David Krause

David Krause is a vertebrate paleontologist who primarily studies early mammals, although he has also published scientific papers on fossil fishes, salamanders, frogs, turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, dinosaurs, and birds.

He had a long career as a professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University, where he primarily taught human anatomy to dental and medical students.

Much of his early research work was focused on Paleocene mammals from the Western Interior but that emphasis shifted considerably over 25 years ago to the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar, where he and his teams have made a wealth of exciting discoveries of fossil vertebrates, including complete skeletons. Many of the vertebrates are bizarre, a reflection of their long history of evolving in isolation.

More broadly, Dave’s current research is focused on the evolutionary and biogeographic history of the vertebrate fauna from the southern supercontinent Gondwana.

In addition to and complementing his research, Dave founded a not-for-profit organization known as the Madagascar Ankizy Fund (ankizy means “children” in the Malagasy language), whose mission is to provide education and health care to children living in remote areas of the island.

In 2016, Dave joined the Denver Museum of Nature & Science where he is the Senior Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology.