Even though science research isn’t my current day job, I’m still involved in several projects and love getting to collaborate with other researchers to answer interesting questions about the history of life on this little planet of ours.
I love giving public lectures on a variety of topics. Interested in having me come give a talk? Get in touch with the Contact Me page!
You can download a PDF of my CV here: Curriculum Vitae
Here are the highlights:
I have a Ph.D. from the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wyoming. My dissertation research with my advisor Dr. Mark Clementz involved using stable isotope analysis to improve our understanding of tree and ground sloths, including tackling some of the lingering questions plaguing ground sloth paleoecology such as: did ground sloths eat meat? (Not as far as I can tell.) I also analyzed a lot of fossil sloth poop, so that was fun, and engaged in far too many side projects at various states of completion. My dissertation is entitled: Slow Food Movements: Exploring the Dietary Ecology of Extinct and Extant Sloths Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Foods, Tissues, and Feces, but isn’t yet available online.
I completed my Masters of Science in 2012 at Vanderbilt University (my thesis) and before that I double-majored in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Geology at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2009.
If you're a fellow scientist, you can connect with me on Research Gate.
Press:
A Passion for Paleontology: Going Beyond Brontosaurus by Laura Lyon for AGU’s The Bridge
Superheroes might save the world, but they’d totally wreck the environment by Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post
Today a Guy Carrying a Sack of Sloth Teeth Sat Next to Me by Brian Anderson of Motherboard
Mummified Poop Reveals Ancient Sloth Ate Mormon Tea and Saltbush by Laura Geggel, Senior Writer at Live Science
Fossils and painted nails on a Sloth?: Q & A with Ryan Haupt on National Fossil Day by Scott Maguffin for AGU's The Bridge
How Cougars Survived the Ice Age by Brian Switek published on nationalgeographic.com
Cougars’ diverse diet helped them survive the mass extinction that wiped out the saber-tooth cat, American lion by ResearchNews@Vanderbilt
Ancient Cougars Survived Ice Age Extinction By Not Being PIcky Eaters, Study Finds by Blake de Pastino in Western Digs
Black Gold by Matt Kaplan published in The Economist
Publications:
Cliffe, R.N., R.J. Haupt, et al. In resubmission. The behaviour and activity budgets of two sympatric sloths; Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus hoffmanni. PeerJ.
Reid, R., B. Crowley, and R.J. Haupt. In resubmission. The prospects of poop: A review of past achievements and future possibilities in fecal isotope analysis. Ecological Monographs.
Haupt, R.J. and A.K. Hastings. 2023. Analysis of fossil crocodylian teeth as a potential indicator of past nesting sites or juvenile refugia: A test case from the Miocene of Panama. Crocodylian Biology and Archosaur Paleobiology: Studies in Honor of Ruth M. Elsey (eds. H.N. Woodward and J.O. Farlow). Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Wheatley, P.V., R.J. Haupt, and A.K. Hastings. 2023. Estimating Total Length from Tooth Size in Alligator mississippiensis. Crocodylian Biology and Archosaur Paleobiology: Studies in Honor of Ruth M. Elsey (eds. H.N. Woodward and J.O. Farlow). Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Haupt R.J., Langis-Barsetti D., O’Dwyer R., Preuss M., van Driel M., Margolis E.A., Jain M., Marlin B.J. 2019. The scientist’s summer reading list. Science 364:926–931.
Cliffe, R.N., and R.J. Haupt. 2018. Hanging Out for a Drink: first observations of tree sloths drinking water in the wild. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 16 (8): 446.
Fraser, D.L., Haupt, R.J., and A.W. Barr. 2018. Phylogenetic signal in tooth wear dietary niche proxies: What it means for those in the field. Ecology and Evolution 00:1-5.
Fraser, D.L., Haupt, R.J., and A.W. Barr. 2018. Phylogenetic signal in tooth wear dietary niche proxies. Ecology and Evolution 00:1-14.
DeSantis, L.R.G., Schubert, B.W., Schmitt-Linville, E., Ungar, P.S., Donohue, S.L., and Haupt, R.J. 2015. Dental Microwear Textures of Carnivorans from the La Brea Tar Pits, California, and Potential Extinction Implications. La Brea and Beyond: The Paleontology of Asphalt-Preserved Biotas, 42: 37-52.
Cliffe, R.N., Haupt, R.J., Avey-Arroyo, J.A., and R.P. Wilson. Sloths like it hot: ambient temperature modulates food intake in the brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus). PeerJ 3:e875.
DeSantis, L.R.G. and R.J. Haupt. 2014. Cougars' key to survival through the late Pleistocene extinction: insights from dental microwear texture analysis. Biology Letters 10(4): 20140203.
Veter, N.M., DeSantis, L.R.G., Yann, L.T., Donohue, S.L., Haupt, R.J., Corapi, S.E., Fathel, S.L., Gootee, E.K., Loffredo, L.F., Romer, J.L., and Velkovsky, S.M. 2013. Is Rappoport's rule a recent phenomenon? A deep time perspective on potential causal mechanisms. Biology Letters 9(5): 20130398.
