Kathleen A. Ritterbush

Mesozoic Paleoecology and Mass Extinctions

Bottjer Lab

ritterbu@usc.edu
office: (213) 821-6291
University of Southern California
Department of Earth Sciences
3651 Trousdale Parkway, ZHS 223
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0740

Welcome

As part of the Bottjer Lab, I study paleoecology and mass extinctions. My main research focuses on paleoecological changes in shallow marine environments across the end-Triassic mass extinction. By interpreting types and rates of ecological change, we can constrain causal mechanisms of this extinction which was the 3rd most severe ecologic collapse in Earth History. My work contributes new field observations from systems deposited along the ocean Panthalassa, which surrounded Pangaea and covered most of the globe during the Triassic-Jurassic transition 200 million years ago.

My paleobiological focus is malecology, with a particular interest in cephalopods. My undergraduate focus was marine biology, with research assistantships ranging from abalone fishery conservation to octopus retinal physiology.

This research is supported by:

• The University of Southern California
• The Senosky Family
• The USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies
• The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund of the American Museum of Natural History
• The Society for Sedimentary Geology

Outreach and School Visits

As paleontologist and as citizens, it is important that we share our work with the public. People are naturally interested in fossils, and the job of being a paleontologist is even more adventurous than most people think. I enjoy speaking with groups about what we do, and have success engaging a wide range of audiences about the exciting feats and ideas surrounding paleontology. If you have a group (Rotary Club, church group, school, etc) that would like to hear about our work, or a chance to ask questions to learn more about the topics below, please let me know. You can email me at: ritterbu at usc dot edu

Mass extinctions and global change

Reconstructing extinct ecologies

The fossil record and evolution

Background

Education

Doctoral Student, Department for Earth Sciences at the University of Southern California 2008-2013

Bachelors of Science in Environmental Science at California Lutheran University 2006

Presentations

• Earliest Jurassic Bivalves of Nevada (USA): Selected by acidification?
  
  Poster at the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon, October 2009



• Characterizing paleoecology across the end-Triassic mass extinction: survival and recovery during global crisis
  
  Poster at the North American Paleontology Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 2009

Memberships

Work

• Educator aboard Research Vessel Rapture (Rapture Marine Expeditions) 2004
• Education Assistant for the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, 2007-2008

University Teaching

• Guest Speaker: History of Evolution, USC
• Teaching Assistant , Labs: Planet Earth Geol 105, USC
• Teaching Assistant, Labs: Crisis of a Planet Geol 108, USC
• Teaching Assistant, Field: Oceanography and Marine Ecology of the Southern California Bight, Sea Education Association and the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies

Personal Interests

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Last Updated Jan 2010