EAR-PF: Insect Damage on Leaves Through the Cenozoic in East Africa: The Impact of Geologic and Climatic Change at Multiple Temporal and Spatial Scales

Currano Ellen D, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Ellen Currano is awarded an NSF Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Currano will study the co-evolution of plants and herbivorous insects in the African tropics during the Cenozoic. The research goals will be accomplished by examining the extent of damage caused by insects in fossil leaves. The fossil samples will be collected from two localities in northwestern Ethiopia that represent the Late Oligocene period (28 to 23 million years ago). The information from the fossil record will be compared with modern leaves to understand how the plant-insect interactions were affected by physical processes like droughts. In addition, Dr. Currano will contribute to the education of two different audiences. First, undergraduate students, from America and Africa, will assist in the collection of samples in Ethiopia. Second, a lesson plan on paleo-botany for 8th grade will be developed and distributed to school teachers in Texas.