Yann, L.T., DeSantis, L.R.G., Haupt, R.J., Romer, J.L., Corapi, S.E., and Ettenson, D.J. 2013. The application of an oxygen isotope aridity index to terrestrial paleoenvironmental reconstructions in Pleistocene North America. Paleobiology, 39(4): 576-590.
Haupt, R.J., DeSantis, L.R.G., Green, J.L., and P.S. Ungar. 2013. Dental microwear texture as a proxy for diet in xenarthrans. Journal of Mammalogy 94(4): 856-866.
Abstracts and Presentations:
R.J. Haupt and S.G. Strait. 2022. Wild, Wonderful, and Uninfected: Lessons learned running in person STEM Day Camps during a global pandemic in urban and rural WV. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Education & Outreach Abstracts.
Paul M. and R.J. Haupt. 2022. Dream it, design it, MAKE IT: Distributing MakerSpace technology to eastern panhandle teachers and librarians to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in rural and underserved students. West Virginia Science Teachers Association Annual Conference.
Schatz D. and R.J. Haupt. 2022. Making Science Learning Lifelong, Lifewide, and Lifedeep. West Virginia Science Teachers Association Annual Conference.
Schatz D. and R.J. Haupt. 2022. Time to Get Ready for the Upcoming Solar Eclipse Double Header! West Virginia Science Teachers Association Annual Conference.
Kinghorn B. and R.J. Haupt. 2022. Free Opportunities for Teachers & Students by National Youth Science Foundation. West Virginia Science Teachers Association Annual Conference.
Haupt, R.J. and T.S. Dobbs. 2020. A Podcasters’ Guide to Overcoming Audio Challenges: Best Practices for Sounding Your Best in our New Online Landscape. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2020, SY041: Science and Society: Science Communication Practice, Research, and Reflection II: SY041-13.
Haupt, R.J. and M.T. Clementz. 2019. The best proxy for a proxy? Stable isotopic offsets from diet-to-feces in modern tree sloths shifts dietary interpretations of fossil ground sloths. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019, Stable Isotopes in Feces: Proxies for Past and Present Climate, Diet, and Environment (Session co-convener): PP42C-18
Padilla, A.J. and R.J. Haupt. 2019. Using new audio media (podcasts) to build platforms that empower scientists to tell their own stories: Lessons learned from 10 years of “Science… sort of”. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2019: PA11A-06
Haupt, R.J. 2019. Making space for ground sloths: Testing the potential for modern sloth stable isotope offsets to reinterpret ground sloth dietary ecology. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Romer Prize Session, 79th Annual Meeting: 115-116
Haupt, R.J. 2018. Living things die, but if they get covered with rocks, sometimes much later we can find them and use them for learning new stuff and that’s pretty great. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting: ED23B-15.
Haupt, R.J. and M.T. Clementz. 2018. Bone carbonate-collagen spacing of stable carbon isotope values in extant tree sloths and implications for the interpretations of ground sloth diet. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 78th Annual Meeting: 143.
Haupt, R.J. 2017. The type of dog that came before dogs eats different types of food during different times of the year, and we can tell by looking at their teeth very very close up. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting: ED13F -21.
Haupt, R.J. and Traer, M.M. 2017. InGen Inconsistencies: The “Dinosaurs” Of Jurassic Park May Not Be What The Corporation Claims. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting: PA13C-0245.
Traer, M.M., Haupt, R.J., and Grubert, E. 2017. Stop saving the planet! Carbon accounting of superheroes and their impacts on climate change. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting: PA13C-0240.
Haupt, R.J., and Clementz, M.T. 2017. Dental Microwear Texture Comparisons of Extinct Carnivorans to Extant Social Hypercarnivores, Solitary Carnivores, and Solitary Hypocarnivores. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 49(6): 84-51.
Haupt, R.J., Clementz, M.T., and Cliffe, R.N. 2017. Isotopic offsets between diet and hair and feces in extant sloths: implications for paleontological interpretations. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 77th Annual Meeting: 126.
Fraser, D.L., Haupt, R.J., and Barr, A.W. 2017. Tooth wear dietary proxies show strong phylogenetic signal. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 77th Annual Meeting: 115.
Haupt, R.J. 2016. Using very very tiny things that are a bit heavier than almost the same very very tiny things to understand much bigger things like animals. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, PA53B.
Haupt, R.J., McDonald, H.G.., and Clementz, M.T. 2016. Dietary preferences of the Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) inferred from stable isotope analysis of coprolites. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 76th Annual Meeting: 150
Haupt, R.J., Clementz, M.T., DeSantis, L.R.G., and Fox-Dobbs, K. 2016. Inferring sociality in extinct Carnivorans from dental microwear textures: Lessons from bone consumption and pack status in modern Yellowstone wolves. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, 48(7): 17-15.
Haupt, R.J., Hastings, A.K., Clementz, M.T. Are tiny teeth indicators of a crocodylian nesting ground or juvenile refuge in the Miocene of Panama? 22nd Annual Tate Museum Conference.
