Environmental Internship Program - 2022 Booklet

BIODIVERSITY AND
CONSERVATION
Evelyn McGonigle ’25
OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND FINANCIAL
ENGINEERING
PROJECT TITLE
Analysis of Climate-driven
Body Size Changes in the
Marine Fossil Record
ORGANIZATION(S)
Deutsch Research
Group, Department of
Geosciences, Princeton
University
LOCATION(S)
Princeton, New Jersey
MENTOR(S)
Curtis Deutsch,
Professor of Geosciences
and the High Meadows
Environmental Institute
I worked on a project that aims to determine the
driving environmental components behind the
temperature size effect, the negative correlation
between temperature and animal body size. My
specific role was to collect and analyze data on
ostracods, which are tiny marine crustaceans
that have existed for millions of years. At the
start of the internship, I focused on learning
how to use the program MATLAB to compare
the modern laboratory model correlating
ostracod body size with temperature to the same
relationship within the fossil record. My analysis
showed that changes in paleo-ostracod body size
were more significant than could be accounted
for by the modern model. I spent the second half
of the internship analyzing ostracod metabolism.
This involved a lot of literature review to find
metabolic parameters in published studies, and
helped determine the missing factor behind
these body size changes. Before this summer, I
had never been involved in research, and I am
looking forward to applying my newfound data
analysis skills in both my studies and my future
career.
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