November 18, 2025
New Paper in PALAIOS
Congratulations to Darya, whose Bachelor thesis work on BioDIFs in bivalves has just been published in Palaios! We investigated BioDIFs in a few globally-distributed species assemblages of the genera Dosinia and Mactra. Overall, it seems that different species of the same genus at a single location tend to have the same inter-layer offset in oxygen and carbon isotopes. However, a different species assemblage of that genus from a far-flung location can have a totally different signal! Moreover it confirms previous observations from Curley et al. (2023) that coexisting species of different genera from the same location can have different BioDIFs. Overall these results point to incomplete environmental determinism in BioDIFs; there is probably some intertwined environmental and genetic control over the physiological processes giving rise to different isotopic signals. Overall, this is a great jumping off point for future projects looking at what controls isotopic variability in bivalve shells!
Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2025.004
September 16, 2025
Talk at Geo4Göttingen
At the largest national geosciences conference in Germany, I presented the semi-final results of a collaboration between Goethe University and Khalifa University (Abu Dhabi, UAE) on last interglacial climate in the Persian/Arabian Gulf. We’ve fulfilled a goal I’ve had for several years of working on a giant clam (genus Tridacna)! Keep your eyes out for the paper that comes out of this work. I’ve done a lot of methods/proxy validation for this early application of dual clumped isotopes to bivalves. Furthermore–as is wont to happen–the paleoclimate story is not as simple as one might expect…
August 17, 2025
New paper in Chemical Geology
My group at Goethe University just published a new paper, led by Dr. Philip Staudigel, on best practices for sample preparation and quality assurance for (dual) clumped isotope measurements. Key takeaways: 1) always store samples in a warm vacuum drier for several weeks before analysis, including and especially D48 standard GU1, because re-equilibration with adsorbed/structural water meaningfully biases results; 2) always run a couple of ETH1 and ETH2 right after you load brand new samples onto your mass spec to test whether your samples are producing water in the acid bath; 3) be extra wary of samples with high surface area and those precipitated at a high pH!
Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2025.123012
July 7, 2025
Invited Talk at Goldschmidt
Thanks to David Bajnai for the invitation to present an update on the status of my work on Biologically Driven Isotopic Fractionations. I have quite a few papers forthcoming, so I appreciated the opportunity to share a preview at Goldschmidt. It was really exciting to see a few other talks surrounding “vital effects” at the conference this year as well! So much innovative work is being done with dual clumped and triple oxygen isotopes recently…looking forward to seeing many of these colleagues again at the next Clumped Isotope Workshop!
My abstract was in sub-session 07d-O1, and entitled “Frontiers for the use of Δ47 and Δ48 measurements to understand organism-environment interactions in bivalve molluscs.”
February 10, 2025
Seal of Excellence for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Network Postdoctoral Fellowship
The seal of excellence is awarded to MSCA proposals scoring 85% or higher on the official evaluations. I’m very grateful to my colleagues who helped to write this proposal. Although the grant was not funded by the European Commission, we plan on resubmitting to another entity and are optimistic.
January 5, 2025
Dual clumped isotope data rolling in…
After many months of a lot of lab time, I’m looking at my first full dual clumped isotope dataset and things are getting interesting. More to come…
December 19, 2024
New paper in EPSL
My new paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters has gone live. We reconstructed surface water temperatures for the late Cretaceous (~75 million years ago). These temperatures informed our interpretations of basin hydrology, monsoonal precipitation, and regional paleoelevation. The clumped isotope temperature measurements were paired with strontium isotopes to hone our interpretation of headwater source.
The article is open access and free to download. Read it here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.119180
June 3, 2024
Setting up shop in Germany
I’ve touched down in Frankfurt, Germany to start my postdoc at Goethe University. I’ll be working in the world’s foremost dual clumped isotope laboratory under Dr. Jens Fiebig doing a combination of methods development and applied work on bivalves (and maybe corals!).
May 10, 2024
Darya earns high honors for her B.Sc thesis!
Darya wrote a behemoth of a bachelor’s thesis, and deservedly the department has awarded it high honors! I’m so proud of how much she accomplished and have every confidence she’ll go as far as she wants to in science. Well done, Darya!
