Bruce Lieberman
- Senior Curator - Invertebrate Paleontology
- Professor - Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
- Director - Paleontological Institute
Contact Info
1345 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Biography —
Dr. Lieberman is a paleobiologist whose research focuses on studying macroevolutionary patterns and processes using the fossil record.
Research —
I use various research approaches including phylogenetics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and ecological niche modeling (ENM) to study key time periods in the history of life to gain deeper insight into macroevolution. Much of my research has focused on fossil arthropods, especially trilobites, but in collaboration with students and post-docs I have worked with other taxa including mollusks. I am interested in various topics including evolutionary radiations, mass extinctions, the relative roles abiotic and biotic factors play in motivating evolution, macroevolutionary theory, phylogenetic methods and theory, levels of selection, and mechanisms of evolutionary stasis. Read more at KU Invertebrate Paleontology Research.
Teaching —
I teach two introductory courses for non-majors, Biology 101 Honors Introduction to Biology and Biology 225 Evolution and the History of Life. I also co-teach Biology 648 Systematics and Macroevolution and offer seminars in Macroevolution and also in Paleobiogeography. I have also co-taught Evolution of the Arthropods.
Professor, with tenure, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas
Senior Curator, Division of Invertebrate Paleontology, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas
Graduate Student Advising
Master's Students
2022–present Amy Betz
2022–present Ana Karen Mendoza Maya
2022–present Daniel Rojas
2019–2021 Kyle Atkins-Weltman (co-advised with David Burnham), M.A. 2021, currently Ph.D. student, Oklahoma State University
2018–2019 Julie Taylor, M.A. 2019
2017–2019 Steven Byrum, M.A. 2019
2015—2017 Kayla Kolis, M.S. 2017
2014—2016 Liam Heins
2008—2012 Sarah Spears Gibson, (co-advised with Hans-Peter Schulze), M.S. 2012
2007—2009 Ian Wes Gapp, M.S. 2009, currently Research scientist, Chevron/Texaco
2006—2008 Curtis Congreve, M.S. with Honors 2008, currently Post-doc, Pennsylvania State University
2001—2002 Jim Cornette, M.S. with Honors 2002, currently Emeritus Professor of Mathematics. Iowa State University
1999—2001 Alycia Rode (now Stigall), NSF Graduate Student Fellow, M.S. with Honors 2001, currently Professor, Department of Geology, Ohio University
Doctoral Students
2010—2014 Erin Saupe, Self Graduate Fellow (co-advised with Paul Selden), Ph.D. with honors, awarded April 2014, currently Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford University
2009—2014 Ian Wes Gapp, Ph.D. awarded Spring 2014, currently Research scientist, Chevron/Texaco
2009—2013 Curtis Congreve, Ph.D. awarded Spring 2013, currently Post-doc, Pennsylvania State University
2007—2013 Corinne Myers, Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellow, Ph.D. with honors, awarded April 2013, currently Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico
2004—2010 Francine Abe (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, co-advised with Ed Wiley), Ph.D. with honors, awarded June 2010
2001—2004 Alycia Rode (now Stigall), NSF Graduate Student Fellow and Madison and Lila Self Fellow, Ph.D. with Honors, awarded Spring 2004, currently Professor, Department of Geology, Ohio University
Post-Docs
2020–2022 Rhiannon LaVine, Ph.D. University of Chicago, Currently Scientist, Evozyne, Chicago, IL
2016–2018 Luke Strotz, Ph.D. Macquarie University, Currently Assistant Professor, Northwest University, Xi’an, China
2013–2015 Michelle Casey, Ph.D. Yale University, Currently Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences, Towson University, Baltimore, MD
2005–2008 Jonathan Hendricks, Ph.D. Cornell University, Currently Associate Director, Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, NY
2005—2006 Rachel (Moore) Wade, Ph.D. Bristol University, currently Wiley-Blackwell, UK
Selected Publications —
Books
Wiley, E. O., and B. S. Lieberman. 2011. Phylogenetics, 2nd edition. J. Wiley & Sons, New York. 432 p.
