biology

P. David Polly

P. David Polly is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand P. David Polly rather than just read about it. In short: Paul David Polly is an American paleontologist and the Robert R. Shrock Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University as well as the sitting chair of the department.

Key takeaways

P. David Polly belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect P. David Polly to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of P. David Polly from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul David Polly is an American paleontologist and the Robert R. Shrock Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University as well as the sitting chair of the department.

Research Polly's research focuses on quantitative evolution, phylogeny, and paleoecology of vertebrates. Much of his work has been on the phylogenetics and functional evolution of mammals, especially Carnivora and Creodonta, on the correspondence between phenotypic and genetic differentiation, on the role of functional traits in structuring mammalian communities, and on the evolution of multivariate quantitative morphological traits. With lead author Jason Head and other co-authors, he helped describe the giant fossil snake Titanoboa and the associated methods for estimating paleotemperature from the size of extinct reptiles.

Education and organisational affiliations Polly received a BA from the Plan II Honors program at University of Texas at Austin in 1987 and a PhD in Paleontology from the Department of Integrative Biology at University of California, Berkeley in 1993 for his work on the phylogeny of creodonts. He was then a member of the Michigan Society of Fellows from 1994 to 1996, and on the faculty of the St. Bartholomew's and Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and later the School of Biological Sciences, at Queen Mary, University of London from 1997 to 2006. He moved to Indiana University in 2006. In 2021 he became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS). Polly served as president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology from 2016 through 2018. During Polly's term as SVP president, US President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke downsized two national monuments that protect vertebrate paleontological resources, Grand Staircase–Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments. Polly was involved in lawsuits by SVP to reverse those actions, which are currently ongoing.

Work on early website, awards With Robert P. Guralnick and Allen Collins, Polly started one of the first 50 websites in the world in 1993, the University of California Museum of Paleontology site. In 2001, Polly received the Joseph T. Gregory Award from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for putting the society on the web and developing an online abstract submission system.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with P. David Polly

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what P. David Polly claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to P. David Polly before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about P. David Polly ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of P. David Polly

In research: P. David Polly appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses P. David Polly in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: P. David Polly is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1966 births, 20th-century American geologists, 20th-century American zoologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for P. David Polly outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study P. David Polly in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what P. David Polly means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain P. David Polly out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is P. David Polly in simple terms?

Why does P. David Polly matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study P. David Polly?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on P. David Polly.