Polly Spruce has joined the Palaeo@Leeds group as a Palaeontological Association (PalAss) Undergraduate Bursary summer intern. Polly’s project is entitled “Deep-fried calamari – the effects of Early Triassic extreme warming on cephalopod biogeography” and she will be investigating the spatial distribution of cephalopod biodiversity in the aftermath of the Late Permian mass extinction and through the subsequent Early Triassic hyperthermal event.
Polly’s project will involve applying a variety of statistical techniques to a large global data set of cephalopod occurrences from the Paleobiology Database from which she will generate latitudinal diversity gradients (LDGs). She will test the hypothesis that extreme global warming in the Early Triassic led to a bimodal or reversed LDG in comparison to a normal Late Permian LDG.
Polly will work with myself, Bethany Allen and Prof Paul Wignall during her time in the Palaeo@Leeds group (albeit, via video link from home given the current circumstances…)
DeepBio@Leeds 