Lab Group News

New Papers Published (January 2024)

Estefania’s paper, Incorporating diverse voices in geoconservation in Portland, Jamaica, has been published, check it out!

Our paper about “Reef Survivor” has been published (Open Access, so everyone can read it). “Reef Survivor”: A new board game designed to teach college and university undergraduate students about reef ecology, evolution, and extinction

New NSF Award (September 2023)

A new NSF award has been granted to the research team! The Martindale, Matheny, and Kemp lab are collaborating with colleagues in Jamaica as part of the GeoPATHs program to engage non-Geoscience students in Earth Science research through service learning! Check out our developing website for the project or read the project summary on the NSF site.

 

Katherine wins the Undergraduate Excellence in Paleontology Award! (May 2023)

It was just announced that (w)undergrad Katherine Faulkner was awarded the 2023 PaleoSoc and AWG Undergraduate Excellence in Paleontology Award!

 

 

Congratulations Lab Graduates! (May 2023)

Congratulations to Dr. Estefania Salgado Jauregui for a successful dissertation defense. She is graduating this summer as is (w)undergrad Katherine Faulkner! We are so proud of them and will miss having them in the group!

Congratulations to Katherine on her GRFP! (April 2023)

It was just announced that (w)undergrad Katherine Faulkner was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Way to go!!!

Congrats to Travis for his 1st Ph.D. publication (November 2022)

Congratulations to Travis whose first Ph.D. paper is now published in Palaios: “Assessment of a reef community from Lower Jurassic (Pliensbachian) strata in the Central High Atlas Mountains of Morocco“.

 

New Lab Logo! (August 2022)

The lab crew wanted a group logo, so we ran a little design competition and here’s the result! I am in love with it, especially since the designer managed to capture all the dimensions of our research!
Our team studies a whole manner of things, including Paleobiology, (Paleo)ecology, Sedimentology, Micropaleontology, Geobiology, Geochemistry, Geoscience Education, etc.), so a logo (and lab group name) was difficult to distill down to just one or two things.
So, if you think that there’s a lot going on in that logo, well, there’s a lot going on in our lab!

The board game “Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized” is now available for purchase! (May 2022)

At long last, our Taphonomy Board Game is available for purchase at the UT Austin Co-op! The game was developed by Dr. Martindale and Dr. Weiss and represents the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte. The finalized game is a “new and improved” version with better playability, flavor text, and some gorgeous artwork by John Maisano, our resident paleoartist. Everything fits in one beautiful box with a “mousepad” game board and durable tokens that are ready for use! Each set of cards features a focal point of John’s Ya Ha Tinda painting making the final version a beautiful and durable game.

Congratulations to Claire on her GRFP! (April 2022)

It was just announced that Claire Williams (Ph.D. student) was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Way to go Claire!!!

 

Welcome Katya (April 2022)

Welcome to Ekaterina (Katya) Larina! She is joining the JSG as a Postdoctoral Fellow for 2022-2024 and we are thrilled to have her collaborate with our team!

 

Patty, Claire, and Liam passed their Qualifying Exams! (April 2022)

Patty Standring, Claire Williams, and Liam Norris all passed their Qualifying Exams this month and will advance to candidacy! Congratulations and sincere thanks to the examining committees!

Estefania’s paper is open access for March! (March 2022)

Estefania’s first Ph.D. paper is open access for the month of March! Check out: “Learning outcomes of the educational board game “Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized,” evaluated with high school learners in a summertime program“.

 

First Paper of 2022 (January 2022)

Congratulations to William Foster for his new paper: Bioindicators of severe ocean acidification are absent from the end-Permian mass extinction. This project includes the work of two awesome UT Austin (w)undergrads mentored by Will, Jaime Hirtz and Maria Reistroffer (both went on to achieve MSc degrees).

 

Sinjini publishes her first Ph.D. paper! (December 2021)

Congratulations to Sinjini whose first Ph.D. paper has been published! Click here to read about “Global controls on phosphatization of fossils during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event“.

Estefania publishes her first paper! (October 2021)

Congratulations to Estefania whose first Ph.D. paper is now In Press! Click here to read about “Learning outcomes of the educational board game “Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized,” evaluated with high school learners in a summertime program“.

