# Lawrence Flynn Assistant Director, American School of Prehistoric Research Lab Safety Coordinator, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology ![Larry Flynn](/sites/g/files/omnuum5836/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/paleolab.fas.harvard.edu/files/flynn_larry.jpeg?itok=CGvI89r0) location\_on Peabody Museum 40B 11 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 smartphone [(617) 496-3945]() email laptop\_windows [Department of Human Evolutionary Biology](http://heb.fas.harvard.edu/people/lawrence-flynn?admin_panel=1) ## **Research Interests:** Paleobiology of past ecosystems, especially the Neogene of South Asia and China. I specialize in small mammals which, collectively, account for half of modern community diversity. For the fossil record, small mammals are mainly Rodentia (other mammals are less diverse or under-represented). The terrestrial sequence of Indo-Pakistan includes a long, rich record of rodent evolution, with significant change from the bottom (many archaic elements) to the top (precursors to the modern biota), a span of over 20 million years. The over-arching goal is dense sampling through time for the Miocene Epoch to reveal trends and details of community turnover, as well as direct estimates of species longevity. We demonstrate high diversity in Siwalik communities of middle Miocene age, and dominance of elements indicating moist habitat. Complementary records are being developed for China. Work in the late Neogene Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province, and in an early to middle Miocene sequence in Gansu can be compared directly to the Siwalik record through the medium of paleomagnetic dating. Many taxonomic differences emerge between these faunas of North China and the Siwaliks of Indo-Pakistan. The significance of past-to-present biogeographic differences is still being deciphered. In interesting contrast, the emerging faunal record of South China differs from North China but shares some kinds of mammals with the Siwaliks to its west. It will be extremely exciting as these data sets merge.