About Me

I am currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Union College and Research Associate at the Paleontological Research Institution. I am a paleobiologist studying macroevolutionary processes, focusing on how marine organisms evolve in response to environmental change. My main study system is mollusks, especially snails from the Miocene through the present day. I use techniques including isotopic sclerochronology, molecular and morphological phylogenetics, and statistical ecological and paleoecological methods to study how molluscan species and communities and their environments have changed over time.

Turritellid gastropods have been the subject of many of my studies. These snails are known to be one of the most abundant macrofossils in the fossil record since the Cretaceous, and have been important sources of subannual paleoclimate/paleoceanographic data from the fossil record.

My areas of interest include the intersection of selection and ontogenetic processes (growth and heterochronic) behind the evolution of shell shape, body-size evolution, and functional trait selectivity.