Postdoctoral Associates Richard Krause Differential preservation is always a concern for paleontologists. Even organisms with easily preserved hard parts, such as calcitic brachiopods, can exhibit a wide range of preservational styles depending on the interplay of a number of extrinsic and intrinsic factors. This raises the possibility that nearly identical faunas could appear to have highly divergent characteristics if subjected to different diagenetic histories. Using the Schuchert Brachiopod Collection of the Peabody Museum, I am working toward a more detailed understanding of temporal fluctuations in preservational style, and quantifying the effect that differential preservation has on our understanding of diversity, abundance, and size in brachiopod faunas. Marc Laflamme My research interests lie in the classification and preservation of the Ediacara biota, the oldest large and complex organisms in the rock record. These globally-distributed soft-bodied organisms abruptly appear in the fossil record some 578 million years ago, and represent the dominant members of early ecosystems up until the Cambrian explosion of animals. My research focuses on the enigmatic Rangeomorphs and Erniettomorphs, which likely represent extinct lineages on par with animals and plants. I have used traditional and landmark-based morphometric techniques to study the growth and differentiation in closely related species, and recently applied modeling techniques to evaluate the likely feeding strategies employed by these enigmatic organisms. My present research focuses on the taphonomic pathways that allowed for the preservation of soft-bodied Ediacara biota in coarse sediments. Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) is being used to study the chemical differentiation found in Ediacaran preservational settings. Jih-Pai Lin My research focuses on the origination and sustainability of marine benthic communities through time with emphasis on the early evolution and ecology of arthropods and echinoderms during the Cambrian explosion. The unique aspect of the Cambrian-Precambrian transition is that most of the modern phyla have evolved or can be traced to that critical time and most of modern animal classes are fully established by the Ordovician. Thus, we can test known hypotheses on evolutionary ecology based on the new information we gathered around the beginning of the fossil record. One idea is that the dynamic interactions among principle ecologic members already existed among Cambrian deposits of exceptional preservation based on my work on Kaili Biota. I would like to test it further with other major deposits in the early fossil record. Maria McNamara My research interests lie primarily in the field of taphonomy, particularly the exceptional preservation of non-biomineralised tissues in the fossil record. Such Konservat-Lagerstätten are a major focus of palaeobiological research worldwide as they can provide the only evidence of many extinct organisms, and invaluable information on the anatomy of ancient organisms and the diversity, and ecology, of ancient communities. A profound understanding of taphonomic processes is crucial to any attempt to elicit palaeobiological information from such faunas. My research to date has focused upon the taphonomy of higher vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), which have not been the subject of comprehensive taphonomic investigations previously. I use fossil-based and experimental approaches to address fundamental questions regarding processes that occur during decay, including the authigenic mineralisation of soft tissues, the preservation of soft tissues as organic remains, the degradation of keratinous tissues, and physical taphonomic processes. I am currently working on the preservation of structural colour in the fossil record. Graduate students Michelle Casey My research focuses on the impact of eutrophication on the molluscan predator-prey ecology of Long Island Sound. To this end, I use several different methods including stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon to investigate trophic position and diet, predation traces such as drill-holes and repair scars to examine predation intensity, and comparisons of the living and dead communities to examine ecological disturbance. I also work with a combination of modern and archaeological shell material in order to establish a pristine, pre-anthropogenic ecological baseline. Simon Darroch My research currently focusses on patterns and rates of biotic recovery after mass extinction, and developing quantitative tests for ecological models of 'disaster' and 'opportunistic' communities. I am also interested in the concept of an overriding biological control over carbonate sedimentation, and using geochemical methods to test the concept of oolites and seafloor aragonite fans as 'disaster' sediments appearing in the aftermath of ecological crises. Lastly, I am currently working on the occurrences and functional