 

New paper about Jurassic corals (September 2021)

Congratulation to lead author Raph Vasseur and the whole team for the publication of our new paper: “Major coral extinctions during the early Toarcian global warming event”

 

Travis Passed his Qualifying Exams! (April 2021)

Travis Stone has passed his Qualifying Exams and will advance to candidacy! Congratulations Travis and sincere thanks to his examining Committee, Drs. Boucher, Kerans, Bodin, and Bennett!

So many student research grants to celebrate! (April 2021)

  • Congratulations to Patty Standring for winning the Paleontological Society’s Arthur J. Boucot Student Research Award!
  • Congratulations to Sinjini Sinha for winning an Evolving Earth Foundation student research grant and a Lewis and Clarke Foundation Grant!
  • Congratulations to Travis Stone for winning a Paleontological Society Student Research Award!

Undergrads are crushing it! (March 2021)

There is so much to celebrate! Two lab group (w)undergrads have won awards this week: Tyler Logie won second place in the UGS Writing Flag Awards (Research category), and Katherine Faulkner won Honorable Mention at the JSG Research Symposium (Undergraduate poster category).

Check out Undergrad Katherine Faulkner’s video poster! (February 2021)

(W)undergrad Katherine Faulkner submitted a video poster to The Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference (CTURC)! Check out her awesome work here: https://www.cturc.org/geoscience

Interdisciplinary Research funded! (December 2020)

The Martindale Lab is excited to collaborate with Dr. North Cooc, an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education and Center for Asian American Studies. This collaborative project, funded by the Associate Professor Experimental (APX) Workshop, will focus on closing improving equity in education using geoscience games.

 

Sinjini Passed her Qualifying Exams! (December 2020)

Sinjini Sinha has passed her Qualifying Exams and will advance to candidacy! Congratulations Sinjini and sincere thanks to her examining Committee, Drs. Rempe, Clarke, Foster, and Little!

Welcome new undergrads and Congrats to current undergrads! (October 2020)

The Martindale Lab is still excited to welcome new (w)undergrad students, Barbara Sulbaran and Tanner Fonville (Undergraduate Honors Program)! Additionally, Tyler Logie won an Undergraduate Research Fellowship from UT!

 

Dr. Martindale received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor! (September 2020)

We got the news a while ago, but it’s been a wild year! In February Dr. Martindale was granted tenure at UT Austin and in September (the official promotion date) she was promoted to Associate Professor.

Welcome new students! (August 2020)

It’s the first day of class in a very weird year, but the Martindale Lab is still very excited to welcome new grad students, Patty Standring (MSc.), Claire Williams (Ph.D.), and Liam Norris (Ph.D.). We can’t wait until we can celebrate together again!

 

Something to celebrate (July 2020)

  • Congratulations to (w)undergrad Katherine Faulkner for winning a CNS Scholarship!!!
  • Paper Accepted! Nick Ettinger had his MSc thesis work accepted for publication in Sedimentology.

Anna Weiss starting as an Assistant Professor at Midwestern State University (July 2020)

This fall, lab alumna, Dr. Anna M. Weiss, is starting a new position as an Assistant Professor at Midwestern State University, TX. Anna was the first Ph.D. student in the Martindale Lab (Ph.D. 2019) and continues to collaborate with the group. Congratulations Anna!

 

Something to celebrate (June 2020)

With everything that has been going on in the world, we realized that we missed some announcements (sorry!)! Here are four (NOW FIVE) awesome things to celebrate!
  1. Estefania was awarded the best student presentation at the GSA2019 annual meeting by the Geology and Society Division (September 2019)
  2. Just before the lockdown, Estefania passed her qualifying exam and advanced to candidacy! (March 2020)
  3. Incoming grad student Patty Standring was awarded an NSF GRFP Fellowship! (March 2020)
  4. Sinjini received the GSA Graduate Student Research Grant 2020! (May 2020)
  5. Tyler won an AAPG Foundation L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grant (June, 2020)

 

Something to celebrate (May 2020)

With classes moving online halfway through the semester and anxieties rising about safety and travel, it has been difficult to stay positive, but we have had some good things happen recently in the Martindale lab that are worth celebrating (in no particular order)!

