A very happy graduate student holding her MS thesis
Congratulations to Kiera Crowley (Wright lab) for successfully defending her MS thesis today! Her thesis research focused on "The ecological and developmental dimensions of a post-extinction radiation in Ordovician-Silurian crinoids." Fantastic job Kiera!
Congratulations to Alysha Zazubec (Cole lab) for successfully passing their PhD Candidacy exams!
Congratulations to OU paleobiologist Dr. @leptaena.bsky.social for receiving the 2026 Teaching Excellence Award from the Mewbourne College at The University of Oklahoma!
OU Geosciences undergraduate Macie Menard and Colby Higdon (both advised @leptaena.bsky.social) presented at the department's annual Student Research Symposium and Expo. Both projects were made possible via the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History's Invertebrate Paleontology collections. Great job!
Happy #FossilFriday! from Anticosti Island, Quebec 🌊🪨
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of fieldwork—when someone shouts “Oh! Come look at this!” and the whole team gathers around to see what ancient story the rocks are about to reveal.
#AnticostiIsland #CanadianFossils
The specimen belongs to Pararchaeocrinus decoratus and is featured in this recent publication by OU graduate student Colby Higdon and Dr. Selina Cole
Pararchaeocrinus decoratus Strimple and Watkins, 1955, OU 9448, a camerate (Diplobathrida) with 10 branched, densely pinnulate arms and very thin, biserial brachials
A fossil crinoid from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (OU 99448) graces the cover of the new issue of the @paleosoc.bsky.social's Journal of Paleontology!
As the end of the year approaches, we're pleased to announce the OU Invert Paleo group at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History documented and described 33 new species in 2025, including fossil crinoid echinoderms, brachiopods, and snails
Helicoplacoid in a Santa hat and fossil friends wish you a very merry Christmas from the Cambrian mat grounds!
As the end of the year approaches, we're pleased to announce the OU Invert Paleo group at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History documented and described 33 new species in 2025, including fossil crinoid echinoderms, brachiopods, and snails
Series of plots and graphs illustrating the five different evolution model configurations studied. They correspond to a range of simple to (moving down the page) increasingly complex and parameter-rich models of morphological evolution.
Assessing the impact of character evolution models on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences from fossil data onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @daveyfwright.bsky.social @datadryad.bsky.social
Many thanks to @astigall.bsky.social for coming to OU last week to give an awesome colloquium talk & visit the Sam Noble Museum! It was a semester highlight for us in @oupaleobiology.bsky.social and (as always) it was super great to catch up and chat science with one of my favorite paleontologists!
🚨New paper out in Palaeontology! Check it out if you're interested morphological evolution, fossil phylogenetics, and macroevolution 🧪
"Assessing the impact of character evolution models on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences from fossil data"
Check it out if you're interested in modeling morphological evolution, its impact on fossil phylogenies, and the macroevolutionary inferences derived from them. There's a bit of a cautionary(?) tale about continuous characters in here, too. Can't believe they let me quote Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan!
Seems like our students have been busy decorating Invertebrate Paleontology lab at the museum 🧪
A lot of great talks and posters by OU paleobiology students at the GSA meeting. Well done!
Burnett, E., Soreghan, M., and Cole, S.R. Variation in shell morphometry of Neothauma in Lake Tanganykia, Africa
Stigall, A.L., Wright, D.F., and Censullo, S.M. Species-level diversity dynamics during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event: a phylogenetic case study of Laurentian brachiopod lineages.
Soto, G.E., Cole, S.R., Wright, D.F., and Hopkins, M.J. Complex morphological variation within the trilobite Celtencrinurus laurentinus (Twenhofel, 1928), based on newly discovered specimens from Anticosti Island, Quebec.
Bell, N.J.M., Cole, S.R., Wright, D.F., Ausich, W.I., and Cournoyer, M. Environmental controls on niche space occupation and feeding ecology of Late Ordovician (Katian) crinoid communities.
Zazubec, A. and Cole, S.R. The order of survival: clade confections in Silurian crinoids.
Cole, S.R., Ausich, W.I., Cournoyer, M., and Wright, D.F. Echinoderms from the Neuville Lagerstätte (Late Ordovician, Québec, Canada): an exceptional taphonomic window into biotic interactions and functional ecology.
Crowely, K.D. and Wright, D.F. On the Origin of the Flexibilia: modeling the rise and ecomorphological radiation of a major crinoid clade in a Bayesian phylogenetic framework.
Wright, D.F. Unraveling the evolutionary origin and macroevolutionary dynamics of crown group Crinoidea (Echinodermata) using fossils, genes, and phylogenies
🧵The Geological Society of America / Paleontological Society annual meeting is next week! Here's a thread of research presentations involving OU Paleobiology:
New paper from Dr. Selina Cole's lab!
"Competition or coexistence? Ecology and niche partitioning of pelmatozoan echinoderms from the Late Ordovician Bromide Formation (Oklahoma, USA)"
New paper!
"Fossil tip-dating reveals novelties on evolutionary and diversification trends in three Late Ordovician brachiopod genera (Atrypida, Anazygidae)" Yay for brachiopods! 🧪
Huge congrats to @crowleyk.bsky.social (Wright lab) and colleagues on publishing a major taxonomic revision of Paleocene gastropods!
As a paleontologist, here's something incredible about the geosciences program at OU:
1. Overall freshmen enrollment has been * increasing * in recent years.
2. We have more students in our * Paleobiology * Bachelor of Science program than any other option (including the general geosciences path)
