Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga

John Orcutt & the student researchers of GU's paleobiology lab studies morphology and ecology across time (and posts more often with the same handle elsewhere)

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

As a paleontologist visiting 🇦🇷, naturally I had to go to Patagonia, but I wasn't expecting to see my first fossils in the airport! The only downside is that the @mefpatagonia that made these exhibits is closed for renovation, and now I know what I'm missing!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

This #FossilFriday finds me in 🇦🇷, so let's celebrate a paleontological celebrity. Megatherium, the elephant-sized sloth of the Pampas seen here in the @museodelaplata & Museo Rivadavia, inspired Darwin and was the face of paleontology long before the word 'dinosaur' was coined.

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

I spent this week in Chicago, so I'm celebrating #FossilFriday with the Illinois State Fossil from the @FieldMuseum. The "Tully monster" is common in the Mazon Creek lagerstätte, but what exactly is it? We still don't know, one of the many fascinating things about this animal!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

When at the @FieldMuseum, it's always nice to see a fellow Washingtonian. The museum's Columbian mammoth was found in the Palouse in 1876. If you're wondering how it wound up in Chicago, Jack Nisbett's 2001 @TheInlander article tells its mammoth saga.

https://t.co/cpuTeXVkyB

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

After a decade (?!?) away, it's so exciting to be back in the @FieldMuseum collections looking at predatory mammals big and small.

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

Portraits from the final day of @Napc2024 featuring the presenters from the Paleobiology of Carnivorous Mammals session and the members of the @GonzagaU Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

Be sure to show up on time to catch the second @GonzagaU presentation at @Napc2024: mine! I'll be talking about body size and a big species of small carnivore, the very charismatic Bassariscus (better known as the ringtail or cacomistle)

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

With @napc2024 happening in the Wolverine State, how could we not have a session on carnivorous mammals? Join us from 8-3 on Friday in (where else) the Wolverine room and at our evening poster session to hear about the latest work on everything from cats to whales to hedgehogs.

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

Hey, @Napc2024 attendees! If you're enjoying the fossil trading cards from @PRInstitution as much us, come find my students and I and let's make a trade! I'm looking to unload duplicates of Bivalve and Tabulate Coral at the moment!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

Day 2 of @Napc2024 is Day 1 of @GonzagaU paleontology presentations! Come see my students' poster on fossils from the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Booth 11 and talk to them about their research from 5:30-6:15!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

It's always fun to find yourself in a fossil collection on #FossilFriday, especially when you stumble across a specimen as spectacular as the holotype of Sciurus olsoni, a Miocene squirrel from Nevada, in the @UMichPaleo collections!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

A couple of years of planning culminated in a great @nw_sci meeting this week on the the @GonzagaU campus. It's been keeping me too busy to post updates, but please enjoy these photos from the conference and our field trip to Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

We concluded the Spokane @geosociety meeting today with a lovely paleontology trip to the Idaho Panhandle. Thanks so much to @EwuGeology for taking the lead on this fantastic conference and the @GeogUidaho folks who put today's trip together!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

And by all means, show up early and stick around after my talk for a series of what look to be excellent presentations in the 'Paleontology in the West' session I'm co-hosting!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

It was great to see so many @geosociety conference attendees at our lab posters yesterday, and even greater to see our @GonzagaU students knock their presentation of those posters out of the park!

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

Today it's my turn: if you're at the Spokane GSA, drop in at 10:20 to hear me talk about some smaller (but no less charismatic!) animals in 'Reconstructing burrowing behavior in the Mio-Pliocene squirrels of the Columbia Basin.'

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

What do these images have in common? They all appear on posters that lab students will be presenting today at the @geosociety meeting in Spokane! If you're at GSA, swing by between 4 and 5:30 to hear about their research!

Art: Charles R. Knight
Ringtail photo: @Mammalogists

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

@geosociety Also, to shamelessly plug a few favorite Downtown businesses, if you're looking for:

-Books, try @auntiesbooks
-Caffeine, try @AtticusCoffee, @indabacoffee, or @revival_tea
-Gifts & souvenirs, try From Here by @terrainspokane

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

I know I speak for every natural scientist across the Inland Northwest when I say what a thrill it is to be hosting the @geosociety this week! If you're in Spokane for GSA, join us in celebrating two major Earth Systems-relevant anniversaries! (1/3)

https://t.co/n2moBv7ViN

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

Fifty years, Spokane hosted Expo '74, the only environment-themed world's fair. Its legacy was to reconnect a city and its river, and you can appreciate the Lilac City's hydrological heritage at the fairgrounds, now the incomparable @RiverfrontSpo. (3/3)

https://t.co/SvSV6i9Twq

[Morphology & Ecology Across Time Lab at Gonzaga @GonzagaMEATLab]

2024 is the centenary of J Harlen Bretz's description of the Spokane (later Missoula) Floods. These Ice Age cataclysms shaped the landscape of the Inland Northwest and your best guide to the traces they left is the map published by the @IAFIorg. (2/3)

https://t.co/pLtvHRTmGq