental components of morphological variation: skull, mandible, and molar shape in marmots (Marmota, Rodentia)". Evolution. 59 (11): 2460–2472.
doi:
10.1554/05-117.1.
PMID16396186.
S2CID198157479.
^Head, Jason J. (2009). "Giant boine snake from a Paleocene Neotropical rainforest indicates hotter past equatorial temperatures". Nature. 457 (7230): 715–717.
doi:
10.1038/nature07671.
PMID19194448.
S2CID4381423.