morphology of (unusual) tetragonal symmetry in modern and ancient crinoids, and trying to ally the results with concepts of phenotypic plasticity and extra axial theory (EAT). Una Farrell My research focuses on the paleoecology and taphonomy of sites of exceptional preservation from the Late Ordovician Taconic Foreland Basin of Upstate NY. Beecher's Trilobite Bed, near Rome NY, is a locality known for the preservation of trilobite soft-tissues in pyrite. Recent fieldwork has led to the discovery of multiple new sites with similar preservation in the same depositional basin, indicating that conditions for pyritization occurred multiple times. I am particularly interested in assessing oxygen levels in the water column and determining the diagenetic environment in which the trilobites and other organisms were preserved. The project includes microstratigraphical logging, sampling and paleontological analyses in addition to geochemical techniques for determining paleoenvironmental conditions, such as analyses of iron systematics, sulfur isotopes and trace element concentrations. Thomas Hegna Arthropods are an incredibly diverse and successful group of organisms comprising over three-fourths of all known fossil and living species. Despite their ubiquity, many large questions remain about the interrelationships between and within the major clades of arthropods. My project aims to synthesize data from the fossil record, living animals and molecular phylogenetics to reconstruct the history of a peculiar group of crustaceans: the branchiopods (including tadpole shrimp, fairy shrimp, clam shrimp and water fleas). This group is of particular interest due to their hypothesized phylogenetic proximity to the origin of the hexapods and their early invasion of freshwater ecosystems, which may have been a key step toward terrestrialization. Ultimately this work will contribute to a better understanding of the phylogeny of Crustacea and its relationship to the Hexapoda. Erik Sperling My research focuses on major events in the history of animal life, such as the Cambrian radiation and mass extinctions. My masters research involved a stratigraphic and sediment geochemistry study of two potential Permian-Triassic boundary sections in the western United States. During my doctoral research I have taken a molecular paleobiological approach to understanding the early evolution of animals, particularly the sponges. I have used molecular data (phylogenies and clocks),combined with evidence from the fossil and sedimentary geochemical records to investigate diverse questions regarding the nature of enigmatic Precambrian fossils such as the rangeomorphs and Dickinsonia, the evolution of siliceous biomineralization within sponges, the origin of metazoan feeding modes, and the assembly of the animal genetic toolkit. Jakob Vinther I work on the early evolution of molluscs and annelids as part of my PhD thesis. This involves description of exceptionally preserved fossils as well as reconstructing the evolutionary relationships using molecular biological techniques. My aim is to understand how phylogenies and fossils can illustrate morphological evolution of bodyplans. I am also interested in taphonomy, especially preservation of melanin and I am working on interpreting original colors of fossil birds and their stem groups. www.jakobvinther.com Amelinda Webb Broadly speaking, my research interest is in Phanerozoic ecology, although I prefer to work in the Paleozoic and the modern (as an analogue). My thesis focuses on developing and implementing methods for quantitatively measuring the ecologic response of marine invertebrate communities to major environmental changes, specifically during mass extinction events (Ordovician-Silurian and Devonian). Various other projects, past and present, include: the ecology of encrusting organisms on Devonian brachiopods, foraging strategy in Zoophycus burrows, predation on modern and Carboniferous brachiopods and molluscs, biomineralization in brachiopods and molluscs related to the repair of non-fatal predation damage, using morphology to detect competition between Carboniferous and Permian brachiopods, ecological impact of rapid global warming events such as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, and biotic response of modern organisms to different rates and magnitudes of environmental disturbances. Jo Wolfe My dissertation research addresses the origins of arthropod diversity, especially the evolution of segmentation and appendage development. This includes exploring the phylogenetic relationships between the major clades of arthropods: chelicerates, crustaceans, hexapods, myriapods, and extinct groups. I am comparing molecular vs. morphological data (including fossils from diverse Paleozoic Lagerstätten), and parsimony vs. other model-based approaches. I will be applying data on developmental gene expression patterns across taxa to make inferences about mechanisms of limb evolution in the Cambrian explosion.