58 Future Leaders in Paleontology

The Paleontological Society is pleased to offer the “Future Leaders in Paleontology” topical session. This session will showcase the outstanding work of our student and early career members in a high-profile setting.

Sunday, 19 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 305

Participants

• Chair John Huntley
• Chair Sarah Jacquet
• Chair David Bapst

Presentations

• 1:35 PM
  Did Harpiform Trilobites Evolve to Plow Sediment?: Finally Putting a 100-Year-Old Hypothesis to the Test
  James Beech, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA and Nicholas Hebdon, Baylor University, Waco, TX and Kelly Dorgan, University of Texas at Austin, Port Aransas, TX and Priyanka Soni, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA and Jennifer Duncan, University of Texas at Austin, Port Aransas, TX and David Bottjer, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  412736 (Technical Sessions)
• 1:50 PM
  The Effects of Invasive Species on Late Ordovician Shallow Marine Food Web Structure During the Richmondian Invasion
  Samantha Maciech, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, NV and Madeline Ess, Miami University, Oxford, OH and Roxanne Banker, Providence College, Providence, RI and Ashley Dineen, UC Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, CA and Peter Roopnarine, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA and Carrie Tyler, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV
  413487 (Technical Sessions)
• 2:05 PM
  Changes in Multivariate Functional Space across the Richmondian Invasion in the Cincinnati Arch (Late Ordovician)
  Madeline Ess, Miami University, Oxford, OH and Roxanne Banker, Providence College, Providence, RI and Samantha Maciech, UNLV, North Las Vegas, NV and Ashley Dineen, UC Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, CA and Peter Roopnarine, California Academy of Sciences, Invertebrate Zoology & Geology, San Francisco, CA and Carrie Tyler, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV
  413563 (Technical Sessions)
• 2:20 PM
  A Review of Occurrences of the “Dorsal Organ” in Trilobites with Evidence from BSE-SEM Analysis of New Material of the Upper Ordovician Trilobite Cryptolithus tessellatus Green, 1832
  Alex Bradley, West Virginia University, MORGANTOWN, WV and James Lamsdell, West Virginia University, MORGANTOWN, WV
  412505 (Technical Sessions)
• 2:35 PM
  Microscale Cartilage Preservation in Exceptional Tully Monster Specimens
  Jacob Potter, UW-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI and Paul Mayer, The Field Museum, Chicago, IL and Heather Owen, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI and Andrew Young, The David and Sandra Douglass Collection, Evanston, IL and Patricia Coorough Burke, Milwaukee Public Museum, Milwaukee, WI and René Lauer, Lauer Foundation for Paleontology, Science, and Education, Wheaton, IL and Bruce Lauer, Lauer Foundation for Paleontology, Science, and Education, Wheaton, IL and Victoria McCoy, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
  414110 (Technical Sessions)
• 2:50 PM
  Fossils Bridge Late Triassic Gap in the Non-Marine Vertebrate Paleocommunity Record and Pose New Questions about the End-Triassic Extinction
  Ben Kligman, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC and Robin Whatley, Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL and Jahandar Ramezani, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA and Adam Marsh, Petrified Forest National Park, Petrified Forest, Arizona and Tyler Lyson, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, CO and Adam Fitch, Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois and William Parker, Petrified Forest National Park, Petrified Forest Natl Pk, AZ and Anna Behrensmeyer, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
  412689 (Technical Sessions)
• 3:05 PM
  Disturbed? Probably: Investigation into how Anoxia and Ocean Acidification Affected the Functional Diversity of Late Triassic Marine Ecosystems Across the Norian–Rhaetian Boundary
  Fiorella Ramirez-Guasp, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV and Lydia Tackett, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO and Roxanne Banker, Providence College, Providence, RI and Ashley Dineen, UC Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, CA and Peter Roopnarine, California Academy of Sciences, Invertebrate Zoology & Geology, San Francisco, CA and Carrie Tyler, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV
  413248 (Technical Sessions)
• 3:20 PM
  Latitudinal Trends in Morphological Complexity: Gradients, Filters, and Discordance with Species Richness
  Sharon Zhou, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL and David Jablonski, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL and Stewart Edie, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. and Katie Collins, Natural History Museum, London
  412781 (Technical Sessions)
• 3:50 PM
  Increased polymorphism is associated with heightened extinction across the end-Cretaceous event in cheilostome bryozoans
  Sarah Leventhal, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. and Stewart Edie, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
  413355 (Technical Sessions)
• 4:05 PM
  The Problematic Scleractiniamorph Corals – Seeking Morphologic and Phylogenetic Affinity Among Rugosan and Scleractinian Ancestries
  Samantha Hartzell, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN and Claudia Johnson, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
  414532 (Technical Sessions)
• 4:20 PM
  Coral Triangle Reef Diversity in the Past and Present
  Katherine Faulkner, University of Oxford, Oxford and Melissa Versteeg, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne and Victoria Buckland, University of Oxford, Oxford and Kenneth Johnson, Natural History Museum, London, London and Theresa Rueger, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne and Erin Saupe, University of Oxford, Oxford and Nadia Santodomingo, Senckenberk Naturmuseum, Frankfurt
  413324 (Technical Sessions)
• 4:35 PM
  Interplay of Body Size and Functional Ecology: Overlap and Divergence in Bivalvia
  Amanda Doyle, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois and Katie Collins, Natural History Museum, London and Stewart Edie, National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C. and David Jablonski, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  412815 (Technical Sessions)
• 4:50 PM
  A SERIES OF SITES IN INNER SPACE CAVERN ON THE EDWARDS PLATEAU, TEXAS, DOCUMENT VERTEBRATE DIVERSITY FROM WARM (MIS 3) AND COOL (MIS 2) INTERVALS OF THE LATE PLEISTOCENE.
  John Moretti, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
  414038 (Technical Sessions)
• 5:05 PM
  Assessing the environmental forces that shape the distribution of past species invasions to inform future projections
  Priyanka Soni, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA and Austin Hendy, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA and David Bottjer, Univ Southern California Dept Earth Sci, Los Angeles, CA
  413779 (Technical Sessions)