Dr. O’Connor is an evolutionary biologist and paleontologist who combines information from the fossil record with modern animals and the ecosystems in which they live to understand how past environments may have influenced extinction and survivorship dynamics at different points in Earth history. Pat’s field research spans from Colorado and Utah to Madagascar, eastern and northern Africa, and Antarctica, united by the common theme of how large-scale environmental change influences ecosystems and biotas during the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Along with students and colleagues from around the globe, Pat and his collaborators regularly describe species new to science, including several exciting and oftentimes bizarre non-avian dinosaurs, birds, crocodiles, and mammals, while simultaneously describing the environments in which these animals once existed.

Dr. Maccracken is the Assistant Curator of Paleobotany, studying fossil plants and their ecological interactions in deep time. She focuses on reconstructing ancient landscapes during the Late Cretaceous (Age of the Dinosaurs), across the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction, and into the first million years of the Paleogene (Age of the Mammals) to understand how ecosystems rebuild after mass extinctions and climate change. Gussie has done fieldwork throughout the Western Interior of North America, including Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Coahuila, Mexico. Prior to becoming Assistant Curator of Paleobotany at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, she was a postdoctoral fellow funded through the National Science Foundation. Gussie received her BA from Colorado College and PhD. from University of Maryland, College Park, where she conducted her research at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History.