Emma Dunne

SSP Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Emma Dunne for the poster/PICO entitled:

The Late Triassic Latitudinal Biodiversity Gradient (Dunne, E. M.; Butler, R. J.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Emma is PhD student in vertebrate palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her research focuses on the patterns and drivers of terrestrial tetrapod diversity and biogeography from late Palaeozoic to early Mesozoic. Currently there is widespread disagreement about major patterns of tetrapod diversity change during these intervals, stemming from the ongoing debate on the significance of spatial and temporal sampling biases in the fossil record. Emma uses a diverse range of computational methods, including rigorous sampling standardisation, to address key questions surrounding tetrapod diversity and biogeography including: how ecosystems responded in the aftermath of environmental change; are changes in diversity correlated with major shifts in global climatic conditions; how sampling of the tetrapod fossil record varies in time and space, and to what extent these biases may limit the identification of genuine diversity patterns. Her poster focuses on tetrapod latitudinal diversity during the Late Triassic, and ongoing work involves using climate models to investigate the drivers of these latitudinal patterns.