11 Future Voices in Geoscience- Undergraduate Research Posters

This session is for two-year college and four-year college and university students presenting research posters in any subdiscipline of geosciences. Posters and presentations will be judged for awards.

Monday, 18 May 2026
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Alvarado D/E

Early Eocene Small Mammal Competition: Documenting the Past to Address the Present

Paper number: 11-0
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

The early Eocene (56-52 Ma) is a paleontologically significant time period characterized by the appearance and proliferation of ancestors and relatives of modern mammalian groups as well as climate fluctuations analogous to modern climate instability. Insights on how modern taxa respond to environments is instrumental for testing hypotheses on early Eocene faunal ecology and adaptations. The results in turn can be used to inform conservation efforts for modern taxa. Focusing on Bighorn Basin, Wyoming (Willwood Fm) fossil taxa, I report on the potential for competition and niche partitioning between early Eocene faunivorous small-bodied mammals: Haplomylus, an extinct relative of today’s elephant shrew (Order Macroscelidea) in Africa and omomyid primates Tetonius and Teilhardina in the lineage that gave rise to modern tarsiers in Asia, as well as modern anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans).  Comparative characteristics include ecology, locomotion, diet, and body mass responses to well-documented thermal temperature fluctuations (PETM). By identifying potential stressors in early Eocene small-bodied faunivorous mammals, we gain insights applicable to survival strategies for their modern descendants.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410515

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