On an October afternoon, Feldman walked past the hulking fossils belonging to a Tyrannosaurus rex and an Apatosaurus on the fifth floor of New York’s American Museum of Natural History where he shares office space. Stopping by the end of the exhibit, he ran his finger down a limestone wall. “These rocks are ancient,” he explained. Then pointing to a crooked yellow line added: “This is a single organism.”

Feldman, a professor at Lander College for Women (LCW)—The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School, is one of the world’s leading experts on brachiopods, shelled-marine organisms that are some of the world’s oldest creatures. Fossil remains of the creatures date back to early primordial eras and brachiopods still flourish in the ocean— though in slightly diminished numbers since the last extinction event. Part of their survival strategy is simplicity; adult brachiopods attach themselves to the sea floor through a “foot” and remain there for their lives, subsisting on microscopic particles like plankton.

Wry and funny, Feldman who discovered several new species of brachiopods, insisted that his greatest discovery was the brunch spread at the King David Hotel. Brachiopods have been the fulcrum of Feldman’s colorful forty-year career. His initial interest in science budded early, as a teenager in MTA, and culminated in a Masters in geology at Hunter College and then a PhD in the same subject at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Looking for a subject for his doctoral thesis, Feldman reached out to Dr. Arthur J. Boucot at Oregon State University. Boucot recommended studying brachiopod fossils in the Onondaga Limestone, last studied in detail by the New York State paleontologist James Hall in the 1800s. Given that New York State was once covered by a shallow ocean the remains of the brachiopods were easily accessible.

“Archeologists dig, geologists just pick up,” he said.

Many fossils were lying out in the open, having weathered out of the rock, or encased in limestone, the same material as the walls in the Museum of Natural History. Feldman was able to excavate hundreds of brachiopod fossils from the quarries in the Hudson Valley and central New York. He extracted them by immersing blocks of limestone in a bath of hydrochloric acid which dissolved the rock and freed the delicate shells from the matrix. His studies became the subject for his dissertation and eventually led to the publication of his first book, “Paleontology and Geology of the Martinsburg, Shawangunk, Onondaga, and Hornerstown Formations (Northeastern United States) with Some Field Guides.”

As he finished up his PhD he began working as a teacher at the Walton High School in the Bronx, where he remained until 1984. He then began teaching biology at Touro’s New York School of Continued and Applied Studies.

Feldman’s next adventure occurred when he visited Israel for a conference. A geologist colleague showed him a specimen of a brachiopod that was extremely rare. Feldman believed it was a new species. Together with fellow researchers, Feldman put together an expedition with two jeeps, a technician and a few other geologists to northern Sinai where he collected hundreds of specimens. The expedition crossed into Egyptian lines, quite a nerve racking experience. The research he conducted in Sinai was the start of his second book, “Invertebrate Paleontology (Mesozoic) of Israel and Adjacent Countries with Emphasis on the Brachiopoda.” After several trips back and forth, as well as conducting research with scholars in Arab countries like Jordon and Egypt, Feldman is still going through boxes of specimens and making new discoveries. 

Feldman has more than 150 publications to his name and published several papers with his Touro students as co-authors. A new species of brachiopod he recently discovered is named after a deceased colleague.

“You can read history in the rocks,” he said. “Fossils are full of information such as paleoenvironments, paleoeclimate and past extinction events that lead to insights regarding our relationship with Earth today.”

His love for reading Earth history has also led him to other historical pursuits. Feldman, along with some colleagues in Israel helped date the controversial “Jehoash Inscription” tablet to the time of the first Beis Hamikdosh. In a paper for the Journal of Archaeological Science, Feldman proved the authenticity of the tablet by carbon dating. In one discussion about remnants of gold found in the tablet, researchers hypothesized that the gold globules found in the stone were the remnants of gold leaf from the walls of the First Temple.

“No one has or had the technology to make gold gobules of the size (5 microns) found in the patina covering the tablet during the First Temple period,” he explained. “But there was probably gold leaf covering the walls and when it was burned the gold rose into the atmosphere and rained down as globules that became incorporated into the patina.”

Feldman currently teaches two electives at LCW, Natural History of Dinosaurs and Paleobiology. He opens his first class with a T. rex skull and asks his students to hypothesize how it must have lived, moved and ate - all derivative data that paleontologists glean from fossils.

In April, his commitment to the field was recognized and he was made a Fellow of the Geology Society of America. His advice to his students considering a career in science is to have a thick skin.

“Generally, if you’re proposing a hypothesis that is a bit controversial, people will tell you you’re wrong, but you need to keep on going.”