The delegates of ProgPal 2012 outside the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Cambridge. 24th May, 2012.
The full programme for ProgPal 2012 with contact details of all speakers and full abstracts can be found on the Palaeontological Association’s website here: http://www.palass.org/modules.php?name=propal&page=83
Prof Simon Conway-Morris FRS
Opening Remarks
Simon Conway-Morris is a Fellow of the Royal Society, is a professor of palaeontology in the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge, author of The Crucible of Creation, gave the Royal institution Christmas Lectures in 1996, was awarded the Walcott Medal and the Lyell Medal and recently launched www.mapoflife.org
http://www.esc.cam.ac.uk/people/academic-staff/simon-conway-morris
Oliver Knevitt
Organic preservation of eyes in conodonts
I studied at Cambridge before heading up to Leicester to do a PhD. My work is on the Silurian Lagerstatte in Canada. So I’ve got phyllocarids coming out of my ears.
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/geology/extranet/staff/postgraduate-students/ojk3/project%20page
Twitter: @OliverKnevitt
Blog at Science 2.0: http://www.science20.com/between_death_and_data
Personal blog: http://oliverspaleoblog.wordpress.com/
David Legg
Bivalved Cambrian arthropods: beyond the carapace
David studied at the University of Portsmouth, the University of Bristol and now studies the phylogeny and evolution of stem-group arthropods at Imperial College, London.
http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2012-issue-2-rss-feed/112-253/215-xmt-of-carboniferous-scorpions-authors
Sam Giles
Documenting the endoskeletal structure of the earliest ray-finned fish
Sam did her undergrad degree at Bristol and is now working on her PhD at Oxford. She works on the interrelationships of early fish.
Laura Soul
Modelling the impact of phylogeny of interpretations of extinction in deep time
Laura is studying for a DPhil in evolutionary palaeobiology at the University of Oxford.
Sam Bennett
Ichthyosaur ontogeny and sexual dimorphism
I am Sam Bennett. I am an ichthyosaur researcher interested in ontogeny and sexual dimorphism. I did my undergraduate degree in Geology at Royal Holloway, University of London. After this, I did a masters by research at RHUL and the Natural History Museum, London. I am currently doing a PhD, working to establish a method of estimating relative ages of ichthyosaurs regardless of size as well as identifying the sex of individual specimens. I am still based at RHUL and the NHM.
Gabriela Sobral
Braincase redescription of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) based on computed tomography
Bsc in Biology (Zoology) from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and Msc in Comparative Biology from Universidade de São Paulo (USP), with focus on theoretical phylogenetics (supertree & supermatrix). Currently doing her PhD in the Humboldt Universität / Museum für Naturkunde Berlin on the evolutionary origin of impedance matching hearing in archosaurs.
http://mfnsu32.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/institution/mitarbeiter/sobral-gabriela/
Andrew Cuff
Ornithomimosaur cranial reconstructions and FE modelling
My PhD is based around the evolution of edentate morphologies in theropods. This work is focused on the ornithomimosaurs, which over their evolution follow a trend of tooth loss from the 200+ teeth of Pelecanimimus to the edentate morphs seen in the derived ornithomimds. Using FE analyses I hope to answer questions about the evolution of beaks in this group and the effects this might have on their diet.
Stephan Lautenschlager
Functional morphology of Erlikosaurus andrewsi (Dinosauria: Therizinosauria): form, function and dietary preferences based on a biomechanical model
Stephan worked as a professional software engineer for a few years before switching to palaeontology. He studied geology and palaeontology in Munich and is now working on his PhD in Bristol, focusing on 3D visualisation and functional morphology of theropod dinosaurs.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/earthsciences/people/stephan-lautenschlager
Rachel Mitchell
Analysis of limb bones from a small-bodied theropod (Tetanurae) from the Kem Kem Formation, Morocco
Rachel studied geology at the University of Glasgow and as a result has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with rocks. Now that she has graduated she is hoping to overcome this infatuation by spending the next year in Edinburgh studying for a Masters in Environmental Protection and Management.
Tom Stubbs
The adaptive radiations of Mesozoic crurotarsans in the aftermath of the end-Triassic extinction
Tom studied at The University of Sheffield before moving to Bristol and completing an MSc in Palaeobiology. He is now a PhD student at Bristol University working on the evolution of sauropterygian marine reptiles.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/earthsciences/people/thomas-l-stubbs/index.html
