Alycia L. Stigall

My research explores the influence of biogeography and paleoecology on macroevolutionary phenomena, principally speciation and cladogensis. I am particularly interested in elucidating the long-term impacts of species invasions and the relationship between speciation mode and biodiversity expansions and declines. I utilize a variety of quantitative approaches, such as phylogenetic reconstruction and ecological niche modeling, to integrate previously disparate areas of paleontological investigation within a comprehensive evolutionary framework. Articulated brachiopods are the most commonly employed model taxa within this work.

A secondary line of research involves taxonomic and paleoecological analyses of spinicaudatan crustaceans, a group restricted to freshwater lake environments.

Recent projects have focused on the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, the Late Ordovician Richmondian Invasion, the Late Devonian Biodiversity Crisis, and Jurassic lakes of Gondwana. Primary field locations range from Ohio and adjacent states, to Oklahoma, Estonia, Namibia, and Antarctica. This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, and the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund.

I also contribute to paleontological database development through iDigBio and collaborate with faculty in the Ohio University Department of Teacher Education to develop workshops, lesson plans, and outreach activities to promote STEM education in the rural Appalachian region and underrepresented groups more broadly. Outreach and educational resources developed are available via the Ordovician Atlas website and the free Digital Atlas of Ancient Life app.

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Positions

• 2015-present, Professor
• 2009-2015, Associate Professor
• 2004-2009, Assistant Professor
• 2004, Post-doctoral Researcher, The Ohio State University

Selected Publications

Google Scholar Page

• Antionetto, L.S., Park Boush, L. Plotnick, R.E., Stigall, A.L. 2020. Paleoecological aspects of western United States nonmarine ostracodes during the Eocene-Oligocene transition: the Early Oligocene faunas of the Renova Formation, southwestern Montana. Palaios. 35: 165-174. https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2019.040
• Stigall. A.L. Freeman, R.L., Edwards, C.T., and Rasmussen, C.M.Ø. 2020. A multidisciplinary perspective on the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event and the development of the Paleozoic world. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 541: 109521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109521  
• Gallego, O.F., Monferran, M.D., Stigall, A.L., Zacarias, I.A., Hegna, T.A., Jiménez, V.C., Bittencourt, J., Li, G., Barrios Calathaki, H.G. 2020. The Devonian-Cretaceous fossil record of “conchostracans” of Africa and their paleobiogeographic relationships with other Gondwanan faunas. Journal of African Earth Sciences. 161: 103648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2019.103648
• Stigall, A.L. 2019. The invasion hierarchy: ecological and evolutionary consequences of invasions in the fossil record. Annual Review of Ecology and Evolutionary Systematics.50: 355-380. https://doi/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110617-062638
• Stigall. A.L. Edwards, C.T., Freeman, R.L., Rasmussen, C.M.Ø. 2019. Coordinated biotic and abiotic change during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event: Darriwilian assembly of early Paleozoic building blocks. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 530: 249-270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.05.034
• Stigall, A.L., Fine, R. 2018. Epibole vs. ecological turnover: contrasting ecosystem impacts of biotic invasions on Ordovician communities. Palaeoworld, 18:166-172.
• Epa, Y.R., Stigall, A.L., Roberts, E.M., O’Brien, H.D., Stevens, N.J. 2018. Morphological diversification of ampullariid gastropods (Nsungwe Formation, late Oligocene, Rukwa Rift Basin) is coincident with onset of East African rifting” Papers in Palaeontology. 4: 327-348.
• Perera, S.N. and Stigall, A.L. 2018. Identifying hierarchical spatial patterns within paleocommunities: An example from the Late Pennsylvanian Ames Limestone of the Appalachian basin. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 506: 1-11.
• Trubovitz, S. and Stigall, A.L. 2018. Ecological revolution of Oklahoma’s rhynchonelliform brachiopod fauna during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Lethaia, 51: 277-285.
• Stigall. A.L. 2018. How is biodiversity produced? Examining speciation processes during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Lethaia, 51:165-172
• Lam, A.R., Stigall,
• A.L., Matzke, N.J. 2018. Dispersal in the Ordovician: Speciation patterns and paleobiogeographic analyses of brachiopods and trilobites. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 489:147-165.
• Nylin, S., Agosta, S., Bensch, S., Boeger, W.A., Braga, M.P., Brooks, D.R., Forister, M.L., Hambäck, P.A., Hoberg, E.P., Nyman, T., Schäpers, A., Stigall, A.L., Wheat, C.W., Österling, M., Janz, N. 2018. Towards a new paradigm for species association dynamics. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 33: 4-14.
• Stigall. A.L. 2017. Ordovician oxygen and biodiversity. Nature Geoscience, 10:887-888.
• Stigall, A.L., Plotnick, R.E., Park Boush, L.E. 2017. The first Cenozoic spinicaudatans from North America. Journal of Paleontology, 91:467-476.
• Stigall, A.L., Bauer, J.E., Lam, A.L., Wright, D.A. 2017. Biotic immigration events, speciation and the accumulation of biodiversity in deep time. Global and Planetary Change 148, 242-257.
• Trubovitz, S. and Stigall, A.L., 2016. Synchronous diversification among Laurentian and Baltic rhynchonelliform brachiopods: implications for regional vs. global triggers of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Geology, 44: 742-746.

Selected Advisees' Master's Theses

• Purcell, C. In progress. How did ecological niches evolve during Ordovician environmental change? A test using Laurentian brachiopods?
• Censullo, S.M., 2020. Did alternating dispersal and vicariance contribute to increased biodiversification during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event? A phylogenetic test using brachiopods
• Epa, Y.R., 2017. Paleoecology of the freshwater gastropods from the late Oligocene Nsungwe Formation of Tanzania.
• Perera, S.N. 2017. Hierarchical spatial patterns in paleocommunities of the Late Pennsylvanian Ames Limestone.
• Trubovitz, S. 2016. Brachiopod diversity during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event in the Middle Ordovician Simpson Group (Oklahoma).

Memberships

• Paleontology Society
• Palaeontological Association
• Geological Society of America
• International Biogeography Society
• Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM)