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Diversity in all its forms: IPC4 as an invaluable opportunity
for STEPPE grant recipients
GSA TODAY | JANUARY 2015 Javier Luque, Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta/ life through geological time. The fossil record provides a historical
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Edmonton, Alberta, ledger that sheds light on the origins of today’s biodiversity and
Canada, luque@ualberta.ca; Heda Agic, Dept. of Earth Sciences, how organisms relate to each other via ancestor-descendant rela-
Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, heda.agic@geo.uu.se; tionships. Over the last several years, new paleontological discov-
Evan P. Anderson, Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of eries and technologic developments have allowed for more
Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA, evan.p.anderson@colorado efficient and innovative ways to analyze the fossil record. This, in
.edu; Robyn Dahl, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of California, turn, has improved our understanding of how life on Earth has
Riverside, California, USA, robynmdahl@gmail.com; Mike Donovan, waxed and waned through time.
Dept. of Geosciences, Penn State University, State College,
Pennsylvania, USA, mpd187@psu.edu; Daniel J. Field, Dept. of The vigor and relevance of contemporary paleontological
Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, research were on full display at the 4th International
USA, daniel.field@yale.edu; John A. Fronimos, Dept. of Earth and Palaeontological Congress (IPC4) in the city of Mendoza,
Environmental Sciences/Museum of Paleontology, University of Argentina (28 Sept. to 3 Oct. 2014), where nearly 1,000 paleon-
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, jfronimo@umich.edu; tologists from around the world converged to celebrate paleon-
Montana Hodges, University of Montana Paleontology Center, tology. The research presented at IPC4—the largest International
Missoula, Montana, USA, montana.hodges@umconnect.umt.edu; Palaeontological Congress to date—was highly diverse in its
Gary J. Motz, Center for Biological Research Collections, Indiana topical, organismal, geographical, and temporal coverage. The
University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, garymotz@indiana.edu; workshops, symposia, short courses, and field trips were similarly
Ryan Roney, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of varied, as were the conference attendees, who hailed from 50
Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, rroney1@utk.edu; Erin E. different countries and represented many different stages of their
Saupe, Dept. of Geology & Geophysics, Yale University, New paleontological careers, from students to emeritus professors. In
Haven, Connecticut, USA, erin.saupe@yale.edu; Sarah Sheffield, short, diversity in all its forms was the very heart of IPC4.
Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, sarahsheffield89@gmail.com; Lydia We write this article as the fortunate recipients of 15 travel
Tackett, Dept. of Geosciences, North Dakota State University, grants offered by STEPPE, an NSF-supported consortium whose
Fargo, North Dakota, USA, lydia.tackett@gmail.com; Jessica N. purpose is to promote multidisciplinary research and education
Tashman, Dept. of Geology, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA, on Earth’s deep-time sedimentary crust (see http://steppe.org/).
jtashman@kent.edu; and Zuzanna Wawrzyniak, Dept. of The funding opportunities provided by STEPPE, in collaboration
Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, University of Silesia, Katowice, with The Geological Society of America, the Paleobotanical
Poland, zuza.wawrzyniak@gmail.com Section of the Botanical Society of America, the Paleontological
Society, the Society for Sedimentary Geology, and the Society for
Earth’s biological diversity comprises ~1.7 million extant Vertebrate Paleontology, helped to alleviate a substantial financial
species known to science, and there are many millions yet to be burden for many students. For many of us, IPC4 provided our
discovered (Gewin, 2002; Mora et al., 2011). Today’s biodiversity, first opportunity to visit Argentina, South America, or even the
however, is thought to represent only ~1% of the life that has ever Southern Hemisphere, and without STEPPE’s aid, we would not
existed on our planet. Moreover, much of this life is currently in have experienced the new research and diverse perspectives the
peril from what has been called the “6th great extinction event,” conference offered, including following in the footsteps of Charles
largely precipitated by the overwhelming influence humans have Darwin’s travels in the Andes on the many conference field trips.
had on the biosphere (Brook et al., 2008). If modern biodiversity The student funding offered by the STEPPE consortium and
represents only a small fraction of the flora and fauna that once collaborative professional societies has greatly assisted all of us in
lived, what can we learn from past diversity to understand the our nascent careers, and in this instance provided an incredibly
future of modern biota? What processes acted to shape our motivating, reassuring, and intellectually stimulating experience
current diversity? How do living species relate to other branches that benefitted all of our futures in paleontology.
on the tree of life?
As STEPPE awardees, we are as diverse as the conference
Paleontology, from the Greek palaios (old, ancient), ontos proceedings. We study taxa as disparate as tetrapods, plants,
(being, creature), and logos (thought, study), involves the study of arthropods, and early eukaryotes, and research topics from paleo-
ecology, paleobiogeography, and biomechanics, to exceptional
24 preservations, functional morphology, visual systems, and