Lieberman, B. S., and R. A. Kaesler. 2010. Prehistoric Life: Evolution and the Fossil Record. Wiley/Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, UK, 385 p.
Lieberman, B. S., A. Stigall Rode, editors. 2005. Paleobiogeography: Generating New Insights into the Coevolution of the Earth and Its Biota. Paleontological Society Papers 11, Paleontological Society, Lawrence, KS, 158 pp.
Adrain, J., G. D. Edgecombe, and B. S. Lieberman, editors. 2001. Fossils, Phylogeny, and Form: An Analytical Approach. Plenum Press/Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York.
Lieberman, B. S. 2000. Paleobiogeography: Using Fossils to Study Global Change, Plate Tectonics, and Evolution. Plenum Press/Kluwer Academic Publishers, New York.
Special Issues of Journals - Edited
Lieberman, B. S., editor. 2012. Biogeography: The Geography of Evolution. Evolution: Education and Outreach Vol. 5, #4.
Recent Journal Articles And Book Chapters (*=Monograph)
Kimmig, J., S. Pates, R. J. LaVine, L. J. Krumenacker, A. F. Whitaker, L. C. Strotz, P. G. Jamison, V. G. Gunther, G. Gunther, M. Witte, Allison C. Daley, and B. S. Lieberman. 2023. New soft-bodied panarthropods from the Cambrian (Miaolingian; Wuliuan) Spence Shale of Utah and Idaho, USA showcase diverse depositional environments can preserve soft-tissues. Journal of Paleontology. Accepted.
Strotz, L. C., and B. S. Lieberman. 2023. The end of the line: competitive exclusion and the extinction of historical entities. Royal Society Open Science. DOI://10: 221210
Martin, R. P., LaVine, R. J., López Carranza, N., and B. S.Lieberman. 2022. Morphological evolution during the last hurrah of the trilobites: morphometric analysis of the Devonian asteropyginid trilobites. Paleobiology. DOI://10.1017/pab.2022.39
Strotz, L. C., and B. S.Lieberman. 2021. The names don’t matter but the numbers do: searching for stability in Carboniferous brachiopod paleocommunities from the North American Midcontinent. Paleobiology 47: 68-85. DOI://10.1017/pab.2020.58
Byrum, S., and B. S. Lieberman. 2021. Phylogeny and biogeography of Cretaceous spatangoid echinoids with special emphasis on taxa from the Western Interior Seaway. Journal of Paleontology 95: 613-623. DOI://10.1017/jpa.2020.102
Casey, M. M., Saupe, E. E., and B. S. Lieberman. 2021. The effects of geographic range size and abundance on extinction during a time of ‘sluggish’ evolution. Paleobiology 47: 54-67. DOI://10.1017/pab.2020.52
Pates, S., Daley, A. C., Edgecombe, G. D., Cong, P.-Y., and B. S. Lieberman. 2021. Systematics, preservation and biogeography of radiodonts from the southern Great Basin, USA during the upper Dyeran (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4). Papers in Palaeontology 7:235-262. DOI://10.1002/spp2.1277
Xianfeng, Y., Kimmig, J., Lieberman, B. S., and P. Shanchi. 2020. A new species of the deuterostome Herpetogaster from the early Cambrian Chengjiang biota of south China. Naturwissenschaften (Science of Nature) 107(5):37, 1-8. DOI://10.1007/s00114-020-01695-w
Fields, B. D., Melott, A. L., Ellis, J., Ertel, A. F., Fry, B. J., Lieberman, B. S., Liu, Z., Miller, J. A., and B. C. Thomas. 2020. Supernova triggers for end-Devonian extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. DOI://10.1073/pnas.2013774117
Kimmig, J., Leibach, W. W., and B. S. Lieberman. 2020. First occurrence of the problematic vetulicolian Skeemella clavula in the Cambrian Marjum Formation of Utah, USA. Carnets de Géologie 20: 215-219. DOI://10.4267/2042/70836
Kimmig, J., Couto, H., Leibach, W. W., and Lieberman, B. S. 2019. Soft-bodied fossils from the upper Valongo Formation (Middle Ordovician: Dapingian-Darriwilian) of northern Portugal. The Science of Nature 106:27. DOI://10.1007/s00114-019-1623-z
