Graduate Student, Geological Sciences
M.Sc. Candidate
Thesis Title: The Ordovician-Silurian Boundary in the Williston Basin Outcrop Belt of Central Manitoba: New Data and Reinterpretations
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Robert Elias
Graham Young |
About
I am currently a graduate student at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where I am working towards a M.Sc. degree in Geological Sciences (specializing in paleontology and stratigraphy).
I am very interested in paleontology (especially vertebrate paleontology; but I enjoy the invertebrate critters as well), and have recently completed an undergraduate thesis on the Ordovician-Silurian boundary as exposed in the Williston Basin of central Manitoba. The Ordovician-Silurian boundary marks a point in time shortly after the second largest mass extinction in the history of life on Earth; my thesis dealt with the detection, stratigraphy, and sedimentology of this boundary in Manitoba, as well as the biological/ecological/environmental turnover that accompanied this extinction event.
My long term research interests involve coupling detailed paleontological analyses, descriptions, and taphonomic studies with geological techniques such as sedimentology, stratigraphy, and geochemistry. This can greatly aid in paleoenvironmental reconstruction to more clearly understand the environment in which the organisms lived, and their ecological relationships with both the environment and other organisms.
I have worked as a research assistant at the University of Manitoba for the past two summers (and continuing this summer), where I have assisted Dr. Robert Elias with his projects involving Paleozoic invertebrate faunas and stratigraphy in northern Manitoba.
