Gabrielle Bonin
Project
Reconstructing Ancient Ecosystem Shifts through Turtle BiodiversityMy research uses the fossil record to investigate how biodiversity and ecosystems respond to environmental change over long timescales. I focus on Late Cretaceous to Paleocene vertebrate communities of Western Canada, using turtles as a key study group because they are diverse, ecologically varied, and well represented in the fossil record. I will combine taxonomy, biostratigraphy, paleohistology, bioimaging, and environmental data to reconstruct changes in turtle diversity, ecology, and distribution through time. I will then integrate these data with information from other organisms to reconstruct ancient food webs and examine how ecological networks responded to environmental transitions, including the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Ultimately, my research aims to identify patterns of biodiversity persistence, ecological reorganization, and recovery that can provide a long-term perspective on ecosystem resilience to environmental change.