Tang, Q., Hu, J., Xie, G., Yuan, X, Wan, B., Zhou, C., Dong, X., Cao, G., Lieberman, B. S., Leys, S. P., and Xiao, S. 2019. A problematic animal fossil from the early Cambrian Hetang Formation, South China. Journal of Paleontology DOI://10.1017/jpa.2019.26
Kolis, K. C., and Lieberman, B. S. 2019. Using GIS to examine biogeographic and macroevolutionary patterns in some late Paleozoic cephalopods from the North American Midcontinent Sea. PeerJ 7:e6910. DOI://10.7717/peerj.6910
Kimmig, J., Strotz, L. C., Kimmig, S. R., Egenhoff, S. O., and Lieberman, B. S. 2019. The Spece Shale Lagerstätte: an Importnat Window into Cambrian Biodiversity. Journal of the Geological Society of London 176:609–619. DOI://10.1144/jgs2018-195
Kimmig, J., Meyer, R. C., and Lieberman, B. S. 2019. Herpetogaster from the early Cambrian of Nevada (Series 2, Stage 4) and its implications for the evolution of deuterostomes. Geological Magazine 156:172–178. DOI://10.1017/S0016756818000389
Strotz, L. C., Saupe, E. E., Kimmig, J., and Lieberman, B. S. 2018. Metabolic rates, climate and macroevolution: A case study using Neogene molluscs. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 285:20181292. DOI://10.1098/rspb.2018.1292
Lieberman, B. S., and Kimmig, J. 2018. Museums, Paleontology, and a Biodiversity Science Based Approach. In G. D. Rosenberg, & R. M. Clary (Eds.), Museums at the Forefront of the History and Philosophy of Geology: History Made, History in the Making. Geological Society of America Special Paper 535:335–348. DOI://10.1130/20182535(22)
Strotz, L. C., Simões, M., Girard, M., Breitkreuz, L., Kimmig, J., and Lieberman, B. S. 2018. Getting Somewhere with the Red Queen: Chasing a Biologically Modern Definition of the Hypothesis. Chasing a Biologically Modern Definition of the Hypothesis. Biology Letters 14:20170734. DOI://10.1098/rslb.2017.0734
Pates, S., Daley, A. C., and Lieberman, B. S. 2018. Hurdiid radiodontans from the Middle Cambrian of Utah. Journal of Paleontology 92:99–113. DOI://10.1017/jpa.2017.11
Melott, A. L., Pivuranas, A., Meert, J. G., and Lieberman, B. S. 2018. Does the planetary dynamo go cycling on? Re-examining the evidence for cycles in magnetic reversal rate. International Journal of Astrobiology 17:44-50. DOI://10.1017/S1473550417000040
Evans, K. R., McKenna III, L. W., Lieberman, B. S., Weichert, W.D., and MacLeod, K.G. 2018. Geology of the Nelson Limestone, Postel Nunatak, Patuxent Range, Antarctica. Antarctic Science 30: 29–43. DOI://10.1017/S0954102017000396
Simões, M. V., Lieberman, B. S., Soberón, J., and Townsend Peterson, A. 2017. Testing environmental correlates of clines in clades: an example from cassidine beetles. Insect Conservation and Diversity 10: 472–482. DOI://10.1111/icad.12250
Kimmig, J., Strotz, L. C., and Lieberman, B. S. 2017. The stalked filter feeder Siphusauctum lloydguntheri n. sp. from the middle Cambrian (Series 3: Stage 5) Spence Shale of Utah: Its biological affinities and taphonomy. Journal of Paleontology 91:902-910. DOI://10.1017/jpa.2017.57
Lieberman, B. S. , Kurkewicz, R., Shinogle, H. , Kimmig, J., and MacGabhann, B.A. 2017. Disc-shaped fossils resembling porpitids or eldonids from the early Cambrian (Series 2: Stage 4) of western U.S.A. PeerJ 5:e3312 DOI://10.7717/peerj.3312
Lieberman, B. S. 2016. Pattern versus processes and hierarchies: Revisiting eternal metamorphs in macroevolutionary theory. In N. Eldrege, T. Pievani, E. Serrelli, & I. Temkin (Eds.), Evolutionary Theory: A Hierachical Perspective. University of Chicago Press. (p. 29–46). University of Chicago Press.
