Challenging Paradigms in Early Mammalian Evolution

Dr. Lucas Weaver

Assistant Curator and Assistant Professor, Museum of Paleontology & Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan.

Dr. Lucas Weaver about himself:

I was born and raised in Colorado, USA, and received my undergraduate degree from Colorado State University. It was at Colorado State that I discovered the sciences of paleontology and geology, working with Dr. Tom Bown in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, USA, to find early Eocene primates and other mammals. In 2015, I then went on to pursue my PhD research at the University of Washington, where I worked with Dr. Greg Wilson on the evolution of multituberculates and other early mammals from the Cretaceous and early Paleocene, mostly from North America. Upon finishing my PhD in 2021, I spent two years at the University of Michigan as a US National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, working with Dr. Catherine Badgley to understand the role of tectonics in stimulating the evolution of Cretaceous mammals. In fall 2023, I began an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Earth Sciences at Kent State University. I have now accepted a joint Assistant Curator and Assistant Professor position in the Museum of Paleontology and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan, which I will begin formally in August 2024.