Edward Spagnuolo, PhD Student
Current Projects
Below are the ongoing projects I am involved with as lead researcher as an undergraduate or graduate student. I am particularly interested in biogeography—the movement and distribution of organisms on Earth—and rainforest paleobiology—the relationships between tropical biodiversity, evolution, and climate throughout geologic time. These projects include collaborators from across the globe and other graduate, undergraduate, and high school students.
Image Credit: Figure 1 of Spagnuolo et al., 2022
Fossil angiosperm leaf from Ghazij Fm. with abundant insect damage.
Photo Credit: E. J. Spagnuolo.
Paleogene Pakistan Plant Fossils
Studying the floristic interchange of the India-Asia tectonic collision with fossil leaves and pollen
The collision of the Indian Tectonic Plate into mainland Asia (~50-30 million years ago; Ma) resulted in a massive interchange of plants and animals, many of which now endemic to SE Asia. However, which plant lineages evolved on the Indian Plate is still not well known. I am studying the only known Paleogene (pre-collision) plant fossils from Pakistan (Ghazij Formation; Fm.) to better understand this collision and its biogeographic legacies. The fossil leaves, seeds, and pollen are being described morphologically and taxonomically (when possible) as well as the extensive leaf insect damage.
Current Collaborators: P. Wilf (PSU), P. J.Przybylski (PSU undergraduate), M. ul-Haq (Geological Survey of Pakistan), S. L. Wing (Smithsonian), W. Clyde (Univ. New Hampshire).
Giant Indonesian Seeds
Unraveling the Asia-Australia tectonic collision through paleobotany
Paleobotanical fieldwork in SE Asia, especially the Malay Archipelago, is incredibly rare, but important to directly probe the assembly of these rainforests. I am studying the first plant macrofossils from the Paleogene of SE Asia collected in approximately a century from Indonesian Borneo (S. Kalimantan; Tanjung Fm.; late Eocene, ~33 Ma). Two large seeds were recovered from the formation, along with fossil leaves. The seeds closely resemble Castanospermum a coastal rainforest legume tree found today only in N. Australia and neighboring islands. These seeds are the only record of Castanospermum and its relatives in the fossil record and suggests the lineage evolved in Asia before migrating into Australasia following the Asia-Australia collision, which began 10 million years after these fossils.
Current Collaborators: P. Wilf (PSU), J.-P. Zonneveld (Univ. Alberta), Aswan (Institut Teknologi Bandung Indonesia; ITB), Y. Rizal (ITB), Y. Zaim (ITB), J. I. Bloch (Univ. Florida).
Myself and fossils from the Tanjung Fm.
Photo Credit: E. J. Spagnuolo.
Computer-vision heat maps and fossil leaf counterparts of analogous leaf features.
Photo Credit: Figure 6 of Spagnuolo et al. (2022).
Learning Leaves Through AI
Decoding how computer vision algorithms identify modern and fossil leaves for paleobotanical applications
While angiosperm leaves are the most abundant plant macrofossils of the past 100 Ma., they are often the most difficult to taxonomically identify, resulting in millions of fossil leaves without proper ID in museum collections worldwide. For my undergraduate honors thesis, I studied how artificial intelligence algorithms identified extant leaves using computer-vision heat maps. I created a scoring system using traditional botanical terms to analyze over 3,000 heat maps across 14 angiosperm families. The heat map analysis showed that each family had diagnostic leaf features emphasized by the heat maps for correct family-level identification. This work was published as a highlighted article in the American Journal of Botany in 2022. Currently, I am involved with additional fossil leaf ID-AI projects with our collaborators.
Current Collaborators: P. Wilf (PSU), T. Serre (Brown Univ.), T. Fel (Graduate student, Artificial and Neural Intelligence Toulouse Institute; ANITI), I. Rodriguez (Graduate student, Brown Univ.).
Paleo-Heritage of Southeast Asia
Using modern rainforest plot data to assess the paleo-heritage and conservation hot spots of Southeast Asia
The trees found in SE Asian rainforests today are from multiple biogeographic sources including Gondwana—India, Australia, South America, Antarctica—and Eurasia. Identifying distinct plant communities with a known fossil record and evolutionary history can be used as a rationale for modern conservation efforts. I am assembling an open-access database of published rainforest plot data—data on tree biodiversity and abundance in defined areas—to assess the paleo-heritage and Gondwanan hotspots of SE Asia.
Current Collaborators: P. Wilf (PSU), R. M. Kooyman (Macquarie University & Royal Botanic Gardens, Australia), K. Johansson (PSU undergraduate).
Current rainforest plot database of SE Asia. Pin is equivelant to one paper with plot data.
Photo Credit: Figure 1 of Spagnuolo et al. (2021) Botany 2021 Poster
Fossil cassiduloid (Hardouinia kellumi) with geometric morphometric landmarks and semilandmarks plotted on margin and petals.
Photo Credit: Figure 1 of Spagnuolo et al. (2021) GSA poster. Original H. kellumi image from the Echinoid Directory.
Morphological Experimentation in Sea Urchins
Exploring the morphological diversity of cassiduloid echinoderms
Cassiduloids are a group of echinoids (sea urchins and relatives) with an extensive and speciose fossil record and very poor modern species diversity. Through the Smithsonian Natural History Research Experiences (NHRE) internship I studied how the morphological diversity (disparity) of cassiduloids changed throughout their evolutionary history using geometric morphometrics and multivariate analyses. We discovered a selective extinction event of hyper-round species (likely poor burrowers) at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event, with a delayed recovery and re-experimentation of this body-plan in the Neogene and modern.
Current Collaborators: C. Souto (Stockton Univ. and Smithsonian), G. Hunt (Smithsonian), and K. Gordhan (high school student).