  • Ph.D. student Sinjini Sinha won a Paleontological Society Grant, specifically the Mid-American Paleontology Society (MAPS) Outstanding Student Research Award!
  • Ph.D. student Travis Stone just had his first paper accepted: Bonuso et al., 2020 Upper Triassic (Carnian) sponge reef mounds from South Canyon, central Nevada. Facies 66, 16 (2020). doi: 10.1007/s10347-020-00600-1
  • Undergraduate researcher Brooke Bogan got into graduate school and submitted her first paper!
  • This fall we will have some new faces in the Martindale lab! We are excited to welcome these new colleagues!

 

New paper by multiple lab alumni and many press releases (February 2020)

Our new paper “Resilience of marine invertebrate communities during the early Cenozoic hyperthermals.” is getting some press: Gulf Coast Mollusks Rode Out Past Periods of Climate Change

Our Taphonomy board game is also being talked about by UT Austin, The Daily Texan, Laboratory Equipment.

 

Foster et al., papers win awards (December 2019/January 2020)

Foster et al., 2019 has been selected as the best paper for 2019 in Papers in Palaeontology (as judged by the journal’s editorial board).  The prize is awarded for scientific breadth, its importance and the quality of presentation of data. A different paper, Foster et al., 2018, was one Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology’s top-cited papers! Congrats Will!

 

Three new student papers (December 2019)

This month three new student papers have been published or made available online. Check them out!

 

Taphonomy Game paper is online (December 2019)

Check out the new paper about our board game: “Taphonomy: Dead and Fossilized”: A new board game designed to teach college undergraduate students about the process of fossilization. There is a nice press release about the paper from UT Austin, The Daily Texan, and another from Laboratory Equipment.

Many new student and postdoc papers (November 2019)

There have been so many new papers flying out of the lab, that I haven’t been able to keep up! These publications have been lead by students and postdocs and include several undergraduate researchers from UT Austin!

 

Drew Muscente starting as an Assistant Professor at Cornell College (August 2019)

Dr. A. Drew Muscente is starting a new position as an Assistant Professor at Cornell College. Drew was a Postdoctoral Researcher at UT from 2018 to 2019 and continues to collaborate with the Martindale Lab. Congratulations Drew!

William Foster starting as an Assistant Professor in Paleobiology at the University College Dublin, Ireland (July 2019)

Dr. William Foster is starting a new position as an Assistant Professor in Paleobiology at the University College Dublin, Ireland. Will was a JSG Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow (2015-2017) and continues to collaborate with the Martindale Lab. Congratulations Will!

NSF funds research on Early Jurassic marine ecosystems in Morocco (June 2019)

The National Science Foundation has awarded PI Rowan Martindale an NSF CAREER grant to study Early Jurassic marine communities and environments in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains! JSG has a short press release about the award here: www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2019/07/martindale-awarded-nsf-career-grant-for-paleontological-research-and-education/

Dr. Anna Weiss is off to Belize for a Postdoc (June 2019)

The newly minted Dr. Anna Weiss is heading down to the Environmental Research Institute at the University of Belize, where she will be a Climate Resilience Post-Doctoral Fellow working with Dr. Leandra Cho-Ricketts (University of Belize) and Dr. Justin Ries (Marine Science Center, Northeastern University).

 

We are proud to present Dr. Anna Weiss! (April 2019)

Congratulations to Anna Weiss for a successful Ph.D. defense! She also won the best PhD Talk for Fall 2018!

New Paper by In Press by Anna Weiss (February 2019)

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Anna Weiss for her new paper, now in Press: Paleobiological traits that determined scleractinian coral survival and proliferation during the late Paleocene and early Eocene hyperthermals

Paleontological Board Game about Taphonomy (January 2019)

PhD Student Anna Weiss and Dr. Rowan Martindale are developing an educational board game about fossilization. The game is modeled after the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte and is currently being tested in undergraduate classrooms across the United States. We hope to make it available to the public soon, but until then, here is our GSA Abstract.

New paper published in a Special Edition of Paleo3 honoring Dr. David J. Bottjer (January 2019)

The Dave Bottjer Special Edition of Paleo 3 is finally out and with it our manuscript about The survival, recovery, and diversification of metazoan reef ecosystems following the end-Permian mass extinction event.

