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Jordan Crowell
Lab Alumnus - PHD
Jordan Crowell received his Ph.D. at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology (NYCEP) in 2025. His dissertation research focused on using high resolution CT scan technology to study the cranial morphology of plesiadapiforms and other placental mammals and applying these insights to better understand primate supraordinal relationships. He is now pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to study mammalian recovery following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction.
Grants Received
2022-2024: “Doctoral Dissertation Research: Unraveling primate supraordinal relationships: Insights from plesiadapiform cranial morphology.” National Science Foundation: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences. SBE-2216582. co-PI with PI Stephen Chester. $27,379.
2022-2024: “Unraveling primate supraordinal relationships: Insights from plesiadapiform cranial morphology.” Leakey Foundation General Research Grant. $12,091.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
Crowell, J. W., Beard, K. C., Chester, S. G. B. 2025. Micro-computed tomography unveils anatomy of the oldest known plesiadapiform cranium. Journal of Human Evolution. 201:103655.
Chester, S. G. B., Williamson, T. E., Crowell, J. W., Silcox, M. T., Bloch, J. I., Sargis, E. J. 2025. New remarkably complete skeleton of Mixodectes reveals arboreality in a large Paleocene primatomorphan mammal following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Scientific Reports 15:8041.
Crowell, J. W., Wible J. R., Chester S. G. B. 2024. Basicranial evidence suggests picrodontid mammals are not stem primates. Biology Letters 20: 20230335. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0335
Kappelman, J., Todd, L. C., Davis, C. A., Cerling, T. E., Feseha, M., Getahun, A., Johnsen, R., Kay, M., Kocurek, G. A., Nachman, B. A., Negash, A., Negash, T., O’Brien, K., Pante, M., Ren, M., Smith, E. I., Tabor, N. J., Tewabe, D., Wang, H., Yang, D., Yirga, S., Crowell, J. W., ...Yanny, S. (2024). Adaptive foraging behaviours in the Horn of Africa during Toba supereruption. Nature, 628(8007), 365-372.
Weaver, L. N.*, Crowell, J. W.*, Chester, S. G. B., Lyson, T. R. (2024). Skull of a new periptychid mammal from the lower Paleocene Denver Formation of Colorado (Corral Bluffs, El Paso County). Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 31(2), 1-26. *co-first authors
Pampush, J. D., Crowell, J., Karme, A., Macrae, S. A., Kay, R. F., Ungar, P.S. 2019. Comparing dental topography software using platyrrhine molars. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 169:179-185.
Published Abstracts and Conference Presentations
Crowell, J. W., Bloch, J. I., Silcox, M. T., Chester, S. G. B. Reevaluating the auditory bulla of the Paleocene plesiadapiform Carpolestes simpsoni (Euarchonta, Carpolestidae) and its implications for primate origins. Presented at the 2025 American Association of Biological Anthropology conference in Baltimore, MD.
Chester, S. G. B., Crowell, J. W., Mahadevan, N., Hovatter, B. T., Wilson Mantilla, G. P. Three-dimensional geometric morphometric analyses of Purgatorius molars assist in evaluating purgatoriid plesiadapiform alpha taxonomy and species richness during the first million years of the Cenozoic. Presented at the 2025 American Association of Biological Anthropology conference in Baltimore, MD.
Gawlak, D. S., Bloch, J. I., Crowell, J. W., Houde, P., Silcox, M. T. Windows into the anatomy of the brain in early primates: endocranial anatomy of Phenacolemur pagei (Paromomyidae, Primates) from the late Paleocene of northwestern Wyoming. Presented at the 2025 American Association of Biological Anthropology conference in Baltimore, MD.
Crowell, J. W., Bloch, J. I., Silcox, M. T., Chester, S. G. B. The auditory bulla of the Paleocene plesiadapiform Carpolestes simpsoni (Euarchonta, Carpolestidae) differs in composition from that of crown Primates. Presented at the 2024 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference in Minneapolis, MN.
Bloch, J. I., Crowell, J. W., Boyer, D. M., Gawlak, D. S., Houde, P., Silcox, M. T. Cranial anatomy of Phenacolemur pagei (Paromomyidae, Euarchonta, Mammalia) from the late Paleocene of northwestern Wyoming. Presented at the 2024 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference in Minneapolis, MN.
Crowell, J. W., Beard, K. C., Chester, S. G. B. 2024. mCT scan data unveil previously undocumented morphology in the oldest known plesiadapiform cranium. American Journal of Biological Anthropology 183(S77):38. Presented at the 2024 American Association of Biological Anthropology conference in Los Angeles, CA.
Chester, S. G. B., Crowell, J. W., Mahadevan, N., Hovatter, B. T., Wilson Mantilla, G. P. 2023. Quantifying purgatoriid plesiadapiform dental variation and documenting species richness in the middle Tullock Member, Fort Union Formation, northeastern Montana. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 116-117. Presented at the 2023 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Cincinnati, OH.
Crowell, J. W., Beard K. C., Chester S. G. B. 2023. New insights into the cranial anatomy of the Paleocene plesiadapiform Plesiolests nacimienti (Euarchonta, Palaechthonidae). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 132. Presented at the 2023 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Cincinnati, OH.
Crowell, J. W., Wible, J. R., Chester, S. G. B. 2022. Auditory region of Paleocene Zanycteris paleocenus and the relationship of picrodontids to plesiadapiforms. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 117. Presented at the 2022 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Toronto, ON, Canada.
Weaver, L. N., Chester, S. G. B., Crowell, J. W., Lyson, T. R. 2022. A small archaic ungulate skull from the early Paleocene Denver Formation of Colorado (Corral Bluffs, El Paso County). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 358. Presented at the 2022 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Toronto, ON, Canada.
Weaver, L. N., Chester, S. G. B., Crowell, J. W., Lyson, T. R. 2022. A small archaic ungulate skull from the early Paleocene Denver Formation of Colorado (Corral Bluffs, El Paso County). Paso County). Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 54, no. 5. https://doi.org/10.1130/abs/2022AM-383209. Presented at the 2022 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver, CO.
Crowell, J. W., Wible, J. R., Chester, S. G. B. 2020. Petrosal morphology of Paleocene Zanycteris paleocenus and the relationship of picrodontids to plesiadapiforms. American Association of Physical Anthropology Supplement 69:61. Annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Los Angeles, CA.
Crowell, J. Anemone, R. L. 2018. New Adapid material from Wyoming’s Great Divide Basin: Diversity and Biogeography in the Early Wasatchian of the American West. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 111. Presented at the 2018 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Albuquerque, NM.
Anemone, R. L., Emerson, C., Crowell, J., Nachman, B. 2018. Developing a Geospatial Paleoanthropology: An Example from Vertebrate Paleontology. Presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society in Austin, TX.
Anemone, R. L., Crowell, J., Nachman, B. 2018. New adapoid material (Primates, Adapiformes) from the Great Divide Basin of southwestern Wyoming. Presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Austin, TX.
Anemone, R. L., Crowell, J. 2017. Three-Dimensional Virtual Reconstruction of a Coryphodon maxilla from the Eocene of Wyoming. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 74. Presented at the 2017 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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