People

Jennifer Kasbohm

I am an Earth historian seeking to tell stories about Earth’s past. As a geochronologist, I generate the timelines for geologic events that help us better understand interactions between the solid Earth, surface environments, oceans, and atmosphere in deep time. I have primarily used the technique of CA-ID-TIMS U-Pb zircon geochronology, which can yield ages with precision of up to <0.1%. As a postdoc at Yale, I have been working to constrain timescales and carbon dioxide levels of the Miocene Climate Optimum, to assess the role of large igneous province emplacement in this warming event.

Kat Schroeder

I study the effects of extreme body size on the community ecology, diversity and behavior of non-avian dinosaurs. My research includes large data analysis of dinosaur body size diversity across spatial scales, the role of juvenile megatheropods in the structuring of dinosaur communities, the evolution of skull structure in tyrannosauroids, and the dietary ecology of tyrannosaurids through ontogeny.

Maoli Vizcaíno

My dissertation research centers around how both environmental factors and anthropogenic change affect planktonic foram community composition and turnover, and the ways these environmental drivers of community change vary both spatially and temporally. My work is in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean regions, as I am interested in how regional perspectives fit into larger global-scale patterns of change. Though my background is in paleoceanography and micropaleontology, I am currently expanding my focus into modern ecology concepts and working with modern planktic foram assemblages.

Wyatt Petryshen

I am broadly interested in wanting to understand the biotic and abiotic factors, micro and macroevolutionary processes, and system dynamics that control patterns of biodiversity through time. As our planet continues to face rapid environmental change, a holistic understanding of the controls on biodiversity is required if we hope to address today’s biodiversity crisis and maintain beneficial ecosystem services.

Karinne Tennenbaum

Karinne is an undergraduate researcher pursuing a BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology on the Biodiversity & the Environment track with aspirations to attend graduate school after Yale. She joined the lab during Fall 2022 as part of the First-Year Seminar: Collections of the Peabody Museum (EVST040). Working with Dr. Elizabeth Sibert, she is continuing her class project in investigating whether tooth morphology can contribute to microfossil teeth classification and support the timing of Cyclothone evolution.