Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology With Kristen Miller M.A.
By Jessica Marie Kristen Miller is a vertebrate paleontologist, she graduated with her Masters of Arts degree in Evolutionary Biology in spring 2021. She received her Bachelors of Arts from Colorado State University in Biological Anthropology. She has been doing paleontology for about five years now, and she is about to start her PhD in the fall of 2021. What drew you to anthropology and then to paleontology? When I graduated from high school, I had a varied list of things that I was interested in such as working in the film industry or book editor. Since I wasn’t sure what path I wanted to take, I went to a local community college to help me try different things in hopes of narrowing down a focus. There I took some anthropology classes. I first took cultural anthropology which was very interesting. I then looked into anthropology to see what else that field offered, which led me to find biological anthropology and I fell in love with it. Once I graduated with my Associates of Arts, I looked at what degrees were available at my local university, which was Colorado State University. I found they had a Bachelors of Biological Anthropology and signed up. My first year at CSU, I took a primate evolution course, which I loved. So, for a time, I thought I was going to change course a little and go into primatology research. But the same professor who taught that course, Kimberly Nichols, also taught a paleontology field school up in Wyoming. At first, I didn’t have an interest in paleontology, but I thought that having some field work in my resume would look good for graduate school. So, I signed up to take that field school. I went there not knowing anything about paleontology and I fell in love with it immediately. After I completed my first year of that field school, I went back for two more years as a Teaching Assistant and that sealed the deal for me. I knew all I wanted to do was field work to look for fossils. The best way to do that is to go to graduate school. I applied and got accepted to study evolutionary biology and specifically early primate evolution. Unfortunately, you can’t get paid only to look for fossils, you can volunteer but that’s not the same. You have to be working in a lab or museum to get paid to look for fossils, and to do those jobs you need a Doctorate. Which has led me down this path that I am on. What was your Masters Thesis and what will your Doctorate studies be? The Phylogenetic Reconstruction and Biogeographic Implications of Two New Species of Paromomyid Plesiadapiforms from a unique High Arctic Ecosystem of Eocene Canada was my Masters Thesis title. To break that down, a Plesiadapiform is an early mammal. These guys were around after the dinosaurs went extinct, 66-34 million years ago. These creatures have no living relatives or descendants that exist today. Their closest living relatives would be primates or colugos (flying lemurs, which are not actual lemurs). I was able to study two new species of plesiadapiforms from Elsmere Island in Northeastern Canada close to Greenland. This was interesting as they were in the arctic circle, so they would have lived in a polar light regime. Six months of light and six months of darkness. We don’t have any others that have lived in such extreme conditions. Which made for a really interesting research opportunity. I looked at their phylogenetics, how they are related to other plesiadapiforms and their relation to plesiadapiforms from North American and Europe. Which are they more closely related to, if either. I also looked at their geographic distribution, how they got from where they lived before to where we found them in the arctic circle. For my PhD, I am not yet sure what I will be studying. I could carry on with my research from Elsmere Island. But I may look into other areas of research to broaden my knowledge and areas of research. I have recently found an interest in early mammals which were alive at the same time as the dinosaurs. But my current expertise is in the Paleocene and Eocene eras. How can you tell what climate these creatures were living in? We work closely with Geologists. They can tell where the continents were 55 million years ago, which is how old the fossils I studied for this Thesis were. They calculated the location was in the arctic circle, which we know experiences 6 months of daylight and 6 months of darkness, or some similar variation of a polar light regime. But the climate that far north during that time was much warmer. This was during the early Eocene climatic optimum, which was a very warm greenhouse event. There were no polar ice caps, winter temperatures even that far north would have only been just above freezing. It would have been fairly warm, so these plesiadapiforms didn’t have to survive arctic winters like we think of them now. We can tell this from the fauna, animal fossils, and flora, plant fossils. Such as finding turtles, alligators, or tropical plants, we know what climates these creatures live in now. Which gives us an idea of the climate of the area at that time. Where have you done most of your study or fossil finding? I have personally only worked in Wyoming. From CSU field school and even with my current advisor, we are working in Wyoming for the time being. The fossils I used for my Masters studies were found in the 1970’s by Paleontologist Mary Dawson. She and her team found them and those fossils have been passed down in the lab and I was able to study them. Unfortunately, I have never been to the arctic, but it snows year-round up there so I am not terribly disappointed to have not been up there, she chuckles. What are the most common types of fossils you have found? Perissodactyls, which are odd-toed ungulates. A living example would be horses or rhinos. These early relatives were much smaller in the Paleocene and Eocene eras, roughly dog-sized. They are very common to find fossil-wise. We also find Coryphodon throughout North America, they were about hippo size. We also find tiny primates and carnivores. It’s an exciting time period to be studying as we can see when mammals are beginning to diversify. Even though many of these plesiodapiforms don’t have direct living descendants that we can see alive today, it is amazing to see these early forms and what they evolved into as for what we do see around us today. What are your dream goals once you graduate? My dream job is to work in a museum doing fossil preparation, museum curation, or collections management. What do you like least or find the most frustrating about this field of study? For me, I love the field work. I wouldn’t trade that for anything. But the rest of the year is reading journal articles and doing tedious work with the fossils. And while it is working with fossils, which I love, the coding for each trait and taxa, and examining teeth under a microscope can get very tedious. Collecting data and compiling papers. I only get to do 2-4 weeks of actual field work a year, the rest of the year is in the lab. Being out in the field really recharges me and is the most amazing part of this field. What is it like being a woman in science? I feel very lucky with my experience so far. My teachers and mentors at CSU were very kind and encouraging. At my current universities’ lab, it is fairly well split between male and female. Everyone is encouraging and helpful in their areas of expertise. It isn’t like dinosaur paleontology, chemistry, or other STEM careers that are more male dominated. What has been the most exciting thing that has happened for you so far? Graduating with my masters was a very big accomplishment for me. I had been very nervous about defending my thesis, but I did it and I graduated with honors. It’s proof to myself that I can do this and I am good at it. I am also submitting my first academic journal article to be published by the end of the summer. Of course, finding fossils, especially very small ones that are easy to miss, are a huge boost for me. Do you work with a lot of scientists from other fields? Oh yes, we can and do talk with people in various fields who may have expertise in a field or have knowledge that I am less adept in. We seek each other out to ask questions. What are your hobbies? I read a lot, especially during off months when I am not reading journal articles all day. I enjoy reading fiction. I also love to bake. Baking is my creative passion, my creative outlet, a way of getting out of my type-A science brain. During the pandemic I did some macramé wall hangings. I have recently begun to take in a lot of house plants. My back-up goals if everything falls apart are to start a bakery or a goat farm in Scotland. Resources:
Find Kristen on Instagram @kristen.miller2756 and on Twitter @Kristen_paleo Hope you enjoyed learning about mammalian paleontology, evolutionary biology and more from the amazing Kristen Miller! Much Love, Jessica Marie
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AuthorJessica Marie Cunningham - Intentional lifestyle blogger, aspiring author, and podcast host. All things Slow Living, Books, Writing, Art, creativity, Christianity, and personal stories. Archives
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