Maddi Waskom submits senior thesis

Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Madeleine (Maddi) Waskom, who earlier this month submitted her senior thesis entitled "Stuck in the mud: experimental taphonomy and computed tomography demonstrate the critical role of sediment in carcass stabilization during early fossilization", co-supervised by graduate student Sarah Losso and Javier Ortega-Hernández. Maddi first joined the lab as a research intern during the summer of 2020 to perform remote work, and has been a fixture of our group ever since, taking on increasingly complex imaging and analytical approaches to the study of exceptional fossils and their taphonomy. Maddi's senior thesis is the culmination of her work with us, and takes a highly innovative approach to the study of early diagenesis using micro CT imaging to explore the process of post-burial alteration of the carcass and sediment, with direct implications for understanding the formation of exceptional three dimensional fossils in the rock record. To date, Maddi has shared the results of her work in several scientific meetings, including the Northeast Geogiology Symposium 2022 in MIT, the Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting in Cork (Ireland), and more recently the International Palaeontological Congress in Khon Kaen (Thailand). We are enormously proud of Maddi's accomplishments and look forward to her next steps!