March 15, 2024
Successfully defending my dissertation!
I did it! My dissertation defense will definitely go down as one of the most joyful occasions of my life. I cannot believe that 74 people joined me both in the room and on Zoom—this fact overwhelms me with gratitude. It has been such a treat working with Sierra and the rest of my committee all these years. In keeping with my secret classics nerd style, I could not let the Ides of March go unrecognized. I incorporated bivalve-jargon-substituted quotations from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar throughout my talk and the post-defense party put on by my labmates was bivalve assassination themed. So many laughs.
January 16, 2024
Returning to Michigan
I’ve wrapped up the data collection I can do on site at the Smithsonian and am headed back to Michigan bearing an enormous pile of information. It will take a while to sift through all of this, but my fellowship experience was extraordinary.
I’m about to hunker down and finish writing my dissertation because I’ve got an invitation to join the research group of Dr. Jens Fiebig as a postdoc this summer at Goethe University (Germany). About to be keeping the local coffee shops in very good business…
September 21, 2023
Invited talk at Dickinson College
I returned to my alma mater today to give an invited lecture in the Geoscience department! We walked through the narrative of how my work on BioDIFs came to be and previewed some of the new datasets Darya and I are working on publishing.
I spent two days dropping into classes to speak to students about grad school, careers, and general life advice. It’s a small department, but I am always impressed with the enthusiasm Dickinson students bring to their coursework. It was great to catch up with old professors and other friends from Carlisle!
June 1, 2023
Settling in to Washington D.C.
After a lot of logistics, I’m so glad to be joining the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Paleobiology Division! I’ve met my main collaborators, Dr. Stewart Edie and Dr. Gabriela Farfan and have begun exploring the (massively impressive) collections. Can’t wait to do a lot of learning!
March 16, 2023
Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship Awarded
This generous award will support a year of research. With access to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s collections, I am going to conduct a sweeping survey of fossil bivalve species across the K-Pg mass extinction to see what factors predict resistance and resilience. This will be the first big, controlled study of biologically driven isotopic fractionations in bivalves and I can’t wait to see what we learn! I will take up residency at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History for seven months in 2023 to work in the collections. The award also comes with a $5,000 grant for research expenses that I’ll put towards isotopic analysis. I’m being hosted by Research Geologist and Curator of Fossil Bivalvia, Dr. Stewart Edie.
February 8, 2023
Rackham PhD Candidate Research Grant
The Rackham Graduate School has awarded me funds to go towards my dissertation work surveying BioDIFs across the class Bivalvia! I’m optimistic that this is going to turn into a fully self-funded project.
May 4, 2023
Chairing a session at North-Central GSA
I co-chaired an open paleoclimate poster session at the North-Central Geological Society of America meeting. Very good conversations were had and it’s always great to reconnect with some colleagues! My undergraduate research assistant, Darya Lollos, gave a very nice poster on the work she’s been doing on biologically driven isotopic fractionations in bivalve genera Dosinia and Mactra and I’m very proud!
We had a group of high school students present their work on the life cycles of trees, and their enthusiasm just about made my year. Future scientists and conservationists (and a future dance teacher) blossoming! Or as they put it, “girlbossing.” I agree.
April 17, 2023
Michigan Geophysical Union goes off without a hitch
After four months of intense planning, the graduate students of U-M Earth & Environmental Sciences and U-M Climate and Space Sciences pulled off our annual interdepartmental symposium. It was my fourth year on the MGU organizing committee, which I co-chaired this year with my wonderful colleague Austin Brenner. It’s so great to be able to spotlight the diverse research that undergraduate and graduate students are doing. We are so pleased to have increased the undergraduate turnout this year! Special shoutout to the undergrads in my lab for giving awesome posters: Benjamin, Cecilie, Darya, Eric, Samantha.
February 26, 2023
New paper in Biological Reviews
After three years of intense theoretical work, this paper can finally see the light of day! It is a “synthetic review” wherein I unite my knowledge of isotope systematics and of the physiology of bivalve shell formation. We found that the inner layer of some fossil bivalve shells are isotopically distinct from the outer shell layer (which is not what we paleoclimatologists expect of this typically “well-behaved” class!). This records a biological control on shell composition, giving us a new window into the physiology of ancient and extinct bivalves.
