People
Meet the Paleo-FISHES Lab community. Science is decidedly a team sport and none of this research happens without the amazing people who have been part of Team Ichthyoliths and Paleo-FISHES past and present.
[This People page is still under construction, waiting for confirmation from our Alums before listing them here - In the interim, please visit https://elizabethsibert.com/people/ for a full list of folks involved in PaleoFISHES Lab work]
Elizabeth Sibert
Assistant Scientist
Paleo-FISHES PI
Dr. Elizabeth Sibert is broadly interested in understanding how marine ecosystems respond to global change. She is a leading expert in the field of ichthyolith micropaleontology, and loves to explore the stories that these microfossils can share about shark and fish evolution, community dynamics, and marine ecosystems in deep time. Elizabeth completed her Bachelors in Biology at UC San Diego (2011), and her MS (2013) and PhD (2016) in Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2016-2020, and a Hutchinson Fellow and Associate Research Scientist through the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies from 2020-2023. She moved to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as an Assistant Scientist in the Geology & Geophysics Department in 2023 and is thrilled to be supporting the Paleo-FISHES Lab research program. In her spare time, Elizabeth is a high level circus aerial artist and coach, fulfilling her childhood dreams of both becoming a marine biologist and running away with the circus.
Contact: esibert@whoi.edu
Elizabeth's Website | GitHub | Google Scholar
Pronunciation guide: E-liz-a-beth Sigh-Burt, she/her
Jean Clemente
PhD Student (MIT-WHOI Joint Program, 2023-present)
Contact: jeanrc2@mit.edu
Pronunciation guide: /zhän/ as in GENre. He/him
Molly Gabler-Smith
Research Associate III (2024-present)
Dr. Molly Gabler-Smith is a functional morphologist interested in the tissues of marine vertebrates, including sharks. Her current research focuses on using modern flow visualization techniques to understand how fossil shark denticles might have functioned in the fluid environment. She uses a broad range of techniques (i.e., micro-CT scanning, microscopy, 3D printing, and particle image velocimetry) to measure the interaction of denticles and flow. In her spare time, Molly enjoys playing with her daughter and dog and reading thriller novels.
Contact: molly.smith@whoi.edu
Pronunciation guide: Maa-lee Gay-bler Smith, she/her
Amina Patterson
Research Assistant (2024-present)
Amina is a research assistant working on the process of integrating existing skin patches and denticles into the database created by the Paleo-FISHES Lab. Amina graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Planetary Science (2021) and has been a research assistant at WHOI since 2021. In her free time, Amina likes to play video games and write.
Pronunciation guide: uh-mee-naa paet·er·sun. She/Her
Leah Davis Rubin
PhD Student, SUNY-ESF, in residence @ WHOI for 2024-2025
Leah Davis Rubin is a Ph.D. student at The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Dr. Joshua Drew's Coupled Human and Organismal Systems lab and a visiting student in the Paleo-FISHES Lab. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Leah is a dedicated human ecologist investigating the complex relationships between humans and marine environments through time. Her research utilizes dermal denticles from deep sea sediment cores and coral reefs, zooarchaeological remains, and oral histories to examine the impacts of tourism and colonization on fisheries and the role of subsistence fishing in food sovereignty and security. With experience in marine mammal stranding response, natural history collections management, and high school science education, Leah is also passionate about mentoring, working with undergraduates and high school students to foster curiosity, develop innovative projects, and explore historical perspectives. When Leah isn't in the lab, you can probably find her somewhere in Maine, swimming, fishing, and ideally eating blueberries
Contact:
Pronunciation guide: Lee-uh Roo-bin (she/her and they/them)
Affiliates
Team Ichthyoliths includes undergraduate and graduate students around the world joining the ichthyolith team for one or several of their thesis or dissertation chapters. These are our current affiliates.
Arleth Martinez
Undergraduate Student, Berea College
PEP Summer Internship 2024
Hello, my name is Arleth Martinez! I am currently a second-semester junior at Berea College, majoring in Biology. During the summer of 2024, I was a PEP intern with Elizabeth, and my main focus in the lab was researching Modern Shark Denticles! I was looking into the evolution and diversity between a clade of Deep-Sea sharks, the Order of Squailformes, and wanted to see how different or similar they are between each other and compare them to other clades by using a shark phylogenetic tree. I also contributed to looking into the interconnection between Modern Shark Denticles and fossil Denticles using R coding and found some interesting results. More data is needed for this, and it is still an ongoing project to do more!