Haupt, R.J., DeSantis, L.R.G., Koch, P.L. 2016. Health and hunting success in Florida Panthers (Puma concolor coryi) as revealed by stable isotope analysis and dental microwear textures. Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists Annual Meeting: 19Haupt, R.J., Wheatley, P.W., Padilla, A., Barnhart, C.J. 2015. The Success of Podcasting as a Success for Science Outreach. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, PA24A-04.
Padilla, A., Haupt, R.J., Wheatley, P.W., and Barnhart, C.J. 2015. Podcasting as an Effective Medium for Direct Science Communication and Outreach to the General Public. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, ED41B-06.
Haupt, R.J., Meyer, H.W., O’Connor, C.J., Desai, D., and Hattori, K.E. 2015. Developing and delivering digital content through multiple media avenues and exhibits at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado. Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, No. 184-4.
Haupt, R.J., Hastings, A.K., and Clementz, M.T. 2015. Quantitative analysis of fossil crocodylian teeth to identify a potential juvenile refuge or nesting ground in the Miocene of Panama. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 75th Annual Meeting: 59
Haupt, R.J., Vietti, L.A., Kerr, T.J., and M.T. Clementz. Overview and significance of the University of Wyoming Paleozoic and Mesozoic Vertebrate and Invertebrate Fossils Collections. Geological Society of America: Rocky Mountain Section - 67th Annual Meeting Abstracts with Programs 47(6): 12.
Kerr, T.J., Vietti, L.A., Haupt, R.J., and M.T. Clementz. Overview and significance of the University of Wyoming Cenozoic Vertebrate Fossil Collection. Geological Society of America: Rocky Mountain Section - 67th Annual Meeting Abstracts with Programs 47(6): 12.
Haupt, R.J. and A.K. Hastings. 2015. Potential record of a Panamanian Miocene fossil crocodylian nesting ground at Hodge's Hill Microsite. 4th Meeting of the Network for Neotropical Biogeography Program and Abstracts: 19.
Haupt, R.J. and L.R.G. DeSantis. 2014. Paleoecological insights from dental microwear textures of extinct xenarthrans during glacial and interglacial periods in Pleistocene Florida. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 74th Annual Meeting: 144.
Haupt, R.J. 2014. The Big Cats of La Brea: How Pumas May Have Survived the Late Pleistocene Extinction in North America. 20th Annual Tate Museum Conference.
Haupt, R.J. 2014. Paleoecological insights from dental microwear of extinct xenarthrans. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Fellow and Interns Symposium.
Haupt, R.J. and DeSantis, L.R.G. 2013. Insights from Dental Microwear Texture Analysis into the Survival of Cougars (Puma concolor) through the Late Pleistocene Extinction. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 73rd Annual Meeting: 140.
Lashinsky, N., DeSantis, L.R.G., Yann, L.T., Donohue, S.L., and Haupt, R.J. 2013. Is Rappoport's rule a recent phenomenon? A deep time perspective on potential causal mechanisms. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 73rd Annual Meeting: 159-160.
Haupt, R.J., Eckrich, C.A., Pratt, A.C., Newsome, S.D., and Williams, D.G. 2013. Isotope ecology and inquiry-based learning using on-campus museum resources: examining niche partitioning between deer mice and greater sage-grouse in Wyoming. Front Range Isotope Day Annual Meeting.
Haupt, R.J. and DeSantis, L.R.G. 2012. Integrating Dental Microwear Texture Analysis and Geochemical Data in an Extant Carnivore (Puma concolor): Lessons Learned from Modern Ecology of Applications to Paleoecological Studies. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 72nd Annual Meeting: 107.
Haupt, R.J. and DeSantis, L.R.G. 2012. Dentin as a dietary indicator in extant xenarthrans and its applicability to the fossil record. Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists Annual Meeting.
Haupt, R.J., DeSantis, L., and Green, J. 2011. Dental Microwear Texture Analysis of Dentin. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 71st Annual Meeting: 33.
Yann, L., Haupt, R.J., DeSantis, L., Romer, J., and Corapi, S. 2011. Mammalian Oxygen Isotope Values as an Indicator of Regional Climatic Differences in the Pleistocene North America. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 71st Annual Meeting: 44.
Yann, L., Haupt, R.J., DeSantis, L., Romer, J., and Corapi, S. 2011. Mammalian Oxygen Isotope Values as an Indicator of Regional Climatic Differences in the Pleistocene North America. Southeastern Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists Annual Meeting.
Haupt R.J., Wheatley P.V., and Barnhart C. 2010. Science Podcasting as a Means of Disseminating Current Peer-Reviewed Work to the Lay Public. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Abstracts of Papers, 70th Annual Meeting, Education & Outreach Abstracts: 2.
Haupt R.J., Oliphant, D.Q., Zachos, J.C., Murphy, B.H., and Moore C. 2009. Using the iPhone as a Brunton: Techniques and Applications. Geological Society of American Annual Meeting Abstracts, 41(7): 277.