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Dr. Goldman received his Ph.D. from the University of Buffalo in 1993 where he studied paleontology and biostratigraphy. He joined UD's Geology Department in 1997 after completing post-doctoral research appointments at Buffalo and the Ohio State University. Dr. Goldman taught a variety of courses including paleontology, sedimentology, environmental geology, environmental instrumentation laboratory and the Dynamic Earth. He is also a researcher interested in biodiversity dynamics and examining evolutionary trends in the fossil record.

Faculty perspective

"The incredible beauty of the natural world has always captivated me. As a student I became interested in geology and realized that in addition to their aesthetic quality, rocks and fossils contained a complex and fascinating story about the history of our planet. John Wesley Powell wrote of the Grand Canyon region in 1870, "the thought grew to my mind that the canyons of this region would be a Book of Revelations in the rock leaved Bible of geology. The thought fructified and I was determined to read the book.

Unraveling the history of Earth and life requires learning to read the language of geology. This is a difficult but tremendously rewarding task. Learning and teaching geology has taken me to some of the most beautiful places on Earth and face to face with some of science's most fundamental questions. My career as a paleontologist has given me a great appreciation for the grandeur of nature, and it has allowed me to share this appreciation with our students."

Research interests

• Paleontology,
• Sedimentology & Stratigraphy,
• Physical Geology,
• Geologic Evolution of the Earth,
• Environmental Geology

Selected publications

Goldman, D., Sadler, P.M., and Leslie, S.A., 2020. The Ordovician Period. Pp. 632-694, In, Gradstein, F., Ogg, J.G., Schmitz, M.D., Ogg, G.M., (eds.), The Geologic Time Scale 2020. Elsevier Press, Amsterdam.

Liang, Y., Hints, O., Tang, P., Cai, C., Goldman, D., Nõlvak, J., Pang, K., Bernardo, J., and Wang, W. 2020. Fossilized reproductive modes reveal a protistan affinity of Chitinozoa. Geology. https://doi.org/10.1130/G47865.1

Liang, Y., Bernardo, J., Nõlvak, J., Goldman, D., Tang, P., and Hints, O. 2019. Are Chitinozoans eggs? New fossil evidence suggests otherwise.  Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, v. 286. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1270

Serra, F., Feltes, N., Albanesi, G.L., and Goldman, D. 2019. High resolution conodont biostratigraphy from the Darriwilian Stage (Middle Ordovician) of the Argentine Precordillera and biodiversity analyses: a CONOP9 approach. Lethaia 52: 188-203. DOI: 10.1111/let.12306. 

Bergström, S.M. and Goldman, D. 2018. δ13C Chemostratigraphy of the Ordovician-Silurian Boundary Interval, pp.145-158. In, A. Sial, C. Gaucher, M. Ramkumar, and V. P. Ferreira (eds.), Chemostratigraphy Across Major Chronological Boundaries (Book). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, NJ.

Boyle, J.T., Sheets, H.D., Wu, S-Y., Goldman, D., Melchin, M.J., Cooper, R.A., Sadler, P., and Mitchell, C.E. 2016. The impact of geographic range, sampling, ecology, and time on extinction risk in in the volatile clade Graptoloidea. Paleobiology 46 (1): 85-113. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/pab.2016.33)

Chen, X., Zhang, Y., Goldman, D., Fan, J., Bergström, S.M., Wang, Z., Finney, S.C., and Chen, Q. 2016. Darriwilian to Katian (Ordovician) Graptolites from Northwest China. (Book). Elsevier, Waltham MA, and Zhejiang University Press, Hangzhou, China. 354 pp.

Goldman, D., Nõlvak, J., and Maletz, J. 2015. Mid to Late Ordovician Graptolite and Chitinozoan Biostratigraphy of the Kandava-25 Drill Core in Western Latvia. GFF 137: 197-211. (DOI: 10.1080/11035897.2015.1021375)

Boyle, J.T., Sheets, H.D., Wu, S-Y., Goldman, D., Melchin, M.J., Cooper, R.A., Sadler, P., and Mitchell, C.E. 2014. A re-examination of the contributions of biofacies and geographic range to extinction risk in Ordovician graptolites. In, M. Calner, O. Lehnert, G.L. Albanesi, L.E. Babcock, D.A.T. Harper, and M.J. Melchin, (eds.), Early Palaeozoic Global Change. GFF 136: 38-41. (DOI: 10.1080/11035897.2013.861864)

Goldman, D., Maletz, J., Melchin, M.J., & Fan, J. 2013. Lower Palaeozoic Graptolite Biogeography. In D.A.T. Harper and T. Servais (eds.), Early Palaeozoic Palaeobiogeography and Palaeogeography. Geological Society of London Memoir 38: 415-428. (dx.doi.org/10.1144.M38.26.)