Student Profile: Amanda Godbold

Amanda Godbold caps impressive UCalgary career with publication in leading scientific journal, and an opportunity to name a species

Amanda Godbold’s first steps into her burgeoning career as a paleontologist were tentative ones. “While we were growing up, my sister would collect rocks and put them into this machine in order to polish them, I thought it was silly. The machine was loud and the rocks were everywhere! I remember going into my first geology class with a frown and crossed arms. Yet, I was hooked during the first lecture.”

Geology wasn’t all about collecting rocks, as Godbold would soon come to find out. The lecturer that day ended up providing her with her career direction and a brand-new passion. “He got to work outside, travel, hike up beautiful mountains, study the whole history of the planet — and I thought ‘sign me up!’ I took a few more geology classes, and one featured a guest speaker who talked about dinosaurs and paleontology. I didn’t realize that there were young females doing paleontology. As soon as I saw that was a possibility, I looked for a paleontology professor to talk to, and the rest is history.”

Godbold threw herself whole-heartedly into her undergraduate studies from that day forth. After meeting with professor Charles Henderson in the Department of Geoscience, who would later become her research supervisor, she was emboldened even further. “I took his course, did really well, and that sparked it all. It takes one person to believe in you and give you the chance to succeed. Charles gave me that chance. From then I jumped into doing an honours thesis that got me into travelling for research — and from there, I jumped on every opportunity I saw.”

These opportunities included research trips to China and Japan, and conferences in the United States and South Africa.

Publication in leading research journal gains traction in scientific community

Godbold is capping off her time at the University of Calgary with a significant achievement for a young researcher. Last month, she was listed as first author in a study published in the prestigious journal, Geology.

“Getting published in Geology was amazing,” says Godbold, who will defend her MSc thesis July 25. “I’ve had so many amazing opportunities and that all comes back to UCalgary. It’s given me so many tools. I’m an opportunity seeker, so when there are opportunities present, I can flourish.”

When Godbold started doing some research to figure out what kind of project she could do for her honours thesis, she stumbled across the term refugia. Refugia are ecosystems that act as sanctuaries during times of environmental stress. Hypothetically, all kinds of organisms could migrate there to seek shelter during severe conditions and migrate back to their preferred habitats after stress conditions subside.

The concept is still quite broad, and thus not well defined or well understood, Godbold says. Little is known about what causes refugia to develop, how they help recovery after an extinction, what they look like, or how to observe them in the rock record. 

'I saw this debate within the publications and it sparked my interest'

"There are so many unknowns. However, many scientists keep using the term,” she explains. “Some don’t believe that refugia play a significant role in recovery, while others believe they are critical but don’t really understand them. I saw this debate within the publications and it sparked my interest. If scientists are still using it today, yet there’s all this back-and-forth, then it must be important and worth looking into.”

After taking another opportunity to travel — this time to a bedding site near Shangsi in Sichuan Province, China — Godbold and her fellow researchers (postdoctoral fellow Shane Schoepfer, and professors Shuzhong Shen of Nanjing and Charles Henderson) found evidence in favour of the existence of refugia.

Their mapping of the site turned up records of a short-lived community of organisms from the early Triassic era that may hold clues to forces shaping our planet today and into the future.

After discovering a significant population of echinoids — spiny-skinned sea urchins — along the bedding surface, the team found that the ecosystem at the time was able to provide a sanctuary for these echinoids, who require microbial mats for food, and deeper, cooler water to flourish, thus supporting the refugia theory. The echinoids normally live in shallow-water environments, but in this case they sought refuge from lethally hot surface waters. The culprit was global warming associated with massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia at the time of the end-Permian extinction event about 251.9 million years ago, but modern-day events may lead to similar changes in today’s oceans.

Research group explores a possible role for refugia after mass extinction

After combining and analyzing all their findings, the research group not only wanted to prove that refugia were present and did play a role in species recovery after a mass extinction, but wanted to transform the ways that refugia were portrayed in scientific literature. They think of them as a patchwork of ecosystems that are migrating, disappearing and appearing in response to changing environmental conditions.

The study will help bring deeper understanding of how modern oceans might respond to intense global warming that is related to a combination of natural and human-caused effects. It could inform the management of our oceanic resources as they continue to be affected by environmental stressors.

“It was a really interesting project to start my research on, and it captivated me. Now I’m obsessed with refugia,” says Godbold, who plans to continue exploring the topic in her PhD studies.

She also gets to name the species of echinoid found during the research. “It’s actually a new species and that’s my next paper,” explains Godbold, who plans to name the species after her grandmother. “It was an amazing experience on top of all that.”

“I also have to give a big thanks to Shane Schoepfer, who significantly contributed to this research and whom has been an amazing mentor to me,” she says. Shoepfer is also leaving UCalgary in July for a tenure track academic position at Western Carolina University.

Saying ‘yes’ leads to big opportunities and career direction

Godbold’s next move is to head to the Bahamas in July for a research course studying modern coral reef ecosystems offered through the Grace Research Centre. In September, she will make the move to Los Angeles to begin her PhD at the University of Southern California. She’ll work alongside David Bottjer, the top specialist in her field.

Godbold credits her success with “just being a ‘Yes’ person,” and taking every opportunity available. She participated in the SAGES Teaching Scholars program which was run by biology senior instructor Isabelle Barrette-Ng, which celebrates its third year of operation this month. Godbold also worked as a TA during her undergraduate years, which she says “not only gave me more confidence, but also important insight into the different facets of academia, teaching, and research. Being a TA definitely allows you to figure out if you’re passionate enough to seek those opportunities.”

She plans to become a professor, and hopes to find a job at a Canadian university.

“I love what I do and I’m so appreciative of all the opportunities I’ve gotten. I’ve had so many good experiences. I’ve had so many good, positive things happen to me that I just want to make sure that I send that positivity out.”