Gulf of Mexico Reef Symposium (September 2018)

Our lab, in collaboration with the Correa Lab at Rice University, is organizing a symposium about reef ecosystems. See details here: www.jsg.utexas.edu/martindale/gulf-of-mexico-reef-symposium/

 

New paper in press on Moroccan lithiotid-coral communities (September 2018)

Our manuscript has been accepted for publication: Stratigraphic distribution and paleoecological significance of Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian-Toarcian) lithiotid-coral reefal deposits from the Central High Atlas of Morocco (written by PI Martindale, UT students Hannah Brame and Nick Ettinger, and collaborators from Slovenia, France, Denmark, and Morocco).

 

Ghost Ranch collaborative manuscript now in Press (August 2018)

A collaborative manuscript (UT professors, postdocs, and students) on the sedimentology of Middle Jurassic strata (Todilto Fm. and Entrada Fm.) from Ghost Ranch is now in press: Antecedent aeolian dune topographic control on carbonate and evaporite facies: Middle Jurassic Todilto Member, Wanakah Formation, Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, USA

Anna and Chiara win JSG Awards (May 2018)

Anna Weiss won the Best TA award for her efforts in GEO 405 (Life Through Time) and Chiara Tornabene won the Jackson School of Geoscience Best Graduate student paper for Detecting photosymbiosis in fossil scleractinian corals. Congrats to both!

 

Anna Weiss named Currano Fellow (May 2018)

Anna Weiss is one of the inaugural recipients of the PaleoSoc/Bearded Lady Project Currano Fellowship! Read about her research in her guest blog on the Bearded Lady Project Webpage.

 

New Paper by Dr. William Foster (March 2018)

William Foster’s new paper is now online: Persistent environmental stress delayed the recovery of marine communities in the aftermath of the latest Permian mass extinction.

 

Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte Public Lecture (March 2018)

Dr. Martindale gave a public lecture about the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada. A recording of the talk is posted online.

 

New Paper by Selva Marroquín (February 2018)

Congratulations to lab alumna Selva Marroquín (MSc, 2016) for her new paper: New records of the late Pliensbachian to early Toarcian (Early Jurassic) gladius-bearing coleoid cephalopods from the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte, Canada

 

Poster award for Jordan Oefinger (February 2018)

Jordan Oefinger, an undergraduate student in the lab, won honorable mention (Undergraduate poster award) at the JSG poster symposium!

 

New Website for Anna Weiss (November 2017)

Check out Anna’s shiny new website: http://annamweiss.weebly.com/

 

William Foster is on to a new position (October 2017)

William Foster is off to Berlin, Germany, for new adventures as a Geo.X Young Academy Fellow. Good luck in Berlin Will, we will miss you!

 

New paper by Chiara Tornabene (August 2017)

Congratulations to lab alumna Chiara Tornabene (MSc, 2016) for her new paper: Detecting photosymbiosis in fossil scleractinian corals

 

New paper by Anna Weiss (August 2017)

Congratulations to Ph.D. student Anna Weiss for her new paper: Crustose coralline algae increased framework and diversity on ancient coral reefs

 

New Paper by Dr. William Foster (July 2017)

William Foster’s new paper about the recovery and diversification of marine communities following the late Permian mass extinction event is out.

 

Congratulations to Maria (May 2017)

Maria Reistroffer, an undergraduate student working with our lab, was selected as a winner of the 2017 AWG Undergraduate Excellence in Paleontology! She will continue her studies at Oklahoma State where she will be doing an MSc with Dr. Mike Grammer. Great Job Maria!

Nick wins best MSc talk (April 2017)

Nick Ettinger won the best talk at the JSG Master’s Saturday Seminar. His presentation was:Carbonate Platform Demise and Recovery at the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event: Data from the Adriatic Carbonate Platform

Congratulations to Hannah (April 2017)

Hannah Brame has received several awards including: a department teaching assistant award, a Paleontological Society student research grant, and a Geological Society of America student research grant!

 

Martindale receives DGS Teaching Award (April 2017)

Rowan Martindale was awarded the 2017 Knebel Teaching Award for an introductory undergraduate course (GEOL 405- Life Through Time)

 

Hannah selected as UT Statoil Fellow (March 2017)

A huge congratulations to Hannah Brame, who is a new Statoil student fellow (2 year fellowship)!