Lieberman, B. S., and Saupe, E. E. 2016. Palaeoniches get stiches: analyses of niches informing macroevolutionary theory. Lethaia 49: 149–159. DOI://10.1111/let.12170
Simöes, M., Breitkreuz, L., Alvarada, M., Baca, S., Cooper, J. C., Heins, L., Herzog, K., and Lieberman, B.S. 2016. The evolving theory of evolutionary radiations. Trends in Ecologo & Evolution (TREE) 31: 21–34. DOI://10.1016/j.tree.2015.10.007
Hendricks, J. R., Stigall, A. L., and Lieberman, B. S. 2015. The Digital Atlas of Ancient Life: delivering information on paleontology and biogeography via the web. Paleontologica Electronica 18: (2.3E). DOI:10.26879/153E
Saupe, E. E., Qiao, H. Hendricks, J. R., Portell, R. W., Hunter, S. J., Soberon, J., and Lieberman, B. S. 2015. Estimating extinction risk as a function of niche breadth and geographic range size: a case study ysing Pliocene–recent Atlantic Coastel Plain mollusks. Global Ecology and Biogeography 24: 1159–1169. DOI:10.1111/geb.12333
Myers, C. E., Stigall, A. L., and Lieberman, B. S. 2015. PaleoENM: Applying ecological niche modeling to the fossil record. Paleobiology 41(2): 226–244. DOI:10.1017/pab.2014.19
Casey, M. M., and Lieberman, B. S. 2014. Beyond Memorization: An Intermediate-level Paleontology Activity That Integrates Anatomy, Ecology, and Macroevolutionary Theory Using Trilobites. Evolution and Outreach 7(20): 1–10.
Saupe, E. E., J. R. Hendricks, R. W. Portell, H. J. Dowsett, A. Haywood, S. Hunter, and B. S. Lieberman. 2014. Macroevolutionary consequences of climate change on niche evolution in marine mollusks over the past three million years. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281, 20141995. DOI://10.1098/rspb.2014.1995
Gapp, I. W., and B. S. Lieberman. 2014. New Olenelloid trilobites from the Northwest Territories, Canada. Zootaxa. 3866(4): 479–498. DOI://10.11646/zootaxa.3866.4.2
Lieberman, B. S., and N. Eldredge. 2014. What is punctuated equilibrium? What is macroevolution. Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TREE) 29:185-186. DOI://10.1016/j.tree.2014.02.005
Saupe, E. E., J. R. Hendricks, A. T. Peterson, and B. S. Lieberman. 2014. Climate change and marine molluscs of the western North Atlantic: future prospects and perils. Journal of Biogeography 41: 1352–1366. DOI://10.1111/jbi.12289
Lieberman, B. S., and A. L. Melott. 2013. Declining volatility, a general property of disparate systems: from fossils, to stocks, to the stars. Palaeontology 56:1297-1304. doi: 10.1111/pala.12017.