Website
Pronunciation Guide: Are-Let Mar-teen-ez, she/her
Elizabeth Pellegrini
Undergraduate Student, Eckerd College
Summer Paleo-FISHES Intern 2024, Senior Thesis Student
Hi! My name is Elizabeth and was Dr.Sibert’s REU student this past summer. I am a rising junior at Eckerd College majoring in Marine Science with a minor in Environmental Studies. This past summer my project focused on exploring shark evolution during the Early Eocene Climate Optimum (EECO) using fossil dermal denticles from the South Pacific. I am continuing this project as a senior thesis with Dr. Sibert this fall, along with another set of samples from the middle of the Pacific gyre, with a continued focus on shark diversity and abundance during the EECO.
Website
Pronunciation Guide: ih-LIH-zuh-beth Pehl-leh-GREE-nee. she/her
Karinne Tennenbaum
Undergraduate Student, Yale University (2022-present)
Karinne Tennenbaum is a junior at Yale University pursuing a BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology with a focus on Biodiversity and the Environment. She joined the lab in Fall 2022 as part of the First-Year Seminar: Collections of the Peabody Museum (EVST040). Under the mentorship of Dr. Sibert, Karinne is submitting a manuscript based on her class project, which investigates how tooth morphology can contribute to microfossil teeth classification and support the timing of Cyclothone evolution. Karinne’s diverse passions have taken her to the Yale-Myers Forest, Chile's Cape Horn, and Panama's Barro Colorado Island, where she developed a strong interest in tropical bird communities. Beyond the lab, she is a member of the Yale Ballroom Dance Team and Yale Club Jump Rope, and she enjoys playing guitar, board games, and pickleball.
Website
Pronunciation Guide: kuh-rin TEH-nen-bawm. She/her
Nicholas Wallis-Mauro
Undergraduate Student, University of Florida (2023-present)
Nick was a summer REU intern with Elizabeth at Yale University in 2023. He graduated from the University of Florida with a B.S. in Marine Science and Zoology (2024). His work with the Paleo-FISHES lab involved imaging extant shark denticle skin-patches, processing denticles, and analysing denticle morphometrics for use in a larger database. Nick seeks to answer questions about how denticle morphology relates to shark ecology and taxonomy. This work also served as his senior thesis. When he’s not working on denticles, Nick likes to read, play video games, and travel.
Email Nick
Pronunciation Guide: Nik-uh-luhs Wal-lihs Mow-ro. He/him
Alumni
Once a part of Team Ichthyoliths, always a part of Team Icthyoliths. Below are links to some of the many students and researchers who have contributed to ichthyolith research.
"And they're off... on the Greatest Adventure of Their Lives" --Dick Norris, PhD Advisor to Elizabeth, and the true beginning of the Paleo-FISHES Lab.
Please check out https://elizabethsibert.com/people/ for an expanded alum list while this page is under construction
WHOI Alumni (2024-)
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PhD Student: 2016 - 2020
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Yale (Sibert Group/Hull Lab) Alumni (2019-2023)
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PhD Student: 2016 - 2020
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Harvard (Sibert Group) Alumni (2016-2019)
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PhD Student: 2016 - 2020
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UCSD (Norris Lab) Alumni (2011-2016)
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PhD Student: 2016 - 2020
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PhD Student: 2016 - 2020
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Additional Team Ichthyoliths Alumni include (in alphabetical order):
Past Mentors
Elizabeth and the Paleo-FISHES Lab and research program benefited immensely from support and training by some absolutely fantastic mentors. Thanks to these mentors for making science happen and nurturing this developing research program!
Richard Norris
Undergraduate & PhD Advisor @ Scripps
2009-2016
Distinguished Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Pincelli Hull
Undergraduate Mentor @ Scripps 2009-2011
Postdoctoral Host @ Yale
2019-2023
Associate Professor, Yale University