Following the annual meeting, we're highlighting the student and early career award winners from the society. Over the next week or two, we'll be running brief interviews with awardees on the research related to their award. Today we talk with Krista Koeller (Virginia Tech University), recipient of the Estes Memorial Grant for her project, “Exploring constraints on pectoral girdle morphology during the evoluti... Read More

Following the annual meeting, we're highlighting the student and early career award winners from the society. Over the next week or two, we'll be running brief interviews with awardees on the research related to their award. Today we talk with Spencer M. Hellert (Indiana University), recipient of the Wood Award for her project, "Understanding the Causes of Phenotypic Integration Patterns in the Evolution of Flightle... Read More

Following the annual meeting, we're highlighting the student and early career award winners from the society. Over the next week or two, we'll be running brief interviews with awardees on the research related to their award. First up is Niels de Winter (VUB, Free University of Brussels, Belgium--you can also visit the research group's Facebook page), recipient of the Cohen Award for his project, “Trace Element Seaso... Read More

      In the badlands of southeastern Alberta sits a horned dinosaur skull, awaiting liftoff.       My crew and I found it a couple of years ago, and it proved to be the most exciting find of the season. The skull was eroding out of a mudstone wall, with the characteristic frill pointing outwards, and the snout projecting inwards. As usual, we had stumbled upon it with less than a we... Read More

This year marks four consecutive years where I have been part of research at Wyoming’s Natural Trap Cave. Last week, we closed the gate entrance to the cave for the last time for the foreseeable future.  Sunset on Natural Trap Cave, locked up tight Working in the cave has been fantastic. I never thought I’d have a chance to go into a cave like this, much less also do science there. First steps... We put our f... Read More

I do much of my fieldwork in the badlands of Alberta, and when people learn this, they often ask, “Haven’t we found all the fossil species there yet? Why keep going back?” I typically answer “no”, and then go on to explain that there have been many reports of new species from those rocks in recent years (including a new one today). But let’s say we did have a record of every fossil animal that eve... Read More

Editor's note: This guest post comes to us from Catherine Early, one of the co-organizers of the WSVP 2017 event. The image above, provided by the author, may be shared on social media. Women* make up half of the world’s population, but data show that they are underrepresented in STEM fields (Hill et al. 2010, Shen 2013). Often, this gender disparity is not obvious when one examines the demographics of students in various ... Read More

Editor's note: This guest post comes to us from Mr. Robert Gay, a paleontologist who has conducted fieldwork within what is now Bears Ears National Monument. Bears Ears National Monument and others are currently under review by the Department of the Interior; to provide your own comment, you can do so at regulations.gov.Bears Ears National Monument (BENM), established by President Barack Obama in late 2016, encompasses 1.3 millio... Read More

Editor's note: This guest post comes to us from Dr. Allison Stegner, a paleontologist who has conducted fieldwork within what is now Bears Ears National Monument.After you have read Dr. Stegner's post, learn more about SVP's involvement with BENM here. “Here it comes!” I call down to my field assistant, Molly, as I begin to lower a 5-gallon bucket full of sediment on a rope pulley system we have cobbled toget... Read More

      An interesting paper came across my desk this past week, authored by Charles Marshall and published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Marshall notes that the foundational doctrines of most scientific disciplines can be expressed as simple laws, and that although the science of palaeobiology has provided key insights into matters of evolutionary ecology and biology, these have yet to be condensed into m... Read More