Álvaro, J. Javier, P. Ahlberg, L. E. Babcock, O. L. Bordonaro, D. K. Choi, R. A. Cooper, G. K. Ergaliev, I. W. Gapp, M. G. Pour, N. C. Hughes, J. B. Jago, I. Korovnikov, J. R. Laurie, B. S. Lieberman, J. R. Paterson, T. V. Pegel, L. E. Popov, A. W. A. Rushton, M. F. Tortello, Z. Zhou, and A. Zylinska. 2013. Global Cambrian trilobite paleobiogeography assessed using Parsimony Analysis of Endemicity. Geological Society of London, Memoir Series: 38:273-296. Early Palaeozoic Biogeography and Palaeogeography, D. Harper and T. Servais (eds.). DOI://10.1144/M38.19
Myers, C. E., R. A. MacKenzie III, and B. S. Lieberman. 2013. A GIS approach to studying greenhouse biogeography: invasion and extinction in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. Paleobiology 39:135-148.
Gapp, I. W., C. R. Congreve, and B. S. Lieberman. 2012. Unraveling the phylogenetic relationships of the Eccoptochilinae, an enigmatic array of Ordovician cheirurid trilobites. PLoS One 7(11): e49115.
Lieberman, B. S. 2012. The geography of evolution and the evolution of geography. Evolution Education and Outreach 5:521-525. DOI:10.1007/s12052-012-0414-1
Lieberman, B. S. 2012. Adaptive radiations in the context of macroevolutionary theory: a paleontological perspective. Evolutionary Biology 39:181-191.
Peterson, A. T., and B. S. Lieberman. 2012. Species’ geographic distributions through time: playing catchup with changing climates. Evolution Education and Outreach 5:569-581. DOI: 10.1007/s12052-012-0385-2.
Marshall, A. Olcott, R. L. Wehrbein, B. S. Lieberman, and C. P. Marshall. 2012. Raman spectroscopic investigations of Burgess Shale-type preservation: a new way forward. Palaios 27:288-292.
Abe, F. R, and B. S. Lieberman. 2012. Quantifying morphological change during an evolutionary radiation of Devonian trilobites. Paleobiology 38(2):292-307.
Lieberman, B. S., and A. L. Melott. 2012. Whilst this planet goes cycling on: What role for periodic astronomical phenomena in large scale patterns in the history of life? Pp. 37-50 in J. Talent (Ed.), Earth and Life: Global Biodiversity, Extinction Intervals, and Biogeographic Perturbations Through Time, International Year of Planet Earth. Springer, Berlin.
Lieberman, B. S., and P. Cartwright. 2011. Macroevolutionary patterns and processes during the Cambrian radiation: Integrating evidence from fossils and molecules. Açoreana 7:15-38.
Congreve, C. R., and B. S. Lieberman. 2011. Phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of sphaerexochine trilobites. PloS One 6:e21304.
Lieberman, B. S. 2011. Presentation of the 2008 Paleontological Society Medal to Niles Eldredge. Journal of Paleontology 85:806.
Gapp, I. W., B. S. Lieberman, M. C. Pope, and K. Dilliard. 2011. New olenelline trilobites from the Northwest Territories, Canada, and the phylogenetic placement of Judomia absita. Zootaxa 2918:15-28.
Myers, C., and B. S. Lieberman. 2011. Sharks that pass in the night: Using GIS to investigate competition in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B. 278:681-689. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1617.
Yu-nan, W., Di-ying, H., and B. S. Lieberman. 2010. New Isoxys (Arthropoda) from the Cambrian Mantou Formation, Shandong Province. Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 49:398-406.
Abe, F. R., B. S. Lieberman, M. C. Pope, and K. Dilliard. 2010. New information on olenelline trilobites from the Early Cambrian Sekwi Formation, northwestern Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 47:1445-1449.