This paper is open access. Read it here: https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12940
December 14, 2022
Scott Turner Award
Happy to have received another Scott Turner Award from the UM Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences. These funds will contribute to analyses of biologically driven isotopic fractionations (BioDIFs) in a diverse suite of bivalves across the End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction.
September 21, 2022
Talk at International Clumped Isotope Workshop
I had the opportunity to give a full talk to all of my convened clumped isotope colleagues, sharing the nitty-gritty of BioDIF systematics (well, to the extent we’ve understood it so far!). The main takeaway is this: Clumped isotopes has come so far methodologically that we can start applying it to questions we never imagined before! I had so many lively conversations following my presentation and am thrilled about the amount of energy I’m receiving from colleagues.
The three other talks in my session were also doing very novel explorations of clumped isotopes in biogenic carbonates. Interdisciplinarity for the win!
September 13, 2022
Lightning Talk at Virtual International Sclerochronology Conference
I had an amazing time connecting with new colleagues at the VISC 2022. I finally put faces to a lot of names! My poster/talk was meant to focus more on the implications of BioDIFs for paleoclimatology, but almost all my conversations ended up being steered towards the paleophysiological implications. I’m thrilled that folks seem quite excited about the prospects there. My poster even got shouted out during a keynote!
August 1, 2022
New paper in Geology (again)
My colleague Dr. Matt Jones led a paper that came out in this issue of Geology. We present clumped isotope data from Cenomanian (100-83 million years) oyster shells to estimate the temperature of the North American Western Interior. The mid-Cretaceous was an extremely warm period of Earth history, and our results find tropic-like warmth in the continental interior. Reconstructing greenhouse climates of the past can help us learn more about how the Earth system behaves at extremes. It’s an important area of research as we look towards a future of human-induced global warming.
Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1130/G49998.1
July 1, 2022
New paper in Geology
My colleague Dr. Julia Kelson spearheaded an investigation of Eocene climate by measuring clumped isotopes and triple oxygen isotopes in oyster shells. These sophisticated methods give us a clearer picture of surface water composition and temperatures. While the Eocene is a “hothouse” world, the estuarine waters of the Goler Formation were quite cool. Just like today, regional factors such as topography control various aspects of climate. Capturing this kind of nuance is very informative, but you need the right tools for the job!
Read the full paper here: https://doi.org/10.1130/G49634.1
May 25, 2022
Invited Talk at Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Thanks to Matt Jones, Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow at NMNH, for inviting me to share my research with the Biomineral Discussion Group. My talk was entitled “It’s Alive! Reimagining “vital effects” in fossil bivalve shells as paleophysiological proxies.” It was great to connect with this group.
May 16, 2022
Darya’s first day in the lab!
I’ve recruited an excellent undergraduate student, Darya Lollos, to work with me this summer and into the 2022-23 academic year. She’s going to be learning how to sample shells for bulk stable and clumped isotopes, targeting lifetime-averaged BioDIFs. Her projects are going to expand our knowledge of BioDIFs and their occurrence across the family tree many times over. If all goes well, she’ll turn it into a senior thesis!
May 7, 2022
Fieldwork in Florida
I joined my labmates in Florida this week to collect Plio-Pleistocene fossils from a shell quarry in Florida. It was grueling and hot, and we got chased out by a thunderstorm one afternoon. Nevertheless, we shipped 700 pounds of shells and sediment back to Michigan. We certainly gave the folks at USPS a story to tell; they were absolutely delighted to learn what we were sending out. The pit we collected from is getting flooded soon, so we are super glad to have measured the stratigraphy and systematically salvaged some fossils. Can’t wait to see what my colleagues come up with!
April 7, 2022
Poster at MGU 2022
I presented my final workflow and methodological recommendations for measuring an interpreting BioDIFs at MGU this year. This project has been presented in so many phases, but it has felt like a major new insight distinguishes each iteration. Long-term theoretical projects like this are so enriching.
We were also glad to welcome everyone back for a partially in-person event this year! As a member of the organizing committee, I know just how hard we worked to pull it off in the most health-conscious and accommodating way possible. There was great energy in the room and on Zoom!
November 11, 2021
Advancing to Candidacy!
Many thanks to my qualifying exam committee: Sierra Petersen, Naomi Levin, Joel Blum, and Larry Ruff for their thoughtful questions and feedback. Ready to keep moving forward!
Sierra and I walked immediately from my exam to lecture for Primitive Navigation and Wayfinding, and the students all gave me a big hooting round of applause for passing. It was actually very funny and heartwarming.
April 15, 2021
Poster at MGU 2021
I gave a virtual poster and lightning talk on the paleophysiological insights I’ve started to glean from fossil shells on Seymour Island, Antarctica. The Q&A was very lively and I loved getting to see all my friends from around the University sharing their work as well. Fun fact is that two organizing committee members (me included!) both won the audience favorite award, but recused ourselves. It’s still nice to receive that kind of affirmation!
February 19, 2021
New paper in Journal of Glaciology
My new paper shows how small glaciers on Ellesmere Island (Nunavut, Canada) have responded to long-term changes in climate over 144 years. Not only did we use satellite imagery to quantify change, we also used air photos from the 1950s and texts and illustrations from the Nares expedition to Ellesmere in 1878. I love getting to integrate these kinds of archival data in my research. You never know how many decades from now someone may return to your data with a new and interesting use. This paper also came out of my undergraduate research.
Our comparison between our own field photo and an 1878 illustration made the cover of the issue! So cool.
This paper is open access. Read it here: https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.4
February 8, 2021
Ernest A. Novak Fellowship
So grateful to have again been recognized with the Ernest A. Novak fellowship for scholarly achievement, this time to support my doctoral work in the UMich Department of Eath & Environmental Sciences.
October 26, 2020
Virtual poster at GSA Connects 2020
I gave a lightning talk and held Q&A about my research on vital effects in fossil bivalves from Seymour Island, Antarctica. This year has been difficult and a virtual conference doesn’t quite carry the same energy as an in-person meeting, but it was still a good experience to have a chat about my science.
BTS insight: I gave my talk while sitting in the closet of my apartment because the noise outside my window was so loud!
July 17, 2020
New paper in Heritage Science
Our isotopic analysis of lead white pigments applied to ceremonial drinking vessels (qeros) from the Andes reveal shocking consistency in geological sources between the 1500s-1800s. Two of the isotopic groups are consistent with European origin, imported to the region by colonizers. The remaining isotopic group indicates an eventual shift to a local Andean source for lead white. Qeros are fascinating objects that tell a visual story of colonization in the Andes and the persistence of Indigenous artistic traditions in the face of oppressive laws of the Spanish Viceroy that sought to tamp out Indigenous identity. This paper came out of my first undergraduate research project.
This paper is open access. Read it here: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-020-00408-w
June 11, 2020
Rackham Masters Student Research Grant
The Rackham Graduate School awarded me a grant to be used towards my master’s project on Campanian paleoclimate and paleohydrology!
May 22, 2020
Geological Society of America Research Grant
I’ve been awarded a Graduate Student Research Grant by the Geological Society of America in this year’s competition! These funds will go towards clumped isotope measurements on fossil shells from tributaries of the Campanian Western Interior Seaway.
April 21, 2020
Honorable Mention for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
I’m very pleased to have been awarded honorable mention status for this year’s fellowship competition. Writing the proposal was a great opportunity for reflection and learning and I’m excited to keep moving forward on my projects!
January 18, 2020
Scott Turner Research Award
Excited to receive a Scott Turner Research Award from the UM Earth & Environmental Sciences Department. These funds will go towards my master’s work on Campanian paleohydrology in the Western Interior of North America. Specifically, we’ll use them to fund high resolution sampling on some modern mussels I’ve collected so we can assess what seasonal biases in growth shells from this family may record.
September 3, 2019
Ernest A. Novak Fellowship
I’m very grateful to have been selected by the UMich Earth & Environmental Sciences department for an Ernest A. Novak Fellowship during my master’s in recognition of my academic achievements. Can’t wait to start this new chapter.
Dr. Allison Nicole Curley 