Lab News

Current and incoming graduate students win awards

April 5, 2020

Many congratulations to graduate student Sarah Losso for receiving the Harvard Certificate of Distinction in Teaching , granted by the Office of Undergraduate Education, in recognition of her excellent work as a teaching fellow during Fall 2019, as part of the course OEB 56: Geobiology and History of Life. Well done Sarah!

We are also delighted that our...

Work remotely to prevent spread of COVID-19

March 18, 2020

In line with the safety recommendations implemented by Harvard University and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, all members of the Invertebrate Paleobiology and Evolution Lab are required to work remotely until further notice in order to minimize the risk of contagion by the COVID-19 virus.

Please consult Harvard's webpage, including daily updates on the situation within the university and worldwide at https://www.harvard.edu/coronavirus

Make...

New OEB/EPS course on exceptional preservation and invertebrate evolution

January 17, 2020

We are super excited about our new course offering for Spring 2020, OEB/EPS 150 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...

Palaeontological Association meeting in Valencia

December 22, 2019

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.,...

Harvard China Fund award to support research on 3D early Cambrian fossils

September 13, 2019

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...

New graduate course at OEB

September 3, 2019

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...

The IP Lab welcomes Steve Pates and Marc Mapalo

September 2, 2019

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...

Field season 2019 in British Columbia

August 20, 2019

Rudy and Javier from the Invertebrate Paleobiology Lab at Harvard, joined by John Paterson (...

William F. Milton Fund award for research on new early Cambrian fossil biota

July 31, 2019

We are chuffed to announce that The William F. Milton Fund will support our proposal for field-based research on a new early Cambrian fossil site with Burgess Shale-type preservation in northern British Columbia! The Invertebrate Paleobiology Lab at OEB and MCZ will lead an international team to venture into the Canadian wilderness in search of fossilized soft-bodied animals more than 500 million years old. The age and depositional environment of the new site make it... Read more about William F. Milton Fund award for research on new early Cambrian fossil biota

IP Lab goes to NAPC 2019

June 30, 2019

All members of the Invertebrate Paleobiology Lab converged in Riverside, California, for the 11th North American Paleontological Convention organized by Mary Droser and Nigel Hughes from UC Riverside! Our contributions covered the full scope of the lab, including the taphonomy of trilobite limbs preserved in 3D, lobopodian mortichnia-like trace fossils, pancrustacean evolution and phylogeny, the significance of guts in Cambrian euarthropods, and an overview of exceptional biotas from the...