About Me
Straddling the Eocene–Oligocene boundary in Xinjiang, China
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I am a vertebrate paleontologist and Assistant Professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. I received a master of science degree from the Department of Geology at the University of Kansas in 2016, and Ph.D. from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas in 2022.
My research interests include the origin and evolution of bats, stem bat diversity and paleobiogeography, Paleocene mammal evolution, and the origin and evolution of terrestrial behaviors in bats. I have conducted research in several countries on topics including mammalian paleontology, bat ecology, dinosaur biology, and reptile and amphibian diversity. I have taught courses on paleobiology, cellular biology, organismal biology, herpetology, human anatomy, and primate evolution. |
News
16 August 2024: The Jones Lab of Paleomammalogy is officially open for business at ASU! Please reach out if you are interested in joining the lab, as I will be recruiting a graduate student and/or postdoctoral researcher in the near future!
2 May 2024: Our paper evaluating the relationships of Eocene bats has now been published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution! This was the third chapter of my dissertation, and represents the most comprehensive analysis of early bat relationships conducted to date.
31 October 2023: The second published chapter of my dissertation research is now available! In this paper, we describe a new and diverse fauna of the enigmatic early Cenozoic "insectivores" belonging to the family Nyctitheriidae from the late Paleocene of southern Wyoming. Now available in the Annals of Carnegie Museum.
26 April 2023: Happy to announce that a collaboration with one of my oldest friends is finally published. We evaluated changes in dispersal ability in fragmented populations (e.g., islands and "patchy" habitats) using a new model. Check out our open access paper here!
13 April 2023: Colleagues and I just published the earliest bats known from complete skeletons, which have implications for understanding the diversity and morphology of early bats. Check the open access paper out here!
07 January 2023: We have just published a new paper stemming from research during my master's degree about the terrestrial locomotor behaviors of the big brown bat. Access the full paper here!
2 May 2024: Our paper evaluating the relationships of Eocene bats has now been published in the Journal of Mammalian Evolution! This was the third chapter of my dissertation, and represents the most comprehensive analysis of early bat relationships conducted to date.
31 October 2023: The second published chapter of my dissertation research is now available! In this paper, we describe a new and diverse fauna of the enigmatic early Cenozoic "insectivores" belonging to the family Nyctitheriidae from the late Paleocene of southern Wyoming. Now available in the Annals of Carnegie Museum.
26 April 2023: Happy to announce that a collaboration with one of my oldest friends is finally published. We evaluated changes in dispersal ability in fragmented populations (e.g., islands and "patchy" habitats) using a new model. Check out our open access paper here!
13 April 2023: Colleagues and I just published the earliest bats known from complete skeletons, which have implications for understanding the diversity and morphology of early bats. Check the open access paper out here!
07 January 2023: We have just published a new paper stemming from research during my master's degree about the terrestrial locomotor behaviors of the big brown bat. Access the full paper here!
