John W. Merck, Jr.
Principal Lecturer
Director of Undergraduate Studies - Geology
Associate Director, College Park Scholars - Science and Global Change Program
Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 1997
Contact
Office: GEO 1119
Geology Building
8000 Regents Drive
College Park, MD 20742
CEN 1218
Centreville Hall
4243 Valley Drive
College Park, MD 20742
Mailing Address
8000 Regents Drive
College Park, MD 20742
jmerck [at] umd [dot] edu
Research Interests
The phylogeny and evolutionary history of the euryapsids, primarily marine reptiles of the Mesozoic Era, including ichthyosaurs, placodonts, and sauropterygians, the empirical testing of cladistic methods of phylogeny reconstruction using digitally simulated phylogenies, and the incorporation of data from CT scans of fossil specimens in the morphological description of fossil taxa.