We are super excited about our new course offering for Spring 2020, OEB 112 Exceptional Paleobiological Insights into Animal Evolution. We will learn about the the nature and biases of the fossil record, the mechanisms behind exceptional preservation in biotas ranging from the Precambrian to mid-Phanerozoic, and study some amazing fossils from the MCZ collections along the way! The course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, and features a week-long trip to the Cambrian of Utah during the spring. You can find...

With three talks and four posters, the Invertebrate Paleobiology Lab had a great representation at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Palaeontological Association in Valencia! The presentations covered a mix of recent publications (Jo Wolfe et al.,...

We are delighted to share the news that the Harvard China Fund will support our research on the exceptionally preserved three-dimensional morphology of fossilized animals from the early Cambrian Chengjiang biota in South China in collaboration with our colleagues from Yunnan University in Kunming! This award will allow us to continue revealing critical anatomical details in these impressive fossils that would otherwise be impossible to observe using conventional methods. You can...

After a semester settling in, we venture into teaching at Harvard OEB for the first time with the new course OEB 213 Evolutionary Convergence, Mass Extinctions and the Shape of Life. We will explore how our understanding of evolution has changed over the last few decades based on discussions that address the origin of animals, the impact of extinction and probabilistic games. For more information please visit the course catalogue at my.harvard...

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Stephen Pates (Alexander Agassiz Postdoctoral Fellow) and Marc Mapalo (OEB graduate student) as the newest members of the Invertebrate Paleobiology Lab at OEB and MCZ! Steve is a world expert on the paleobiology and systematics of radiodontans such as the charismatic Anomalocaris, and recently completed his PhD at the University of Oxford (UK) under the supervision of Prof. Allison Daley (University...