Evelyn McGonigle ’25
Operations Research and Financial Engineering
Analysis of Climate-driven Body Size Changes in the Marine Fossil Record
I worked on a project that aims to determine the driving environmental components behind the temperature size effect, the negative correlation between temperature and animal body size. My specific role was to collect and analyze data on ostracods, which are tiny marine crustaceans that have existed for millions of years. At the start of the internship, I focused on learning how to use the program MATLAB to compare the modern laboratory model correlating ostracod body size with temperature to the same relationship within the fossil record. My analysis showed that changes in paleo-ostracod body size were more significant than could be accounted for by the modern model. I spent the second half of the internship analyzing ostracod metabolism. This involved a lot of literature review to find metabolic parameters in published studies, and helped determine the missing factor behind these body size changes. Before this summer, I had never been involved in research, and I am looking forward to applying my newfound data analysis skills in both my studies and my future career.
2022
Biodiversity and Conservation
Deutsch Research Group, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University - Princeton, New Jersey
Curtis Deutsch, Professor of Geosciences and the High Meadows Environmental Institute