Dr. Francsco Carotenuto (Ph.D)
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Largo San Marcellino, 10, 80131-Napoli (Italia)
Research interests
My
research focuses on Macroecology and Historical Biogeography of Cenozoic Large
Mammals. Actually I'm managing a very large database of Cenozoic Large Mammals,
mainly created combining different online databases: Paleodb, NOW and
MioMap/(Faunmap). All these data are used to understand the evolution of fossil
communities and to seek the relationships between the climatic changes of the
Cenozoic (particularly focusing on Quaternary climatic oscillations) and the
extinction and speciation rates recorded in the past faunas. Another goal is to
detect temporally and spatially statistical discrete paleo-communities and to disentangle
the effects of climatic changes and ecological interaction in their evolution.
From these points of view, the study of range size evolution is of primary
importance to understand the environmental needs of the different species and
this implies the development of new techniques to reconstruct
statistically valid "extinct extent of occurrences" for fossil
mammals.
Another
field of my research deals with the eco-morphology of anatomical structures in
the herbivore mammals. Indeed, the evolution of body parts, driven by climatic
changes and ecological interactions, can be the expression of different
simultaneously acting factors (physical, adaptative and phylogenetical).
These factors raise the need to quantify their differential roles in what we can
see as an anatomical structure.
All
the analyses involving geographical, ecological and morphological data are
performed in a phylogenetic explicit contest. This require the
"construction" of phylogenetic trees of extinct and extant large
mammals by using molecular and cladistic information, becoming itself another
very important topic of my studies.
Technical knowledge
All
the statistical and geostatistical analyses are performed in R (CRAN)
environment, whereas geographical inspection of data and Point Pattern Analyses
are performed in ESRI ArcGIS and QuantumGis. Phylogenetic trees management is
performed via Mesquite, TreeGraph and R (CRAN). Geometric Morphometrics
analyses are performed by using TPS software.
Article spotlight:
Carotenuto, F., Diniz-Filho, J.A.F., Raia, P. 2015 Space and time: The two dimensions of Artiodactyla body mass evolution. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 437, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.07.013
Publications:
- Raia, P., Passaro, F., Carotenuto, F., Maiorino, L., Piras, P., Teresi, L., ... & Fortelius, M. Cope’s Rule and the Universal Scaling Law of Ornament Complexity.
- Meloro, C., Cáceres, N. C., Carotenuto, F., Sponchiado, J., Melo, G. L., Passaro, F., & Raia, P. (2015). Chewing on the trees: Constraints and adaptation in the evolution of the primate mandible. Evolution.
- Meloro, C., Cáceres, N., Carotenuto, F., Passaro, F., Sponchiado, J., Melo, G. L., & Raia, P. (2014). Ecogeographical variation in skull morphometry of howler monkeys (Primates: Atelidae). Zoologischer Anzeiger-A Journal of Comparative Zoology, 253(4), 345-359.
- N. Cáceres, C. Meloro, F. Carotenuto, F. Passaro, J. Sponchiado, G. L. Melo, P. Raia (2013) Ecogeographical variation in skull shape of capuchin monkeys. Journal of Biogeography. DOI:10.1111/jbi.12203 [4.54]
- C. Meloro, N. Cáceres, F. Carotenuto, J. Sponchiado, G. L. Melo, F. Passaro, P: Raia (2013) In an out the Amazonia: evolutionary ecomorphology in howler and capuchin monkeys. Evolutionary Biology DOI:10.1007/s11692-013-9244-5
- P. Raia, F. Carotenuto, F. Passaro, P. Piras, D. Fulgione, L. Werdelin,J. Saarinen and M. Fortelius(2013).Rapid action in the Palaeogene, the relationship between phenotypic and taxonomic diversification in Coenozoic mammals. Proc. R. Soc. B 2013 280, 20122244.
- Raia P., Carotenuto F., Passaro F., Fulgione D., and M. Fortelius (2012) Ecological specialization in fossil mammals explains Cope's rule. The American Naturalist [4.8]
- Meloro C., Raia P., Carotenuto F. and Cobb S.N. (2011). Phylogenetic signal, function and integration inthe subunits of the carnivoran mandible. Evolutionary Biology [2.736] DOI:10.1007/s11692-011-9135-6
- Raia P., Passaro F., Fulgione D. and Carotenuto F. (2011). Habitat tracking, stasis and survival in Neogene large mammals. Biol. Lett. [3.651] DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0613
- Raia P., Carotenuto F., Eronen J. T., and Fortelius M. (2011) Longer in the tooth, shorter in the record? The evolutionary correlates of hypsodonty in Neogene ruminants. Proc.R.Soc.B. [4.857]
- Raia P., Carotenuto F., Meloro C., Piras P. and Barbera C. (2011) Species accumulation over space and time in European Plio-Holocene mammals. Evolutionary Ecology 25(1), pp. 171-188. [3.193]
- Carotenuto F., Barbera C. and Raia P. (2010). Occupancy, range size and phylogeny in Eurasian Pliocene to Recent large mammals. Paleobiology 36(3), pp. 399-414. [2.985]
- Raia P., Guarino F.M., Turano M., Polese G., Rippa D., Carotenuto F., Monti D.M., Cardi M. and Fulgione D. (2010). The blue lizard spandrel and the island syndrome. BMC Evolutionary Biology. Vol. 10(289). [4.290]
- Raia P., Carotenuto F., and Meiri S., (2010). One size does not fit all: No evidence for an optimal body size on islands. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Vol. 19(4), pp. 475-484. [5.913]
- Raia P., Carotenuto F., Meloro C., Piras P., and Pushkina D. (2010). The shape of contention. Adaptation, history and contingency in ungulate mandibles. Evolution Vol. 64(5), pp. 1489–1503. [5.429]
- Raia P., Carotenuto F., Meloro C., Piras P., Barbera C., and Kotsakis T. (2009). More than three million years of community evolution. The temporal and geographical resolution of the Plio-Pleistocene Western Eurasia mammal faunas. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology. Vol. 276(1-4), pp.15-23. [2.646]
- Meloro C., Raia P., Carotenuto F., Barbera C., (2008) Diversity and turnover of Plio-Pleistocene large mammal fauna from the Italian Peninsula. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology. Vol. 268(1-2), pp. 58-64. [2.162]
