Felisa A. Smith

Department of Biology, University of New Mexico

Because our work is generally topical, often quirky and typically involves mammals, reporters and the public are frequently interested in it. Below are some examples from websites, print sources and video/audio interviews.

Paleomiddens (various papers, including original 1995 Science paper)
Media coverage has included a tapped radio interview on BBC World News, numerous print articles in popular outlets including:

"Revelations of Rat Scat" Discover Magazine.
"Packrat Treasures Yield Gold" Audubon Magazine.
"Warmte Macht Zwerge" Geo Magazine.
"What's Hidden in a Midden?" Scholastic News Magazine.

Mammoths and Methane (2010 and 2011 Nature Geoscience papers)
Tapped Radio interviews included:

"A Mammoth Amount of Methane" for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation science show "Quirks and Quarks".
"Vernachlässigte Blähungen: Bereits vor 13.000 Jahren bewirkten Menschen indirekt Klimaveränderungen" for the Nationwide German public radio (Deutschlandfunk) and the German BBC network, as well as a segment on National Public Radio's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me program.

Samples of news articles include:

"Mammoth Extinction Triggered Climate Cooling" USA Today.
"Mammoths Contributed to Global Warming with Methane Emissions" Daily Telegraph.
"Mammoth Gas Emissions Helped Keep Planet Warm, Scientists Say" Sydney Morning Herald.
"As Mammoths Died Out, Earth Chilled" Discovery News.
"Scientists Explain Global Chill" France 24.
"Tod der Mammuts Führte zu Abkühlung der Erde" Welt Online.
"Mammoth's Decline Led to Global Freeze: Study" Calgary Herald.
"Megafauna Die-off May Have Cooled Planet" ABC Online.
"Mammut-Massaker Soll Kältewelle Ausgelöst Haben" Spiegel Online.
"L'extinction des Grands Herbivores a-t-elle Refroidi la Planète?" Romandie News.
"Did Early Hunters Cause Climate Change?" New Scientist.
"Mammoth-Belch Deficit Caused Prehistoric Cooling?" National Geographic News.
"Methane From Extinct Herbivores" Nature asia.com.
"Mammoth Burbs" Science magazine (print and other outlets).

Mammal Body Size Evolution (2010 Science and 2012 PNAS papers)
Press included live and tapped radio and video broadcasts:

"Mammals Grew 1000 Times Larger After The Demise of The Dinosaurs" National Science Foundation.
"Why Mammals Never Got as Big as Dinosaurs" Earth and Sky Radio.
"Dino Demise Allowed Mammals to 'Go Nuts'" BBC News (print and audio).
"Erfolgreiche Lückenfüller" Nationwide German public radio (Deutschlandfunk) and German BBC network (print and audio).

Samples of news articles include:

"Giants Among Us" Scienceblog.com.
"Dinosaur Extinction Paved Way For mammal Giants" Discovery news.
"Dinosaur Die-off Cleared Way For Gigantic Mammals" Washington Times.
"Dino Demise Supersized The Mammals" ABC News.
"Dinosaur Die-off Opened Doors For Massive Mammals" Denver Post.
"Mammals Got 1,000 Times Bigger After Dinosaurs" CBC News.
"Mammals Supersized in a Hurry After Dino Die-out" Discover Magazine.
"Mammals Super-sized in Absence of Dinosaurs" Cosmos Magazine.
"Dinosaur Die-off Cleared Way For Gigantic Mammals" AOL news.
"Why Mammals Grew Big – And Then Stopped" New Scientist.
"Dino Demise Led To Evolutionary Explosion in Huge Mammals" Fox News.
"Mouse to Elephant? Just Wait 24 Million Generations" Science Daily.
"Science Journals Round-up" USA Today.
"How Land Mammals Evolved to be so Massive" Scientific American.
"Emerging From Dinosaurs' Shadow, Mammals's Size Ballooned" Salt Lake City Tribune.
"Speed Limits on the Evolution of Enormousness" Wired Science.

Rewilding (2005 Nature and 2006 American Naturalist papers; Josh Donlan was the lead author on these projects)
This work was covered widely in national and international print, radio, and TV media including:

"Pleistocene Rewilding" New York Times.
"Beasts of Both Worlds: Scientists Propose 'Rewilding'" USA today.
"Camels and Cheetahs in North America" ABC News.
"Brave Old World: The Debate Over Rewilding North America with Ancient Animals" Science News.
"African Animals May Immigrate to Americas" NPR All Things Considered.
"Big Game Could Roam The US Plains" BBC News.
"Lions, Elephants to Roam the US Plains?" National Geographic News.
"Restoring America’s Big, Wild Animals" Scientific American.
"Rewilding the Great Plains" National Public Radio (Josh Donlan interview).
"Unleash the Critters" Newsweek.
"Mammoth Task of Reversing History" The Telegraph.
Live studio interview on KRQE Channel 13 News with news anchor Deanna Sauceda (Felisa Smith interview).

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