I am an Associate Professor in the University of Southern California’s Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences. My lab utilizes hard tissue histology to study environmental impacts on growth patterns and physiology in mammals, their extinct synapsid forebears, and other groups of living and fossil vertebrates. My work on the classical ‘reptile’ to mammal transition has shed light on the beginning stages of mammalian biology, including synapsid growth, skeletal biology, and the origin of endothermic physiology. I've investigated the synapsid fossil record in the field in Africa, Antarctica, and the western U.S.A.

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My aims are to promote an appreciation of deep-time and macroevolutionary patterns in the fossil record through field- and lab-based methods, and to train students broadly in anatomy, evolution, and the paleosciences.