The Williamson Family Colloquium Series

MU Department of Geological Sciences

Bringing Ancient Oceans to life with fossils, biomechanics, and video games

Dr. Kathleen Ritterbush

Associate Professor of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah

Seashell fossils record events from Earth’s history across many scales of space and time: growth of a single animal; distribution of animal populations and taxa; evolution of bio-mechanical solutions to enduring environmental challenges. We focus today on ammonites, spiral-shelled extinct relatives of octopus and squid. We use fossils – including museum collections and new field excavations – to determine the basic anatomy of these common cephalopods. Next, we study how their sea shell shape influences their possible swimming strategies, using 3D modeling, computational fluid dynamics, and robotics. Finally, we consider how these animals’ varied shapes and sizes through time supported different ecosystems during their 300 million year history. We are sharing what we learn through video game technology and mobile apps, specifically artificial-intelligence programmable ecosystems such as Unreal Engine (associated with Epic Games, Fortnight, and other consumer products).

For more information about Kathleen's research, please see her Google Scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QjGU9_IAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Room 108, Geological Science Bldg

Friday April 8, 2024 at 3:30 pm

Refreshments will be provided