Education
2021: Doctor of Philosophy, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University
Dissertation: The structure and growth of arborescent lycopsids
Advisor: C. Kevin Boyce
2021: IGNITE Certificate, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
2015: Bachelor of Arts, Earth Science, University of Pennsylvania
Thesis: The timing of terrestrialization of sessile organisms - a functional approach
Experience
2023-: Postdoctoral fellow, Earth Sciences, Field Museum of Natural History
2021-2023: Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder, Long-Duration Energy Storage Startup
2016-2021: Graduate student researcher, Geological Sciences, Stanford University
2019: Visiting researcher, Palaeoclimate and Palaeoenvironmental Research, Naturmuseum Senckenberg (Frankfurt, Germany)
2015-2016: Independent researcher, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
2013-2015: Undergraduate student researcher, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Honors and Awards
2021: Isabel Cookson Award, Botanical Society of America
2020: Elective Fellow, Linnean Society of London
2020: Certificate of Outstanding Achievement in Mentoring, School of Earth, Energy, & Environmental Sciences, Stanford University
2019: Associate Member, Sigma Xi
2019: Future Leaders in Paleontology, Paleontological Society
2019: Stephen Jay Gould Award, Paleontological Society
2019: Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Award, Botanical Society of America
2018: Graduate Research Fellowship (Honorable Mention), National Science Foundation
2018: Antoinette Lierman Medlin Award, Geological Society of America - Energy Geology Division
2015: Rose Undergraduate Research Award, University of Pennsylvania
2015: Distinction in Earth Science, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania
2015: Cum Laude, University of Pennsylvania
2014: Dean's List, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Grants and Scholarships
2023: Negaunee Postdoctoral Scientist Fellowship, Field Museum of Natural History
2023: Michael Cichan Paleobotanical Research Award, Botanical Society of America
2023: LinnéSys: Systematics Research Fund, Linnean Society and Systematics Association
2019: Bio-X Travel Award, Stanford University
2019: Student Research Grant, Paleontological Society
2019: Graduate Student Research Award, Botanical Society of America
2019: Levorsen Grant, Stanford University
2019: Shell Foundation Travel Grant, Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University
2018: Antoinette Lierman Medlin Scholarship, Geological Society of America - Energy Geology Division
2018: Shell Foundation Travel Grant, Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University
2015: Summer Stipend in Paleontology, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania
2014: The Mellon Foundation Grant, University of Pennsylvania
2014: The Greg and Susan Walker Endowment for Student Research in Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania
2013: Summer Stipend in Paleontology, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania
2013: The Greg and Susan Walker Endowment for Student Research in Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania
Publications
D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. Structural and physiological constraints on arborescent lycopsid developmental biology. In review.
D'Antonio MP, Hotton CL, Smith SY, Crane PR, Herrera F. 2024. Reconstruction of an enigmatic Pennsylvanian cone reveals a relationship to Sphenophyllales. American Journal of Botany 111(4): e16321.
D'Antonio MP, Herrera F. 2024. New evidence of unequal branching in Stigmaria ficoides (Lycopsida). International Journal of Plant Sciences 185(2): 129-137. doi:10.1086/728642
D'Antonio MP. 2023. Atypical tracheid organization in proximal wood of late Palaeozoic Sigillaria approximata Fontaine et White (Lycopsida). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 203(3): 303-314. doi:10.1093/botlinnean/boad028
D'Antonio MP, Breasley CM, Pfefferkorn HW, Wang J, Boyce CK. 2023. Stigmaria: on the substrate before in the substrate. Palaeoworld. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2023.07.0005
D'Antonio MP*, Ibarra DE*, Boyce CK. 2023. The preservation of cause and effect in the rock record. Paleobiology 49(2): 204-214. doi:10.1017/pab.2022.33 (*equal contribution)
Boyce CK, Ibarra DE, Nelsen MP, D'Antonio MP. 2023. Nitrogen-based symbioses, phosphorus availability, and accounting for a modern world more productive than the Paleozoic. Geobiology 21(1): 86-101. doi:10.1111/gbi.12519
Boyce CK, Ibarra DE, D'Antonio MP. 2023. What we talk about when we talk about the long-term carbon cycle. New Phytologist 237(5): 1550-1557. doi:10.1111/nph.18665
Herrera F, Hotton CL, Smith SY, Lopera PA, Neander AI, Wittry J, Zheng Y, Heck PR, Crane PR, D'Antonio MP. 2023. Investigating Mazon Creek fossil plants under computed tomography and microphotography. Frontiers in Earth Science 11: 1200976. doi:10.3389/feart.2023.1200976
D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK, Zhou W-M, Pfefferkorn HW, Wang J. 2022. Primary tissues dominated ground-level trunk diameter in Sigillaria: evidence from the Wuda Tuff, Inner Mongolia. Journal of the Geological Society 179(2): jgs2021-021. doi:10.1144/jgs2021-021
D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. 2021. Secondary phloem in arborescent lycopsids. New Phytologist 232(3): 967-972. doi:10.1111/nph.17641
D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK, Wang J. 2021. Two new species of Sigillaria Brongniart from the Wuda Tuff (Asselian: Inner Mongolia, China) and their implications for lepidodendrid life history reconstruction. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 294: 104203. doi:10.1016/j.revpalbo.2020.104203
Zhou W-M, D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK, Wang J. 2021. An upright psaroniaceous stump and two surrounding pecopteroids from the early Permian Wuda Tuff Flora. Palaeoworld 30(3): 451-460. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2020.08.001
D'Antonio MP*, Ibarra DE*, Boyce CK. 2020. Land plant evolution decreased, rather than increased, weathering rates. Geology 48(1): 29-33. doi:10.1130/G46776.1 (*equal contribution)
D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. 2020. Arborescent lycopsid periderm production was limited. New Phytologist 228(2): 741-751. doi:10.1111/nph.16727
Teaching Experience
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
2021: Biology 148: Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems
2019: Geological Sciences 128: Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems
2018: Geological Sciences 128: Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems
2017: Geological Sciences 183: California Desert Geologic Field Trip
