Student Information
Graduate Student
Evolutionary Biology
The College of Lib Arts & Sci
Long Bio
Derek is an ASU evolutionary biology PhD student and vertebrate paleontologist who is interested in the functional morphology and systematics of fossil “insectivores”, especially those groups allied with the living mammal order Eulipotyphla (shrews, moles, hedgehogs, and solenodons).
Derek received his master's degree in geosciences with a paleontology concentration from East Tennessee State University in 2025. There he studied the relationship between dietary preferences and craniodental morphology in modern shrews to try and infer what fossil shrews may have been eating.
Education
M.Sc. Geosciences (Paleontology concentration), East Tennessee State University
B.Sc. Biology, secondary major in Geology, Iowa State University
Research Interests
My current research interests lie in the systematics of red-toothed (soricine) shrews and the repeated evolution of specialized craniodental morphologies within fossil eulipotyphlans.