Grant S. Boardman, PhD Student		Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geosciences (UN-L) Office: 107 Bessey Hall E-mail: grant128@hotmail.com		About Me: I am currently a first year PhD student in Geosciences at UN-L.  I was born and raised in the Metro-New Orleans area (but have lived in Colorado and Tennessee); and yes I was in Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina (but I was living in Baton Rouge at the time).  I do not have a "Southern" accent, but I can affect one if you ask nicely.  I do say "Y’all" on occasion, but that is about as Southern as I get.  I am married and I have three siblings.  I love the educational process, and hope to become a better teacher.   I have been interested in paleontology and collecting fossils ever since I was a very small child (and YES, there are fossils in Louisiana).  I also love to collect (and skin if fresh) and skeletonize any critter I can get my hands on.
Education: BS Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University 2004 MS Biological Sciences, East Tennessee State University 2009
Research Interests: My broad research interests run the gamut of topics in Vertebrate Paleontology.  More specifically I am interested in the paleobiogeography and evolutionary history of amphibian clades in North America; my MS Thesis concerned an upland salamander fauna from the latest Miocene of eastern Tennessee.  I am also interested in tracking changes in the diet of fossil mammal taxa as evidenced by microwear analysis and through the use of stable isotopes from tooth enamel.  My PhD research with Dr. Ross Secord will focus on tracking potential dietary changes in several large mammal groups across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary (when considerable atmospheric and oceanic cooling occurred, taking the continent from a Greenhouse to a Coolhouse).
Some Recent Publications, Presentations, Abstracts: Boardman, G.S. (2009) Salamanders of the Mio-Pliocene Gray Fossil Site, Washington County, Tennessee. Masters Thesis (unpublished), East Tennessee State University. Boardman, G.S. (2008) First Lamine Camel (cf. Palaeolama) reported from the Tunica Hills of Louisiana. Current Research in the Pleistocene 25:163-165. Schiebout, J.A., P.D. White, G.S. Boardman (2008) Taphonomic Issues Relating to Concentrations of Pedogenic Nodules and Vertebrates in the Paleocene and Miocene Gulf Coastal Plain: Examples from Texas and Louisiana, in J. Sankey and S. Baszio (eds.), Vertebrate Microfossil Assemblages, Indiana University Press.	Some Websites related to Vertebrate Paleontology: The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology: http://vertpaleo.org/index.cfm Laelaps, a science and paleo blog: http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/ Tetrapod Zoology, another science and paleo blog: http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/