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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
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