Congratulations to Lauren Thompson and the Beard Lab team!
At the 157th Annual Meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science in Wichita, KS, Lauren took first place for Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation! Lauren showcased additional microfossils she had recovered from sediment collected from the White River Formation of northeastern Colorado. This sediment has been part of the KUVP collections since the 1950s, but nobody had sorted the matrix or identified any of the fossils until Lauren began her work. Her discovery of additional rodent, lagomorph, artiodactyl, and marsupial fossils adds important data to our understanding of the mammals from this significant formation.
Elsewhere at the conference, Beard Lab PhD students, Parker Rhinehart and Kevin Mulcahy presented results of their ongoing research. Parker reported the discovery of several species of omomyid primates from a unique site in southwestern Wyoming, while Kevin discussed the evidence (or lack thereof) for sexual dimorphism uintatheres (an enigmatic group of extinct rhino-like mammals).
Congrats again to Lauren and the rest of the Beard Lab for their research and presentations!
Beard Lab 