Congratulations to geology major and Gaffney Family Scholar, Myria Perez. She recently began a ten week research internship at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. under the tutelage of Dr. Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology. Myria will be studying the taphonomy (the branch of paleontology that deals with the processes of fossilization) of marine reptiles from the Jurassic Lyme Regis along the south coast of England near Dorchester. This is the location of Mary Anning’s great discoveries of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Mary Anning is also known as the “Mother of Paleontology.”
During her internship, Myria will accompany Dr. Behrensmeyer to England where she will visit collections housing Mary Anning’s original specimens, including the University of Cambridge Museum, where she will be hosted by SMU alumnus Dr. Jason Head, and at the Natural History Museum in London where another alumnus Dr. Norm MacLeod is Dean of Post-Graduate Education and Training. Myria will also visit the Lyme Regis Museum, which is currently constructing a new Mary Anning Wing.
Learn more about Myria Perez in the ISEM at SMU newsletter here: ISEMNewsletter2016