David "Cary" Woodruff had a paper published in the online journal Cretaceous Research titled "A new titanosauriform from the Early Cretaceous Cloverly Formation of Montana". Named Rugocaudia cooneyi, this titanosaur is the very first one ever found in Montana, and is also the northernmost known titanosaur in all of North America.
Cathy Whitlock, Dave McWethy, Laurie Stahle, Teresa Krause are coring lakes in Tasmania and New Zealand as part of their NSF grant (WildFIRE Partnerships in Research and Education) to understand the linkages between fire, climate, and people. Joining them in the field are other participants from Montana: Prof Dennis Aig, Danny Schmidt, and Savannah Lozier (MSU Science and Natural History Filmmaking Program), Prof Bruce Maxwell and Jason Baldes (LRES), Gabe Yospin (IoE), Loga Fixico and Matt Weingart (Salish-Kootenai College), and Bob Keane (USFS Fire Lab, Missoula). These teams will be working "down under" through March.
Cathy Whitlock has assumed new duties as co-Director of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems. The IoE is the first joint-university institute in the state, with hubs at both UM and MSU, and its goal is to advance integrated environmental sciences and related fields. The IoE is supported by a $20 million grant from the NSF EPSCoR program for the next five years, and Whitlock is the MSU Science Lead.
PhD student Virginia Iglesias has a new paper in the international journal The Holocene, entitled:
Holocene climate variability and environmental history at the Patagonian forest/steppe ecotone: Lago Mosquito (42°29'37.89''S, 71°24'14.57''W) and Laguna del Cóndor (42°20'47.22''S, 71°17'07.62''W); DOI: 10.1177/0959683611427330. Her co-authors are Cathy Whitlock, Maria Bianchi, Gustavo Villarosa, and Valeria Outes.
Sandra Underwood, who received her PhD from our department in 2010, recently has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Reserch. The paper is a chapter of her dissertation reserearch. Her co-authors are Dr. Todd Feeley, and Micheal Clynne of the USGS.
"HYDROGEN ISOTOPE INVESTIGATION OF AMPHIBOLE AND BIOTITE PHENOCRYSTS IN SILICIC MAGMAS ERUPTED AT LASSEN VOLCANIC CENTER, CALIFORNIA"
Paleontologists Frankie Jackson and Dave Varricchio recently selected students for their May 2012 research trip to China, sponsored by the National Science Foundation grant International Research Experience for Students (http://www.montana.edu/ires). Students participating in the trip include Christian Heck, Paul Germano, Hannah Wilson, Danny Barta, and Anita Moore-Nall from MSU and four students from UM, Montana Tech, and Salish-Kootenai College.
Hannah Wilson, a freshman honors student at MSU, began conducting research on dinosaur eggs during fall semester of 2011, mentored by Dr. Frankie Jackson and graduate student Daigo Yamamura. Hannah recently received research stipends from the Undergraduate Scholars Program and the Vice President of Research in order to continue this work through fall semester 2012. Congratulations Hannah!
The paleontology program recently acquired a new GMC Sierra extended cab, 4-wheel drive pickup truck for field work through the generous donation of Phillip Varricchio and the Varricchio Family Foundation. take a look here.
