Madeline Ball

About Me

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oregon, advised by Dr. Samantha Hopkins.

I recieved my B.Sc. in Evolution and Ecology from The Ohio State University and completed an undergraduate thesis on the evolution and ecology of bite force in geomorph rodents under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Calede.

Research Interests

• Methods in paleoecology: Developing computer vision methods, particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs), to determine dietary ecology in extant and extinct small mammals.
• Community paleoecology: Investigating functional shifts in small mammal communities of western North America across the Oligo-Miocene, a time marked by significant tectonic activity, climatic change, and ecosystem transitions.
• Dark data: Utilizing unpublished fossil specimens ("dark data") in museum collections to improve our understanding of species diversity.

Publications

• Flores, Deanna F., Ball, Madeline P., Famoso, Nicholas F., and Hopkins, Samantha S.B. In review. "Additions to the Lonerock small mammal assemblage from the John Day Formation of Oregon, USA." Journal of Paleontology.

Conferences and Meetings

• [Aug. 2024] North American Rodents: Landscapes, Ecology, and Evolution (NARLEE) Field Trip; Rocky Mountain National Park, CO.
• [Jul. 2024] Paleobiology Database Summer Workshop, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
• [Jun. 2024] North American Rodents: Landscapes, Ecology, and Evolution (NARLEE) Workshop, Mammalian diversification and distribution dynamics on evolving landscapes; Ann Arbor, MI.
• [Jun. 2024] North American Paleontological Convention; Ann Arbor, MI. [Poster]
• [Oct. 2023] Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology; Cincinnati, OH. [Poster]
• [Oct. 2022] Great Lakes Student PaleoConference; Chicago, IL. [Poster]
• [Jan. 2021] Society for Comparative and Integrative Biology Annual Meeting; Phoenix, AZ. [Poster]