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Brenen Wynd
Geosciences
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Brenen graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle (UW), in 2015 with a double B.S. in Biology and Biochemistry, with departmental honors. Brenen was drawn to research after working with Dr. Ronald Kwon on enhancing the anesthetic capabilities in zebrafish (Danio rerio). His research with Dr. Kwon culminated in a first author publication detailing a mechanism of in–vivo imaging using a dynamic anesthesia delivery system. During his final year at UW, Brenen took a Vertebrate Paleontology course, and for a final project Brenen rewrote the Wikipedia page for Thrinaxodon liorhinus, and became completely enamored with the subject. Later that year, he joined the lab of Dr. Christian Sidor, a vertebrate paleontologist studying Permian and Triassic pre-mammalian synapsids.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”39573″ img_size=”275×355″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]His work with Dr. Sidor focused heavily on a description of a fossil specimen, Cynognathus crateronotus, and its geographic significance in relation to other Cynognathus-bearing areas. This work has driven him towards wanting to better mass extinction recovery fauna, mostly from Triassic deposits.
Getting involved in Paleontology led to him joining the lab/field with Dr. Gregory Wilson, where Brenen spent nearly two years as an assistant lab manager and research assistant, working with lower vertebrates from the latest Cretaceous and earliest Paleocene of Montana. Brenen was a member of the field crew that retrieved the “Tufts-Love T. rex” specimen and he is currently studying the diversity and morphology of Cretaceous sharks and rays and their ecological relation to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event. He plans to use the knowledge he gained to study morphology, phylogeny and ecology in the ancestors of dinosaurs and crocodiles.
In the fall of 2017, Brenen joined Sterling Nesbitt’s Lab as a PhD student in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. He will study the ecology and phylogenetics surrounding Triassic archosaurs and their environments.
The fossil record preserves such rich patterns from earth history, much of which cannot be gleaned from living animals. Of these patterns, mass extinctions have been one of the most-heavily studied. They allow us to better understand catastrophic extinction and the macro-evolutionary response of surviving animals. Through the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Brenen hopes to further study these patterns through the scope of conservation paleobiology; using the fossil record to influence current thoughts regarding conservation in context to mass extinction events.
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In the News
Congratulations to Recipients of the 2020-21 IGC Fellowship!
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Recent Publications
Wynd, B. M., B. R. Peecook, M. R. Whitney, and C. A. Sidor. 2017. The first Occurrence of Cynognathus crateronotus (Cynodontia, Cynognathia) in Tanzania, with Biostratigraphic Implications for the Age of Triassic Strata in Southern Pangea; pp. xxx–xxx in C. A. Sidor and S. J. Nesbitt (eds.), Vertebrate and climatic evolution in the Triassic rift basins of Tanzania and Zambia. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 17. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 37 (6, supplement). In review.
Wynd, B. M., C. J. Watson, K. Patil, G. E. Sanders and R. Y. Kwon. 2017. A Dynamic Anesthesia System for Long-Term Imaging in the Adult Zebrafish Skeleton. Zebrafish 14:1-17.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]