Patricia Kelley
Patricia “Tricia” Kelley
Patricia “Tricia” Kelley
Paleoecologist
Tricia Kelley is an evolutionary paleoecologist. She studies how interactions between prehistoric predators and prey affected their evolution. She works to preserve biodiversity today.
Tricia’s love for paleontology began at 7 years old with a dinosaur book. She went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in geology from the College of Wooster. In 1979, Tricia earned her Ph.D. at Harvard University. Her advisor was paleontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould.
Tricia taught at the University of Mississippi, where she was the first and only woman in the School of Engineering. She later moved to the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she worked until retirement. Tricia won awards for her research and teaching, including the 2014 U.S. Professor of the Year Award.
Tricia is active in the Presbyterian church. She uses her perspective as a paleontologist and person of faith to speak about evolution and creation.
Please share any experiences you’ve had with mentors or role models during your career
“Richard Osgood was my first mentor. He believed in me and urged me to apply to graduate school to study with Stephen Jay Gould. Steve guided me in my research and protected me from the insecurities I felt as a female at Harvard, where only one woman had ever completed her Ph.D. working in invertebrate paleontology. Working as Steve’s teaching assistant made me realize I loved to teach.
Unfortunately, I had no female role models or mentors. I never had a woman geology professor. There were no other women graduate students in paleontology when I was in school, and I spent the first 18 years of my career without any other female colleagues. I was the only woman in the School of Engineering at both the University of Mississippi and University of North Dakota. Anne Raymond, who was an undergraduate when I was at Harvard, is a close friend. We have encouraged each other as we braved many professional and life hurdles.”
Daring to Dig Interview
In this video, Tricia discusses her experiences as the sole woman geology student at Harvard in the late 1970s and becoming a mother while a working as a professor in the 1980s.
Predatory Snails & Their Prey
On the left (images 1–3) are shells belonging to three species of predatory snails that lived in what is now Maryland during the Miocene, about 10 million years ago. They drilled telltale, round holes into the shells of their mollusk prey. On the right (image 4, shell numbers 4–11) are specimens of snails and bilvalves from the same deposits. Note the holes that are drilled into some of the shells, evidence that they were killed by snail predators. All specimens are from the St. Marys Formation of Maryland. Most of these specimens were collected by Tricia.
Selected technical works by Patricia Kelley
Kelley, P.H. 1988. Predation by Miocene gastropods of the Chesapeake Group: Stereotyped and predictable. PALAIOS 3: 436–448. Link
Kelley, P.H. 2017. Strategies for teaching evolution in a high-enrollment introductory paleontology course for non-science majors. In M.M. Yacobucci and R. Lockwood, eds. Teaching paleontology in the 21st century. The Paleontological Society Special Publications 12: 17–92. Link
Kelley, P.H., and T.A. Hansen. 1993. Evolution of the naticid gastropod predator-prey system: An evaluation of the hypothesis of escalation. PALAIOS 8: 358–375. Link
Kelley, P.H., and T.A. Hansen. 2003. The fossil record of drilling predation on bivalves and gastropods. In M. Kowalewski and T.A. Hansen, eds. Predator-prey interactions in the fossil record. Topics in Geobiology 20: 113–139. Link
Kelley, P.H., G.P. Dietel, and C.C. Visaggi. 2019. Model for improved undergraduate training in translational conservation science. Conservation Science and Practice 1: e5. Link
Selected essays by Patricia Kelley
Kelley, P.H. 2020. The balancing act. Pp. 100–103 in L.J. Marsh and E. Currano, eds. The bearded lady project. Challenging the face of science. Columbia University Press, New York.
Kelley, P.H. 2020. Studying evolution and keeping the faith. Geotimes, December 2020. Link
Further reading
Sloan, R. 2015, Southport resident, UNC-W's Kelley receives 'U.S. Professor of the Year' award. Link
Video & audio content
The Bearded Lady Project: “The balancing act” by Patricia Kelley. Video, 2020, via Vimeo. Link
Paleontological Research Institution: “The way things are, and how to change them.” Presentation by P. Kelley at the PRI Summer Symposium, 8 August 2020, via YouTube. Link
Science in the Virtual Pub: Women in Paleontology Discussion Panel. Panel for Daring to Dig exhibit held 25 March 2021. Video, 2021, via YouTube. Link