Nicola Wong Ken

Former Research Assistant

Niki is a former student of Sheridan College's Scientific and Technical Illustration program, and started at the Reisz lab on a Co-op. She worked on preparing, drawing, and reconstructing specimens, and also worked on 3D CAT scan analysis.

Richard Kissel

Former Graduate Student (Ph.D.)

Richardo, a dedicated diadectomorph expert, completed his Ph.D. on this group of fascinating, remarkable, rotund creatures, even though they are not spectacularly armored. He is currently the Director of Teacher Programs at the Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY.

Brendan Polley

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc.)

While earning his Hon.B.Sc at the University of Toronto, Brendan managed to find his way into the Reisz lab where he prepared and examined a Permian trematopid as part of an undergraduate research project. He went on to received his B.Ed from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) of the University of Toronto but soon returned to the Reisz lab in 2008 to begin work on his M.Sc. His Masters research was the description of an unknown Permian trematopid from Fort Sill, Oklahoma and a re-evaluation of the Trematopidae. Brendan has returned to the University of Toronto as a graduate student in the M.Sc. Biomedical Communications program.

Joerg Froebisch

Former Graduate Student (Ph.D.)

Joerg attained his diploma (MSc equivalent) in geology/paleontology at the University of Bonn, Germany, in 2003. His thesis dealt with the functional morphology of the hind limb of Tetragonias, a Middle Triassic dicynodont from Tanzania. Joerg received the Government of Canada Award scholarship to complete his Ph.D. studies in Robert's lab. His Ph.D. focused on the evolutionary trends, biogeography, functional morphology, and phylogeny of dicynodonts. In addition, he is interested in the overall picture of Late Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic tetrapod faunas. He is currently working on a postdoctoral appointment with Ken Angielczyk at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Nadia Froebisch

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nadia received her Ph.D. from McGill University where she worked under the supervision of Robert L. Carroll and Hans C.E. Larsson. Her research focused on the evolution of amphibians through deep time combining data from extinct taxa and from the development and morphology of extant forms. She continues working on selected Paleozoic amphibians with the Reisz lab and a collaborative project on the marine vertebrate fauna from the Middle Triassic of Nevada with special focus on ichthyosaurs, which were also the topic of her Diploma thesis (M.Sc. equivalent) at the University of Bonn, Germany. As of March 2009, she is engaged in postdoctoral work with Neil Shubin at the University of Chicago.

Dave Mazierski

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc.)

Dave is a medical illustrator and part-time faculty member in the Biomedical Communications program at U of T. He received his B. Sc. in Art as Applied to Medicine in 1982. His 2008 Masters research project was a description of a new specimen of Ianthasaurus hardestum and a re-evaluation of its position within the Edaphosauridae. Dave's current project in the Reisz lab is the preparation and description of a new specimen of Petrolacosaurus, the first known diapsid.

Dave's U of T Biomedical Communications Faculty page can be found here, and his personal medical illustration web site can be found here

Kaila Folinsbee

Former Graduate Student (Ph.D.)

Kaila Folinsbee completed her B. A. at the University of Alberta in anthropology, and moved to the University of Toronto in 2001 to begin a Masters degree, also in anthropology. This research explored the biogeography of Miocene hominoids. Her Ph.D. was a description and phylogenetic analysis of Plio-Pleistecene baboons from South Africa. Kaila is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Iowa State University

Kaila's personal web page can be found here

David Evans

Former Graduate Student (Ph.D.)

David came to the lab from Vancouver, BC, where he got his B. Sc. in Integrated Sciences from the University of British Columbia. His undergraduate projects included analysis of cranial growth in the hadrosaurid dinosaur Corythosaurus, and soft tissue reconstruction of the forebrain and nasal capsule in hadrosaurids, leading to a better understanding of cranial crest function and evolution in the bizarre lambeosaurines. His thesis focused on the ontogeny and phylogeny of lambeosaurine hadrosaurids in order to investigate patterns of their Late Cretaceous evolutionary diversification. David has spent several field seasons with the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, as well as three weeks prospecting for dinosaurs in the Canadian high arctic. He is now Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum and a faculty member in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.

Hillary Maddin

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc.)

Hillary started an M.Sc. program in the fall of 2004, and her project involved redescription of the Russian caseid Ennatosaurus. Hillary spent several summers working in the field in Alberta on dinosaurs. Her previous projects in the lab combines claw morphology in fossil in and living amniotes with detailed histological studies, all within a phylogenetic framework.

Johannes Mueller Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Johannes did his Diploma and Ph.D. at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz, Germany, and came to Robert's lab in May 2003. His Ph.D.-project investigated thalattosaurs, an enigmatic clade of marine diapsid reptiles from the Triassic of Europe, North America, and China. The fossil lizard Eolacerta robusta, from the Eocene of Messel, Germany, was the subject of his Diploma thesis (Masters equivalent).

