Post-docs
Dr. Katherine Jordan-Burmeister
Kat joined the lab in Fall 2024 after completing her PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Kat’s research focuses on quantitative methods to examine diversification and evolution, paleoecology, and biogeography with a particular emphasis on Devonian (and some Ordovician) trilobites.
Graduate Students
Natalie Morgan, MS candidate expected completion Summer 2027
Natalie joined the lab in Fall 2025. Her background includes research on Triassic fossils and extensive fieldwork in the Pruss Lab at Smith college as well as collections-based projects at Harvard University. At Tennessee, she plans to work on aspects of Ordovician paleoecology.
Mariana Vilela de Andrade, MS 2024 (UTK), PhD candidate expected completion Summer 2028 (UTK)
After completing her MS in the Stigall Lab in summer 2024, Mariana rejoined in Fall 2024 as a PhD student. Mariana is broadly interested in exploring the relationships among morphology, geographic distribution, niche stability, and environmental change. Mariana’s MS project included species-level phylogenetic analysis, systematic revision, and evolutionary biogeographic analysis of the Anazygidae, a clade of tiny Ordovician brachiopods comprising the genera Catazyga, Anazyga, and Zygospira. This research has since been published in Palaeo3 and the Journal of Palaeontology. Mariana is focusing her dissertation research on Devonian community evolution through a combination of brachiopod phylogenetic, quantitative modeling, and food web analysis. She is specifically investigating how polar communities in the Parana Basin of Brazil responded to a set of Early and Middle Devonian biocrises. Mariana is originally from Brazil and completed her BS degree in Biology at the Federal University of Mato Grosso (Brazil).
Shymah Beegam Kundladi, PhD candidate expected completion Summer 2027 (UTK)
Shymah joined the lab in Fall 2023. Her dissertation work focuses on investigating paleoecological questions within shallow marine communities of the Ordovician seas. In particular, Shymah is interested in integrative quantitative paleoecological methods and geochemical analysis to explore the impacts of species establishment during the Richmondian Invasion within both the Nashville Dome and Cincinnati Arch as well as dispersal patterns globally among Ordovician brachiopods. Shymah is a native of Kerala region of India. She completed her BS and MS in Geology at Indian Institute for Science Education and Research (IISER) in Kolkata, India where her research applied quantitative analysis to diversity and paleoecology of rudistid bivalves.
Undergraduates
We are always on the lookout for outstanding undergrads to join the lab. If you are interested, contact Dr. Stigall.
Natalie Newsome, Geology and Environmental Studies, expected completion 2026 (UTK)
During Summer 2025, Natalie worked with Shymah Kundladi to prepare limestone samples for geochemical analysis.
Owen Singleton, BS Geology and Environmental Studies, expected completion 2026 (UTK)
During Summer 2024, Owen is curating Ordovician fossils from Nashville and Cincinnati regions.
Wesley Rummage, BS Geology and Environmental Studies, expected completion 2025 (UTK)
During Summer 2024, Wesley has been working on identification and classification of shallow marine fossils in the Cincinnati and Nashville regions to better identify fossil abundance for these regions.
Emily Glaspie, BS Geology and Environmental Studies, expected completion 2027 (UTK)
Emily worked on Jurassic conchostracan morphology during Spring 2024.
Aidan Littleton, BS Geology and Environmental Studies, expected completion 2024 (UTK)
During Summer 2023, Aidan worked on analyzing community structure in the Late Ordovician strata around Nashville, TN focusing on the Cincinnati (Katian) shallow marine invertebrates. He presented results at the 2023 Annual GSA meeting and the Spring 2024 UTK Eureka Symposium.