Lieberman, B. S., and T. S. Karim. 2010. Tracing the trilobite tree from the root to the tips: a model marriage of fossils and phylogeny. Arthropod Structure & Development 39:111-123. DOI://10.1016/j.asd.2009.10.004
Abe, F. R., and B. S. Lieberman. 2009. The Nature of evolutionary radiations: A case study involving Devonian trilobites. Evolutionary Biology 36:225-234. DOI://10.1007/s11692-009-9060-0
Moore, R. A., and B. S. Lieberman. 2009. Preservation of Early and Middle Cambrian soft-bodied arthropods from the Pioche Shale, Nevada, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 277:57-62. DOI://10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.02.014
Hendricks, J. R., B. S. Lieberman, and A. L. Stigall. 2008. Using GIS to study the paleobiogeography of soft-bodied Cambrian arthropods. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology 264:163-175. DOI://10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.04.014
Selected Presentations —
Select Invited Symposia and talks since 2012
Searching for General Principles in the History of Life. Department seminar, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, December 2, 2022.
Punctuated Equilibria and Stasis: A Hierarchical, Macroevolutionary Perspective. Topical session on Punctuated Equilibrium: 50 Years Later. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 10, 2022.
Declining volatility, a macroevolutionary property of disparate systems: from fossils, to stocks, to the stars. Virtual Science Happy Hour, Museum at Prairiefire, Overland Park, KS, March 24, 2021.
Fossils, Phylogeny, and Biogeography: A Macroevolutionary Perspective. National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology (DEB), Alexandria, VA, May 1, 2019.
Digitizing fossils to advance macroevolutionary research. Keynote presentation for session on Big data in palaeontology: sharing knowledge for leveraging research options. 5th International Palaeontological Congress, Paris, France, July 9, 2018.
The Cretaceous World-TCN. Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) Summit VI, Tech Town, Chattanooga, TN, November 2, 2016.
The Paleoniches-TCN. Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) Summit VI, Tech Town, Chattanooga, TN, November 2, 2016.
Chance and uncertainty in the history of life. Pensar La Muerta, Libertad Por El Saber, El Colegio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico, October 21, 2016.
The Paleoniches Thematic Collections Network. Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) Using Biodiversity Specimen-Based Data to Study Global Change Workshop, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, December 2, 2015.
Digital fossils: there’s an App for that. Topical session on using digitized data in geological and paleontological research I. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 3, 2015.
Chance and uncertainty in evolution. Festival delle Scienze Rome (Roman Science Festival), Rome, Italy, January 24, 2015.
Adaptive radiations in the context of macroevolutionary theory. Topical session on the coevolution of the Earth and Life: The role of the physical environment in species evolution. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 27, 2013.
Macroevolutionary consequences of profound climate change on niche evolution: An examination of marine mollusks over the past 3 million years. Topical session on the coevolution of the Earth and Life: The role of the physical environment in species evolution. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 27, 2013 (presented by E. Saupe).
Biogeographic responses of mollusk species to Plio-Pleistocene environmental change in the western Atlantic. Topical session on the coevolution of the Earth and Life: The role of the physical environment in species evolution. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 27, 2013 (presented by J. Hendricks).
Paleo-ENM: A valuable quantitative tool for understanding the coevolution of the Earth and of life. Topical session on the coevolution of the Earth and Life: The role of the physical environment in species evolution. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, October 27, 2013 (presented by C. Myers).
Five two hour lectures on a range of topics from Applying Biodiversity Science to Paleontology, to Stasis, to Astrobiology, to Phylogenetic Biogeography, to the History of Biogeography, to Evidence for Periodicity in the Fossil Record, to the Nature of Evolutionary Radiations, all part of a short course emphasizing Macroevolution at the 1st International Winter School on Evolution. University of Lisbon, Portugal, March 11-15, 2013.
Comparing and contrasting parsimony and maximum likelihood approaches to paleontological phylogenetics using trilobites as a model system. Topical session on the origins of arthropod diversity. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC, November 6, 2012 (presented by I. W. Gapp).
