Daniel Ksepka
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
North Carolina State University
Research Associate
North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences
Fossil Kairuku Penguins in the News:
Live television interview on BBC World News.
Radio interview on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks.
More coverage from BBC, National Geographic, Wired Science, US News & World Report, Scientific American, and Discovery.
Ph.D. Columbia University, 2007
B. S. Rutgers University, 2002
Office: 3139 Jordan Hall
Lab: 3141 Jordan Hall
Email: ksepka (at) gmail.com
Phone: (919) 515-0383
Svelte Fossil Penguins.
Two new species of elegantly proportioned penguins are covered in our latest article in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
NCSU Press release.
SVP Press release.
You can read the article free here.
My own blog coverage.
My research combines data from the fossil record and extant organisms to answer questions about major evolutionary events. Current projects are supported by:
NSF DEB 0949897 Wings to Flippers: Phylogenetics, Character Acquisition & Feather Biomechanics in the Evolution of Wing-Propelled Diving
Reconstructing the transition to flightlessness and diving in penguins offers many opportunities to gain insight into how these remarkable birds evolved over time.
Our group is exploring patterns of congruence and disparity between the fossil record and divergence dating analyses, and providing important new resources.
Daniel T. Ksepka
Monster “Coal Turtle”
Carbonemys is a new species of giant turtle discovered by NCSU PhD student Edwin Cadena. We announced this turtle in a recent article in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.
Check out news coverage here.
Penguins have been around for over 60 million years. My research blog covers discoveries that are changing our understanding of penguin evolution.
Science Communication
This feed tweets a Fossil Fact of the Day,
with Dig Deeper links to primary content.
KsepkaLab on
TEACHING EVOLUTION WITH FOSSIL TURTLES
Bring fossil turtles into your 5th-12th grade classroom! Our new exercise is
now available from the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners.
Prototyping Extinct Bird Brains
My students Catherine Early, Michelle Sclafani and Alyssa Stubbs are bringing bird brains to life using CT rendering and rapid prototyping, and just presented their results at the SVP conference. Shown here is a life-size fossil penguin brain.
