Keana Tang

Headshot of Keana Tang
  • Doctoral Candidate - Paleobotany

Contact Info

Haworth Hall
1200 Sunnyside Ave
Lawrence, KS 66045

Education —

M.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, 2021, Lawrence, KS
B.S. in Organismal Biology, California State University Long Beach, 2018, Long Beach, California

Selected Publications —

Tang K.K., Smith S.Y., Atkinson B.A. 2023 Winged fruits of Friisifructus aligeri gen. et sp. nov. from the Late Cretaceous of western North America. IJPS 184(4): 271-281. Doi: 10.1086/724745 

Tang K.K., Smith S.Y., Atkinson B.A. 2022 Extending beyond Gondwana: Cretaceous Cunoniaceae from western North America. New Phytologist 234: 704-718. Doi: 10.1111/nph.17976


 

Selected Presentations —

Tang K.K., Matsunaga K.S., Atkinson B.A. Fossil flowers support a Cretaceous diversification of crown-group Laurales. May 30, 2024. International Organization of Palaeobotany Conference 2024, Prague, Czech Republic. 

Tang K.K., Matsunaga K.S., Atkinson B.A. Fossil flowers support a Cretaceous diversification of crown-group Laurales. April 13, 2024. Mid-continent Paleobotanical Colloquium 2024, Chicago, Illinois, USA. 

Tang K.K. All about Laurales: Using fossil flowers to reconstruct a macroevolutionary history. March 23, 2024. KU Commons Red Hot Research, Lawrence, Kansas, USA. 

Tang K.K. A crown of laurels ain’t worth much: Fossil flowers elucidate the macroevolutionary history of Laurales. February 23, 2024. KUNHM Science Slide Jam, Lawrence, Kansas, USA. 

Tang K.K., Matsunaga K.S., Atkinson B.A. New floral diversity of Lauraceae in the Late Cretaceous. July 24, 2023, Botany 2023, Boise, Idaho, USA.

Tang K.K., Matsunaga K.S., Atkinson B.A. Crown group Lauraceae in the Late Cretaceous: new evidence from fossil flowers. July 25, 2022, Botany 2022, Anchorage, Alaska, USA.


 

Awards & Honors —

  • Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Distinguished Thesis Award, 2024 
  • KU Outstanding Master’s Thesis/Research Project Award, 2022 
  • Maynard Moseley Award, Botanical Society of America, 2022 
  • Isabel Cookson Award, Botanical Society of America, 2020 
  • N. Gary Lane Student Research Award Recipient, Paleontological Society, 2020


 

Grants & Other Funded Activity —

  • Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Award, Botanical Society of America, 2022 
  • R.C. Lewontin Early Award, Society for the Study of Evolution, 2022 
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2021-present 

Memberships —

  • Botanical Society of America International Organization of Paleobotany Society for the Study of Evolution