 

New Paper by Dr. William Foster (March 2017)

William Foster’s new paper about the recovery from the late Permian mass extinction is out. Check out the JSG press release.

 

New paper about the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte (March 2017)

Our first paper on the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte has just been published in Geology.

 

NSF funds research on Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte (February 2017)

The National Science Foundation has funded our research on the exciting new Jurassic Lagerstätte in Canada.

 

Nick wins best poster (February 2017)

Nick Ettinger won the best late career MSc poster at the JSG Research Symposium!

JSG write up about the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte (February 2017)

Check out this press release about our recent work on the Ya Ha Tinda Lagerstätte.

 

New paper on the Jurassic Oceanic Anoxic Event (February 2017)

Check out our new paper on the Jurassic Oceanic Anoxic Event, lead by colleagues at VirginiaTech.

 

Lesson plan on dinosaur trackways (January 2017)

Together with ESI and the UTeach program, our lab helped develop a new lesson plan for elementary schools about using fossil trackways to determine dinosaur size and speed. It goes along with this “Hot Science-Cool Talk”

 

New paper by Will Foster (September 2016)

Check out the new paper by our Postdoc, Dr. William Foster, on a silicified Early Triassic marine assemblage from Svalbard.

 

Kelly wins Winifred Goldring award (September 2016)

Congratulations to Kelly Hattori for winning the 2016 Winifred Goldring award from the Association for Women Geoscientists and the Paleontological Society.

 

Congratulations to Nick and Kelly (September 2016)

Nick Ettinger and Kelly Hattori have been selected to receive Endowed Presidential Scholarships!

 

Welcome to our new PhD Student (August 2016)

We are excited to welcome Hannah Brame (Ohio University) to the Martindale lab this fall.

 

Summer Explorations (July 2016)

Our field work this summer was featured on the UT Chancellor’s Blog!

 

First MSc Theses from the Martindale Lab! (May 2016)

Congratulations to Chiara Tornabene and Selva Marroquín for completing excellent MSc Theses (on time too)! We are proud of you and wish you the best in your next positions.

 

Congratulations to all (April 2016)

Congratulations to Anna Weiss, Nick Ettinger, and Kelly Hattori for winning various external research grants for their projects!

 

Undergraduate Research Fellowship to Maria (February 2016)

Congratulations to Maria Reistroffer for winning a UT Austin Undergraduate Research Fellowship!

 

2013 Outstanding paper in Palaios (December 2015)

Our paper on the Upper Triassic carbonates from the Tennengebirge was awarded the 2013 Outstanding paper in Palaios Award from SEPM.

 

NSF Grant awarded to NPL (December 2015)

NSF recently awarded the Nonvertebrate Paleontology Lab almost half a million dollars to improve NPL Infrastructure on Pickle Research Campus!

 

Please welcome the new Postdoctoral Fellow, William Foster (November 2015)

We are excited to welcome William Foster to the Martindale lab; William is a Jackson School Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow. Check out his most recent paper here.

 

Congratulations to Chiara! (October 2015)

Congratulations to Chiara Tornabene for winning the Duchin Endowed Presidential Scholarship!

 

Congratulations to Chiara! (September 2015)

Congratulations to Chiara Tornabene for winning a grant from the Paleontological Society of Austin!

 

Please welcome the new MScs (August 2015)

We are excited to welcome Nick Ettinger (Queen’s University) and Kelly Hattori (UNC-Wilmington) to the Martindale lab this fall.

 

Congratulations to Kelly and Anna (August 2015)

Congratulations to the entrance fellowship award winners Anna Weiss (2014) and Kelly Hattori (2015)!

 

New paper from the USC crew (June 2015)

Check out this new paper highlighting the variety of research done by the USC paleontology/sedimentology team on the end-Triassic extinction and the Early Jurassic Recovery.

 

Hot off the Presses (May 2015)

Check out our latest publication on Triassic Reefs from North America in Earth Science Reviews.

 

New paper In Press (May 2015)

Check out the new paper in Precambrian Research on Paleoproterozoic carbonates.

 

Time for Fieldwork (May 2015)

The Martindale lab is heading out to the field. Check out the blog to see what we are doing.

 

Congratulations to Selva and Anna (December 2014)

Congratulations to students Anna Weiss and Selva Marroquín for winning Endowed Presidential Scholarships!