His research focuses on the evolution of turtles, snakes, and especially lizards. His current research interests are twofold. First, Johannes is working in the field of extant reptiles, most notably the lacertids, a still poorly understood clade of Old-World lizards. Johannes' second area of interest are fossil eureptiles and early diapsid phylogeny. A revision of this part of the reptilian evolutionary tree is needed and Johannes hopes that his investigations will contribute to a better understanding of what was going on with the earliest representatives of the Eureptilia (Were they just hanging around, doing nothing? Or were they having parties all day?).

Linda Tsuji

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc.)

Linda, a Mississauga native, completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in paleontology. Her undergraduate thesis delved into therapsid diversification across the Permo-Triassic boundary, and was supervised by Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues. Linda's Masters project focused on the revision of the Russian parareptile Macroleter. Her most recently completed project was a pair of big woolen socks that she knit by hand.

David Dilkes

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc. & Ph.D.))

Education Ph.D., 1993, University of Toronto (Zoology with primary research in vertebrate paleontology) M.Sc., 1986, University of Toronto (Zoology with primary research in vertebrate paleontology) B.Sc., 1984, University of Toronto (Zoology) Academic Appointments 2003- Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, WI 1999-2003 Lecturer and Faculty Advisor, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario Canada Research Appointments 1997-1999 Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Palaeobiology, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario Canada and Biology Department, University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada 1994-1997 Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Associate, Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec Canada 1993-1994 Postdoctoral Researcher, Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Jason Anderson

Former NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow

Assistant Professor of Anatomy, University of Calgary

Natalia Rybczynski

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc.)

Natalia did her Ph.D. at Duke University, and now is at the Canadian Museum of Nature. She is also adjunct at Carleton University (Earth Sciences & Biology)

She has continued working on synapsid craniodental system (e.g., beavers), and occasionally looks at diapsid feeding mechanisms as well (e.g., hadrosaur animation project). Other projects involve investigations into the evolutionary functional morphology of swimming. For a deep time perspective on climate change and evolution from the top of the world she conducts field work in the Canadian High Arctic.

Sean Modesto

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc. & Ph.D.)

Originally from Ontario, Sean received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto and has had postdoctoral appointments at University of Calgary, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto and Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Biology at Cape Breton University, where he is researching terrestrial vertebrate survivorship of the Permo-Triassic extinction event, which occurred 251 million years ago and is widely thought to have wiped out over 70 per cent of all land animals. His research is supported by awards from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Akiko Shinya

Former Student and Lab Tech

Akiko, our lab miracle worker, is now in Chicago plying her trade at the Field Museum of Natural History as the senior preparator. Her skills at prep are only improving from their previously lofty levels, if you can believe that! And now, she is in charge of the prep operatons at one of the best paleo places in the world!

Corwin Sullivan

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc.)

Having survived a two-year study of the anatomy and sexual dimorphism of an endlessly diverting therapsid ("mammal-like reptile") called Diictodon, Corwin has gratefully accepted an M.Sc. degree from the University of Toronto and migrated south to Harvard. He is now hard at work on doctoral research on the mechanics of hindlimb locomotion in crocodilians and some of their Mesozoic ancestors, although collaboration with Robert and company continues. He is finding live alligators to be somewhat less cooperative than fossils as research subjects, but is pleased to report that he hasn't yet lost a single finger. Corwin was also responsible for designing the preliminary version of this web site, which means that he can be conveniently blamed for any errors or shortcomings.

Michel Laurin

Former Graduate Student (M.Sc. & Ph.D.)

Michel received both of his graduate degrees in the Department of Zoology at the University of Toronto (such is the lure of Paleozoic tetrapods). His Master's thesis was entitled "The osteology and relationships of Haptodus garnettensis and the origin of therapsids", and his doctoral thesis was entitled "The osteology of seymouriamorphs and its implications for the origin of amniotes". He is interested in the origin and phylogeny of tetrapods, comparative biology and paleobiology, and phylogenetic nomenclature. A frequent collaborator with Robert, Michel is currently working at the University of Paris, and his web site is here.

Kevin Dupuis

Former Illustrator/Preparator

Kevin is a graduate of Sheridan College Technical and Scientific Illustration Program, and worked with the Paleo Lab on contract work for three years. The skills that he developed in school along with his minor perfectionist traits lent themselves greatly to the tasks of specimen preparation and illustration. Some of his illustrations have been published already, but there are over a dozen other projects are either in press or awaiting submission. Kevin blended in exceedingly well with the lab, even though coming to us from a very different environment and background, without any previous knowledge of vertebrate paleontology. His lab activities included cleaning/preparing specimens, then photographing, outlining, and completing illustrations for publication.