Katie M. Maloney

• Rebanks Fellow at Royal Ontario Museum

Tonian (ca. 1000–720 Ma) marine environments are hypothesised to have experienced major redox changes coinciding with the evolution and diversification of multicellular eukaryotes. In particular, the earliest Tonian stratigraphic record features the colonisation of benthic habitats by multicellular macroscopic algae, which would have been powerful...

Oolitic ironstones are iron-rich and chert-poor sedimentary rocks containing concentrically coated grains composed of iron (oxyhydr)oxides and iron phyllosilicates that offer a unique window into iron cycling in ancient coastal environments. These enigmatic deposits are common in the Phanerozoic stratigraphic record yet lack clear modern analogues,...

As geoscientists, we must prioritize improving our ability to communicate science to the public. Effective geoscience communication enables communities to understand how geological processes have shaped our planet and make informed decisions about Earth’s future. However, geoscience research outputs have traditionally been published in peer-reviewe...

Highlighted the McMaster University Campus Urban GeoHike (previously termed GeoTrail). The motivation for creating Urban GeoHikes includes encouraging appreciation of the importance of geologic processes and landforms in shaping our urban communities.

Introducing the Niagara Winery GeoHike (previously GeoTrail) project. This GeoHike discusses how each winery produces its wines and how the terroir affects the unique wines that are produced in various regions.

Proterozoic eukaryotic macroalgae are difficult to interpret because morphological details required for proper phylogenetic studies are rarely preserved. This is especially true of morphologically simple organisms consisting of tubes, ribbons, or spheres that are commonly found in a wide array of bacteria, plants, and even animals. Previous reports...

This poster presentation introduced the GeoHike (formally GeoTrail) Project, led by the APGO Education Foundation. GeoHikes are virtual field trips that promote a greater understanding of geoscience and describe the influence of geological hazards to the public using the ArcGIS StoryMaps software.

The Nasep and Huns members of the Urusis Formation (Nama Group), southern Namibia, preserve some of the most diverse trace-fossil assemblages known from the latest Ediacaran worldwide, including potentially the world's oldest “complex” vertical sediment-penetrating burrows. These sediments record relatively diverse communities of bilaterian metazoa...

The rise of eukaryotic macroalgae in the late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic was a critical development in Earth’s history that triggered dramatic changes in biogeochemical cycles and benthic habitats, ultimately resulting in ecosystems habitable to animals. However, evidence of the diversification and expansion of macroalgae is limited by...

Ernietta plateauensis is a semi-infaunal macroscopic eukaryote of unknown affinities common in latest Ediacaran (∼548–539 Ma) shallow marine settings in Namibia. The discovery of in-situ assemblages of Ernietta has demonstrated that these organisms lived in aggregated populations, while studies employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling...

Molecular phylogenetic data suggest that photosynthetic eukaryotes first evolved in freshwater environments in the early Proterozoic and diversified into marine environments by the Tonian Period, but early algal evolution is poorly reflected in the fossil record. Here, we report newly discovered, millimeter- to centimeter-scale macrofossils from ou...

The Ediacaran–Cambrian transition marks one of the most important geobiological revolutions in Earth History, including multiple waves of evolutionary radiation and successive episodes of apparent mass extinction. Among the proposed drivers of these events (in particular the extinction of the latest Neoproterozoic ‘Ediacara biota’) is the emergence...

Ediacaran fossils from the Nama Group (Kuibis Subgroup) of southern Namibia have a long history of scientific scrutiny, however many of the fossil localities still require investigation from a sedimentary facies and sequence stratigraphic standpoint. Detailed sedimentary analyses utilizing chemostratigraphy and facies-based approaches resulted in f...

Reconstructing Precambrian eukaryotic paleoecology is pivotal to understanding the origins of the modern, animal-dominated biosphere. Here, we combine new fossil data from southern Namibia with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to test between competing feeding models for the Ediacaran taxon Ernietta . In addition, we perform simulations for multi...

Reconstructing Precambrian eukaryotic paleoecology is pivotal to understanding the origins of the modern, animal-dominated biosphere. Here, we combine new fossil data from southern Namibia with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to test between competing feeding models for the Ediacaran taxon Ernietta. In addition, we perform simulations for multip...

The Tonian (1000 to 720 Ma) represents a critical transition in Earth history between the Mesoproterozoic (1600 to 1000 Ma) and the low-latitude glaciations of the Cryogenian (720 to 635 Ma). However, the early Tonian period is notoriously poorly understood and well-preserved exposures are rare in the stratigraphic record. The Proterozoic inliers o...

We present a new sequence stratigraphic and facies architectural model for the ca. 900–850 Ma Hematite Creek and Katherine groups (lower and middle Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup, respectively) in the Wernecke Mountains of east-central Yukon, Canada. This ~3-km-thick internally conformable succession provides a virtually continuous tectono-sediment...

Drumlins, despite being well studied, are still incredibly enigmatic in terms of their formation processes. Theories on their origin vary widely, and the evidence presented in this study seeks to assist in this debate. To support an erosional theory for the formation of drumlins, large volumes of sediment would have undergone transport and depositi...