LabCompass

P. David Polly

Earth and Planetary Sciences · Indiana University

OpenAlex ORCID
Established · publishing since 1967Rising activity
Evolution and Paleontology StudiesMorphological variations and asymmetryWildlife Ecology and ConservationPleistocene-Era Hominins and ArchaeologySpecies Distribution and Climate Change

Publications

209

Citations

7,437

Est. group size

—

Recurring co-author estimate

Active years

59

Publishing since 1967

Research summary
AI-generated

P. David Polly studies how the shapes and forms of animals evolve over time, using fossils and living species to understand large-scale patterns in evolution and ecology. Much of the work applies quantitative methods (such as geometric morphometrics, which mathematically analyzes shape) to topics ranging from mammal teeth and skeletons to community changes across major events like the extinction of the dinosaurs. Research spans paleontology, evolutionary biology, and links between organisms and their environments.

Evolution and paleontologyShape analysis (morphometrics)Mammal evolution and ecologyExtinction and community changeLinks between climate/environment and species

Publication activity has remained fairly steady across the last decade, fluctuating between roughly 6 and 16 papers per year with no clear long-term increase or decrease.

Generated by claude-opus-4-8 from public bibliographic data · Jul 9, 2026

In context
Among 265 established Earth and Planetary Sciences PIs within our index
Citations: 7,437cohort median 2,942
h-index: 50cohort median 26
Publications / year (recent): 7.6cohort median 3.2

Typically publishes in teams of ~3 · 62% small-team papers (≤3 authors) · across 46 venues

Publication cadence
Publications per year over the last 10 years — averaging 7.6/year recently
2017: 7 publications172018: 15 publications182019: 10 publications192020: 12 publications202021: 7 publications212022: 6 publications222023: 16 publications16232024: 10 publications242025: 6 publications2526
Collaborators per year
Distinct co-authors at Indiana University each year — a rough indication of whether the group around this researcher has been growing or contracting. An estimate from co-authorship, not a roster: collaborators are not necessarily lab members, and recent years can be under-counted while indexing catches up.
2017: 0 collaborators at the same institution2018: 2 collaborators at the same institution2019: 0 collaborators at the same institution2020: 0 collaborators at the same institution2021: 1 collaborator at the same institution2022: 0 collaborators at the same institution2023: 0 collaborators at the same institution2024: 0 collaborators at the same institution2025: 0 collaborators at the same institution1719212325
Recent publications
Publishes in
  • Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America×10
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)×5
  • Figshare×5
  • Integrative and Comparative Biology×4
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences×4
Similar researchers
By research-topic overlap

This profile was generated automatically from public scholarly data (OpenAlex). Group size and activity levels are estimates derived from co-authorship patterns.

Last updated Sep 1, 2026.

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