The PALEONICHES-TCN. Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) Summit II, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, October 22, 2012.
Applying biodiversity science to paleontology. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, August, 30, 2012.
Applying biodiversity science to paleontology. Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) Paleo Workshop Keynote speaker, Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, FL, April, 28, 2012.
Applying biodiversity science to paleontology. Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, March, 8, 2012.
Select Other Scientific Presentations Since 2012
Maximum likelihood and trilobites: a new approach to phylogenetic analyses of fossil taxa. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 3, 2015 (presented by L. Heins).
Declining volatility, a macroevolutionary property of disparate systems: from fossils, to stocks, to the stars. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC, November 5, 2012.
Awards & Honors —
2005—present Fellow of the Paleontological Society
2002 Schuchert Award, Paleontological Society, to a paleontologist under 40 whose research and career demonstrates excellence and promise
2000—2003 Paleontological Society distinguished lecturer
Grants & Other Funded Activity —
2023–present NSF Biodiversity on a Changing Planet, “Collaborative Research: BoCP Implementation: Using the Past to Predict the Future: How Physiology and other Functional Traits Determine Survival/Extinction in W. Atlantic Mollusks” $2,482,669 ($882,749 to KU), Lead PI, with collaborating institutions Paleontological Research Institution, William & Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, and Oxford University
2019–2022 NSF Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections, “Digitization PEN: Collaborative Research: Connecting the Cretaceous Seas of North America” $174,607 ($24,850 to KU), Lead institution is the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (LACMNH), I have a subcontract involving work with LACMNH and the Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, NY
2016—2020 NSF Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections, "Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: The Cretaceous World: Digitizing Fossils to Reconstruct Evolving Ecosystems in the Western Interior Seaway" $2,100,000 ($519,636 to KU), I am the lead PI
2013—2018 NSF Systematic Biology, “Integrating fossil data into likelihood-based phylogenetic analyses with trilobites as a model system” $448,665, I am a co-PI
2012—2018 NSF Emerging Frontiers, Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections, “Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: Digitizing Fossils to Enable New Syntheses in Biogeography- Creating a PALEONICHES-TCN” $950,000 ($600,000 to KU), I am the lead PI
2007—2013 NSF Systematic Biology RevSys, “Revisionary systematics of Cheirurid trilobites.” $450,000 ($213,000 to KU), I was a PI
2005—2008 NSF Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology, “An integrative paleontological and paleoenvironmental study of the Middle Cambrian Spence, Wheeler, and Marjum soft-bodied faunas of Utah.” $250,000 ($110,000 to KU), I was the PI
2004—2010 NSF DBI, “Archiving the history of life: High-density storage to solve space needs for an invertebrate paleontology research and teaching collection.” $251,708, I was originally a co-PI but became the PI
2004—2007 NASA Exobiology, “Did a gamma ray burst cause the late Ordovician mass extinction?” $417,552, I was a co-PI
2003—2006 KU Endowment Association, Self Faculty Scholar Award, $150,000, I was the PI
2001—2005 NSF Geology and Paleontology, “A Sequence, Chemo-, and Biostratigraphic Study of Late Early Cambrian Rocks, Southern Selwyn Basin, Mackenzie Mountains, N.W.T., Canada.” $212,000 ($117,000 to KU), I was the co-PI
2001—2002 National Geographic, “Early Cambrian Climate and Evolution.” $20,000, I was a co-PI
2000—2003 NSF-OPP Antarctic Geology and Geophysics, “Characterization of the Fauna of the Middle Cambrian Nelson Limestone: A Fauna of Relevance to Antarctic Geology.” $60,000, I was the PI
2000—2003 NSF EPSCoR First Award, “Assessing the Long Term Effects of Invasive Species Using the Fossil Record.” $35,000, I was the PI
1995—1997 NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Earth Sciences, $72,000
Memberships —
Paleontological Society
Sigma Xi