Kathryn E. Mickle, PhD

Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, Thomas Jefferson University, 2019

My research focuses on a group of fossil lower actinopterygian fishes commonly referred to as palaeoniscoids that are more than 300-million years old. Palaeoniscoids represent a group of early actinopterygian, or ray-finned fishes, that are crucial to our understanding of the early evolution of fish that exist today. Unfortunately, there have been comparatively few studies of these fishes, clouding our knowledge of the early evolution of actinopterygians in general. My research requires a strong foundation in anatomy and involves both morphological descriptions of new species and genera and in-depth investigations into morphological characters such as reinterpretations of the identification and naming of bones. The ultimate goal of my research is to understand the evolutionary relationships between living and extinct actinopterygian fishes. Current projects include describing new species, reinvestigating  existing species and updating descriptions, investigations into suites of morphological features, and conducting phylogenetic analyses using the descriptive data I collect. To date, I have described six new genera and nine new species of lower actinopterygian fishes and published on morphological reinterpretations of the bones of the snout in lower actinopterygian fishes. I also recently co-authored a book focused on lower actinopterygian fishes (Handbook of Paleoichthyology Volume 8A: Actinopterygii I).

My teaching revolves around anatomy. I currently teach undergraduate and graduate students in human anatomy courses, including both human cadaver-based dissection and prosection courses, and human anatomy and physiology to undergraduate students.