Top row: Brian Rankin at SVP; Greg Wilson, Mark Goodwin and SVP Host Randy Irmis; Lillian Pearson with T. rex at SVP; Mackenzie Kirchner-Smith discusses SVP poster.
UCMPers were a very visible presence at the 76th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP). Held in Salt Lake City in October 2016, the meeting was co-chaired by UCMP alum Randy Irmis. Attendees enjoyed a welcoming reception at the Natural History Museum of Utah housed in the new Rio Tinto Center nestled into the foothills of the Wasatch Mountain Range above Salt Lake City. Members of the UCMP community presented thirteen talks and nine posters. Students presenting at the conference were partially supported by UCMP travel grants made possible by the generosity of UCMP donors. The UCMP also hosted a reception for UCMP alumni and friends.
From the Padian Lab, Ashley Poust gave a talk and Sara ElShafie and Mackenzie Kirchner-Smith presented posters on their respective research projects. Undergrads Savannah Blake (poster) and Ben Kligman, and alum Armita Manafzadeh (talk) also attended. From the Barnosky Lab, graduate students Eric Holt and Nick Spano shared research posters and recent alums, Allison Stegner and Emily Lindsey, shared highlights of their research in oral sessions. Postdoctoral Scholar Brian Rankin and collections assistant Lauren Fowler presented their ongoing work on Eocene mammals in the Uinta Basin and Wasatch Range with Pat Holroyd.
UCMP staff Mark Goodwin and Pat Holroyd were authors on several papers and Lisa White presented a poster on a developing website about the McKittrick tar seep fossils. Collections assistant Lillian Kennedy Pearson presented a poster together with Vince Santucci of the National Park Service on vertebrate paleontology resource monitoring at Pt. Reyes National Seashore.
At the Geological Society of America (GSA) annual meeting in Denver in September, members of the Marshall Lab (Lucy Chang) and the Finnegan Lab (Seth Finnegan, Adiel Klompmaker, Larry Taylor, Emily Orzechowski) presented in several sessions during the 4-day conference. Staff members Diane Erwin shared new details on fossil insects from Nevada and Lisa White, together with EPICC (Eastern Pacific Invertebrate Communities of the Cenozoic) partners, showcased a draft of the virtual field experience modules that will be part of the EPICC outreach materials. Postdoctoral Scholar Jessica Bean presented on the Understanding Global Change project.
