Four senior geology majors and one graduate student joined James Parham, assistant professor of geological science and a faculty curator at the John D. Cooper Center, in presenting research during the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 75th annual meeting Oct. 14-17 in Dallas. The scholars studied local fossils from the CSUF-managed John D. Cooper Center.
Presentations were:
- Isaac Magallanes, Parham and Robert Boessenecker, College of Charleston: “Description of the Most Complete Fossil Walrus and its Implications for Odobenid Phylogeny”
- Michelle Barboza, Parham and Brian Kussman: “Vertebrate Fauna and Ungulate Biostratigraphy of the Highly Fossiliferous Oso Sand Member, Capistrano Formation, Orange County, CA”
- Crystal Cortez and Parham: “An Articulated Skeleton of Carcharodon Hastalis (Lamniformes, Lamnidae) From the ‘Monterey Formation,’ Orange County, CA”
- Brian Kussman, Parham and Lida Babilonia, Clark Paleontological Museum: “Biostratigraphic Analysis of Mammalian Taxa Revises the Age of Rich Pleistocene Sites From the La Habra Formation (Orange County) From Rancholabrean to Irvingtonian”
- Gabriel-Philip Santos, Parham and Brian Beatty, NY Institute of Technology: “The Most Ontogenetically Advanced Specimen of Desmostylus and Implications for Ontogeny and Senescence of Desmostylians”
Two of the undergraduates — Isaac Magallanes and Michelle Barboza — are Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation, or LSAMP, scholars.