People

Natasha S. Vitek

Principal Investigator. I am a paleontologist studying the evolutionary consequences of intraspecific variation in the fossil record. Using morphometrics, genomics, and museum collections I integrate modern studies of microevolution with the long timescales of the fossil record. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolution at Stony Brook University.

You can find a current list of publications on my Google Scholar Profile.

CV_2025_01_14.pdf

Alexandra Pamfilie

PhD Candidate. I am a PhD candidate studying intraspecific variation in morphology and the form-function relationship. I am interested in better characterizing how individuals of a species vary in morphology in order to inform our interpretation of the fossil record and how the species' role in the environment may change among individuals and habitats.Within this framework I am also interested in improving methods of processing, displaying, and presenting complex data in genomics and high-density morphometrics.

Pamfilie-cv-web-oct22.pdf

Morgan Williams

Graduate Student.

Kaitlyn Puorro

Graduate Student.

Leah Asinovski

Undergraduate Research Assistant. I work on annotating scans of porcupine teeth, which will be used as a basis for distinguishing ancient porcupine lineages.

A passel of additional Undergraduate Students are members of the lab, but it is their choice whether they would like their names, images, or details of their project on a public-facing website (same goes for the Alumni list below, which is incomplete based on student preference). This placeholder is here to recognize their efforts and contributions to a vivaceous in-person lab culture.

Image credit: Edinburgh journal of natural history and of the physical sciences, with the Animal kingdom of the Baron Cuvier. Volume 2, 1839-1840, Plate VIII.

Alumni

Robert W. Burroughs (postdoctoral scholar) led research about the impact of nutrition on both dental form and on the dental proteome. He left to join the faculty position at Bradley University. Congratulations!
Deyonce Myles (undergraduate research assistant) contributed to a team project characterizing extinct hyracoid teeth and their dietary diversity.
Jia Ci Deng (undergraduate, then postbaccalaureate) conducted research on grasshopper mouse tooth size and asymmetry relative to genetic and climatic diversity. She was a URECA summer scholar and completed an honors thesis.
Khushi Bist (postbaccalaureate) focused on segmenting a mysterious extinct beast fossilized in hematite.
George Gurgis (PhD Student) George focused on using methods such as geometric morphometrics and finite element analysis to study functional morphology over different time scales in reptiles.
Amy Dong (undergraduate) Amy contributed to characterizing how nutrition can plastically affect rodent molars.
Averill Bryan (undergraduate) Avery contributed to characterizing American Mink variation with Alex Pamfilie.
Ella Saks (undergraduate) Ella completed a undergraduate honors thesis on the effect of nutritional deficit on the size of rat molars.
Nick Rutig (undergraduate) Nick worked on finding features to help identify the correct tooth position of isolated hyrax molars.
Hui (Jason) Chen (undergraduate) Hui improved code that eased MorphoSource batch uploading, and studied how wear affected the shape of porcupine teeth and the possibility of identifying isolated teeth at different wear stages. The peer-reviewed report of his results was published in 2022.
Milka Espinal (undergraduate) Milka worked on characterizing the pattern on soft-shelled turtle shells by making model shell "fragments" in the lab. The peer-reviewed report of her results was published in 2022.
Rhianna Schantz (high school) Rhianna worked on understanding variation in the toothrows of grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster) in relation to climatic and geographic variation.
Kimberly Placencia (undergraduate) Kimberly worked describing and identifying previously unknown cranial material of soft-shelled turtles (Trionychidae) from the Miocene of Nebraska.
Sabrina Han (undergraduate) Sabrina studied variation in the molars of the multituberculate Ectypodus tardus and its relationship to diet and species boundaries.
Kierstin Rosenbach (undergraduate) Kierstin compared the morphological disparity of eulipotyphlans during different parts of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. She was a recipient of the 2015 Biology Graduate Student Association Grant-in-Aid of Research, and presented her work at the 2015 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting.
Natalí Valdes (undergraduate) Natalí described a new species of soft-shelled turtle (Trionychidae) from the Miocene of Florida. Her resulting senior research thesis received Highest Honors from the Department of Anthropology. The peer-reviewed report of her results was published in 2017.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse