Environmental Internship Program - 2023 Booklet

Rio Baran ’25
GEOSCIENCES
CLIMATE AND
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
PROJECT TITLE
Archaeocyathids, Earth’s
First Reef-forming
Animals: Were They
Crucial to the Emergence
of Complex Life?
ORGANIZATION(S)
Maloof Research
Group, Department of
Geosciences, Princeton
University
LOCATION(S)
Flinders Ranges,
Australia; Princeton,
New Jersey
MENTOR(S)
Adam Maloof,
Professor of Geosciences;
Ryan Manzuk, Ph.D.
candidate, Geosciences
Archaeocyathids, Earth’s first reef-building
animals, may hold clues to the sudden and
rapid evolution of complex animal life during
the Cambrian explosion. I examined Paleozoiclayered
sedimentary rocks in the Australian
outback to better understand aspects of the early
environment such as potential global glaciations
and the ecologies from 500 million years ago. My
research addressed the questions, to what extent
did archaeocyathid reefs modify the surrounding
environment and ecologies, and thus, to what
extent did archaeos control the emergence of
complex life? I camped near the research sites,
where I made observations, took measurements
and collected samples. Then, returning to
Princeton, I dove into sawing and polishing my
samples, measuring chemical isotope ratios and
looking for spatial patterns in the facies and
isotopes. I continue to interpret what these data
mean for understanding the ancient past and
ponder the luck and beauty of research made
possible by rocks — windows into the past. I
think about the poetry of walking through time
and space as a geologist.
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