Caitlin Colleary

Caitlin studied anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and completed a MSc in palaeobiology at the University of Bristol. She is now conducting research for a PhD in vertebrate paleontology at Virginia Tech.

She is interested in how organic material is preserved and altered in deep time. She employ novel approaches in mass spectroscopy and pyrolysis experiments in order to map and predict degradation of original biomolecules and their alteration products. Her master's focused on the preservation and chemical degradation of fossilized melanin. She is now expanding the use of these techniques to address questions regarding organic preservation in vertebrate fossils.