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
2014: Geology 100: Introduction to Geology
Mentoring Experience
2020: Catriona Breasley
BS/MGeol student, University of St Andrews, Scotland
PROJECT: Testing the early ontogeny of stigmarian rooting systems
Museum / Collections Experience
^ = includes taxonomic assignment of specimens^^ = includes digitalization of specimens2024: Illinois State Geological Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States
2024: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States
2023: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States
2022: Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
2019: Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany
2019: Museum Schölerberg, Osnabrück, Germany
2019: Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Frankfurt, Germany^
2019: Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States
2019: Illinois State Geological Survey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, United States
2018: Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, United States^^
2018: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
2017: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, United States
2013: Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom
2013: National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, United States
Field Experience
2018: Inner Mongolia, China: Permian paleobotany
2017: Southern Florida, United States: plant systematics and tropical botany
2017: Death Valley, CA, United States: Earth history
2016: Bighorn Basin, MT and WY, United States: geology field camp, western North American stratigraphy and tectonics
Field Courses / Workshops / Short Courses
2018: Lower/Middle Pennsylvanian Coal Geology - Illinois Basin, Kentucky Geological Survey, IN and KY, United States
2017: Tropical Botany Workshop, University of Florida / Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami, FL, United States
2016: Geology Field Camp, University of Houston / Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association, Red Lodge, MT, United States
Conference Presentations
^ = award or honor2024: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. Structural and physiological constraints on arborescent lycopsid developmental biology. Oral presentation, Mid-Atlantic Geobiology Symposium XXXI, Philadelphia, PA, United States
2023: D'Antonio MP, Hotton CL, Crane PR, Herrera F. Reconstruction and systematics of the enigmatic Pennsylvanian strobilus Tetraphyllostrobus from the Mazon Creek lagerstätte using computed tomography. Oral presentation, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, virtual
2023: D'Antonio MP, Herrera F. First evidence of anisotomous dichotomy in Stigmaria ficoides. Poster, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, virtual
2023: Herrera F, Hotton CL, Smith SY, Lopera PA, Neander AI, Wittry J, Zheng Y, Heck PR, Crane PR, Michael P. D'Antonio. Investigating Mazon Creek fossil plants using computed tomography and microphotography. Oral presentation, Midcontinental Paleobotanical Colloquium, Gainesville, FL, United States
2021: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK, Zhou W-M, Wang J. Sigillaria from the Wuda Tuff: the implications of new species and internal anatomy for lepidodendrid life history reconstruction. Oral presentation, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual
^Isabel Cookson Award, Botanical Society of America - Paleobotanical Section2021: D'Antonio MP. New complexity in arborescent lycopsid cambial dynamics. Oral presentation, Midcontinent Paleobotanical Colloquium, Virtual
2021: D'Antonio MP. New complexity in arborescent lycopsid cambial dynamics. Poster, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual
2020: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK, Pfefferkorn HW, Wang J. Primary tissues dominated proximal trunk thickness in Sigillaria: evidence from the early Permian Wuda Tuff, Inner Mongolia. Oral presentation, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual
2020: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. Potential secondary phloem in Stigmaria and long-distance sugar transport in arborescent lycopsids. Oral presentation, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual
2020: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. Arborescent lycopsid periderm production was limited. Poster, Stanford Bio-X Interdisciplinary Initiatives Seed Grants Poster Session, Stanford, CA, United States
2020: Boyce CK, Ibarra DE, Nelsen MP, D'Antonio MP. Weathering, nutrient fluxes, and the long-term consequences of coal for the evolution of nitrogen-based symbioses. Oral presentation, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, Virtual
2019: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. The physiology of arborescent lycopsid cortex: insights from comparative anatomy and taphonomy. Oral presentation, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, United States
^Future Leaders in Paleontology, Paleontological Society2019: D'Antonio MP, Ibarra DE, Boyce CK. Limitations on how land plant evolution could have impacted marine extinction and diversification via weathering and nutrient fluxes. Oral presentation, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, United States
2019: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. Arborescent lycopsid periderm production was limited. Oral presentation, Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, Tucson, AZ, United States
2019: Ibarra DE, D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK. Land plant evolution decreased, rather than increased, weathering rates. Oral presentation, American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, United States
2018: D'Antonio MP, Boyce CK, Wang J. Doubling the known lycopsid diversity of the Wuda Tuff coal-forming flora, Inner Mongolia, China. Poster, Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, United States
^Antoinette Lierman Medlin Award, Geological Society of America - Energy Geology Division2014: D'Antonio MP. The timing of terrestrialization of sessile organisms - a functional approach. Oral presentation, Geobiology Symposium XXII, Philadelphia, PA, United States
Reviewing Activity
Applications in Plant Sciences
The Fossil Record
Geological Society of America Bulletin
National Park Service - Natural Resource Publication Series
Education and Outreach
Scientist, Skype a Scientist
Meet a Scientist, Grainger Science Hub, Field Museum of Natural History
Stanford Earth Volunteer, Bay Area Science Festival, San Francisco
Professional Affiliations
Linnean Society of London (Fellow)
Sigma Xi (Associate)
Botanical Society of America
Paleontological Society
Geological Society of America