Department of Geology

Education & Experience:

Ph.D., Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1991-1999)
A.B., Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (1987-1991)Associate Professor, Department of Geology, Bowling Green State University (2005-present)
Assistant Professor, Department of Geology, Bowling Green State University (1999-2005)
Graduate Teaching Fellow, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University (1992-1999)

Specialty Areas of Interest:

Paleobiology of fossil cephalopods
Macroevolutionary dynamics of rapid evolutionary diversifications
Use of Geographic Information Science in paleobiology
Morphometric and cladistic techniques
Interplay of environmental change and evolutionary events

Current BGSU Courses:

Life Through Time - Ugrad
Paleontology - Ugrad / Grad
Field Geology - Ugrad / Grad
Quantitative Paleontology - Grad
Advanced Paleobiology - Grad

Continuing Education or Service Activities:

Advisor, Geology Club and Amnesty International
Project Kaleidoscope Faculty for the 21^st Century (www.pkal.org)

Recent and Current Research or Grants:

Phylogeny of Cephalopods
GIS-based Paleobiogeography of Cephalopods within the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America
Septal Formation in Ammonoids: Clues to Developmental Plasticity and Constraint

Recent Peer Reviewed Publications and Submissions:

Bardin, J., Rouget, I., Yacobucci, M.M., and Cecca, F. (in prep.) Use of continuous characters in phylogenetic analysis.  To be submitted to Cladistics.

Yacobucci, M.M. (in review) Using active learning strategies to promote deep learning in the undergraduate paleontology classroom.  Submitted to Teaching Paleontology in the 21st Century. Paleontological Society Special Publication.

Yacobucci, M.M. (in prep) Integrating critical thinking about values into an introductory geology course. To be submitted to the Journal of Geoscience Education.

Yacobucci, M.M. (in prep) Origin, evolution, and developmental timing of the Cenomanian ammonite Metoicoceras. To be submitted to Paleobiology.

Yacobucci, M.M. (in press, 2012) Meta-analysis of character utility and phylogenetic information content in cladistic studies of ammonoids. Geobios.

Yacobucci, M.M., and Manship, L. (2011). Ammonoid septal formation and suture asymmetry explored with a Geographic Information Systems approach.  Palaeontologia Electronica 14(1): 3A, http://palaeo-electronica.org/2011_1/136/index.html.

Bose, R., Schneider, C., Polly, P.D., and Yacobucci, M.M. 2010. Ecological interactions between Rhipidomella (Orthides, Brachiopoda) and its endoskeletobionts and predators from the Middle Devonian Dundee Formation of Ohio, United States. Palaios 25(3): 196-208.

Niko, S., Mapes, R.H., and Yacobucci, M.M. 2009. Arcuatoceras, a new genus of nautiloid cephalopods from the Early Carboniferous in the Midcontinent of North America. Paleontological Research (Quarterly Journal of the Palaeontological Society of Japan) 13(4): 319-325. 

Yacobucci, M.M. 2009. The Tree of Life: Stephen Jay Gould’s contributions to systematics. Pp. 291-311 in: W.D. Allmon, P.H. Kelley, and R.M. Ross, eds. Stephen Jay Gould: Reflections on His View of Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Yacobucci, M.M. 2007. Same As It Ever Was: A Review of Petto and Godfrey’s Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism.  American Paleontologist 15(4): 36-37.

Yacobucci, M.M. 2005. Multifractal and white noise evolutionary dynamics in Jurassic-Cretaceous Ammonoidea.  Geology 33(2): 97-100.

Yacobucci, M.M. 2004. Neogastroplites meets Metengonoceras: Morphological response of an endemic hoplitid ammonite to a new invader in the Middle Cretaceous Mowry Sea.  Cretaceous Research 25(6): 927-944.

Yacobucci, M.M. 2004. Buckman's paradox: Constraints on ammonoid ornament and shell shape.  Lethaia 37(1): 59-71.

Yacobucci, M.M. 2003. Controls on shell shape in acanthoceratid ammonites from the Cenomanian-Turonian Western Interior Seaway of North America.  Pp. 195-226 in: P. Harries and D. H. Geary, eds. High-Resolution Approaches in Stratigraphic Paleontology. Topics in Geobiology Vol. 21.  New York: Plenum Press.

Yacobucci, M.M. 1999. Plasticity of developmental timing as the underlying cause of high speciation rates in ammonoids:  An example from the Cenomanian Western Interior Seaway of North America.  Pp. 59-76 in: F. Olóriz and F. J. Rodríguez-Tovar, eds.  Advancing Research in Living and Fossil Cephalopods, Proceedings, IV International Symposium Cephalopods—Present and Past, Granada, Spain, July 15-17, 1996.  New York: Plenum Press.