What is your favorite part about being a scientist and how did you get interested in science? There is something so magical about being the first person in the world to know something. Even more magical, at least to me, is talking about that thing to others so they can share in the excitement! One of the major appeals of being a scientist, to me, besides adding to the general knowledge of the human race, is also learning to see the world in a different light; for example, long drives have become so much more exciting since I’ve been trained as a geologist. I loved watching the geology change as we traveled from my home state of Florida to my new state of West Virginia!
I’ve been interested in science since I was very small. I come from a family with no formally trained scientists; however, several members of my family are fascinated by different aspects of the natural world. My dad is an amateur ichthyologist, my grandpa, a self-taught horticulturist, and my grandma is a nurse with a fascination for human biology. Growing up surrounded by people fascinated by science and nature (and watching Jurassic Park every single day) lead me to find science at a very young age.
What do you do? I am currently looking at horseshoe crabs, both fossil and modern, to figure out if they are really “living fossils” or not. More specifically, I’m looking at how fast their shape actually changes through time and if it is really as slow and steady as we commonly think it is.
How does your research contribute to the understanding of evolution? I am hoping to use what I discover to inform horseshoe crab conservation around the world! For example, knowing how horseshoe crabs adapted to past mass extinctions (they’ve survived all 5!) will tell us how they may react to modern climate change. This will also help us understand more about other groups considered to be “living fossils” and teach us more about long term trends in evolution.
What are your data and how do you obtain them? Some of my data is from previous work done by my advisor, Dr. James Lamsdell, but I will also be collecting more data this spring and summer from 3D scans and photographs of fossil horseshoe crabs.
What advice do you have for aspiring scientists? If you are passionate about science, embrace that! Science takes a lot of hard work, but passion makes the hard work worth it. You can do this!