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Recent KU graduate receives Fulbright Award; 3 others named alternates
One recent University of Kansas graduate accepted a prestigious Fulbright award as a teaching assistant in Austria, and two other alumni and a doctoral candidate were named alternates to study or conduct research abroad. The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between Americans and people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
Ancient arachnid from coal forests of America stands out for its spiny legs
More than 300 million years ago, all sorts of arachnids crawled around the Carboniferous coal forests of North America and Europe. These included familiar ones we’d recognize, such as spiders, harvestmen and scorpions — as well exotic animals that now occur in warmer regions like whip spiders and whip scorpions. But there were also quite bizarre arachnids in these habitats belonging to now extinct groups. Even among these stranger species now lost to time, one might have stood out for its up-armored legs.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Christine Metz Howard, [email protected]
Recent KU graduate receives Fulbright Award; 3 others named alternates
LAWRENCE – One recent University of Kansas graduate accepted a prestigious Fulbright award as a teaching assistant in Austria, and two other alumni and a doctoral candidate were named alternates to study or conduct research abroad.
Finn Finnerty, who graduated in May with a degree in foreign language education, accepted a U.S. Teaching Assistantship through Fulbright Austria. Alicia Houser, a doctoral candidate in history; Theresa Read, a recent graduate in chemistry and biochemistry; and Samantha Bryant, an education alumna, were named alternates for Fulbright Awards.
The Fulbright program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between Americans and people of other countries. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in more than 160 countries worldwide.
Since the program’s inception in 1946, KU has had nearly 500 students selected for Fulbright awards. KU International Affairs coordinates the applications for Fulbright grants.
“The Fulbright Program offers exceptional opportunities to teach, pursue a graduate degree or conduct research abroad,” said Rachel Sherman Johnson, KUIA director of internationalization and partnerships. “KU’s applicants put together creative and academically rigorous proposals and were outstanding representatives of the university in this year’s highly competitive application cycle.”
Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected based on academic or professional achievement as well as their record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields. Fulbright grants provide funding for round-trip travel, maintenance for one academic year, health and accident insurance and, where relevant, tuition.
The 2024-2025 Fulbright recipients and alternate:
Finn Finnerty was selected for two Fulbright awards. They were offered an English teaching assistantship in Germany and a U.S. Teaching Assistantship through Fulbright Austria. Finnerty has accepted the Fulbright award in Austria, where they will be teaching English and U.S. culture this fall. From Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Finnerty graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in foreign language education and minors in German and Spanish. Their parents are Miranda and Scott Finnerty.
Samantha Brant was named an alternate to study and conduct research in education at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Her research explores how a school’s curriculum and instruction are perceived by intermediate and middle-level students. From Topeka and currently living in Kansas City, Missouri, Brant received a master’s degree in education from KU in 2015. Her parents are David and Deba Brant.
Alicia Houser was selected as an alternate to study and conduct research in history in Tanzania. Her research examines how women have transformed Moshi, Tanzania, from a town built to serve colonial purposes into an African urban center of commerce and transportation. Houser is a doctoral candidate in history. She has a master’s degree in public and international affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and bachelor’s degrees in international relations and African studies from Austin College. Her parents are Bryan Houser and Janice Hileman.
Theresa Read was selected as an alternate to study and conduct research in chemistry in Sweden. She proposed enrolling in Uppsala University’s master’s program in chemistry for renewable energy. Read lives in Shawnee and graduated in May with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biochemistry. Her husband and son are Justin and Dalamar Read.
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Contact: Brendan M. Lynch, 785-864-8855, [email protected]
Ancient arachnid from coal forests of America stands out for its spiny legs
LAWRENCE — More than 300 million years ago, all sorts of arachnids crawled around the Carboniferous coal forests of North America and Europe. These included familiar ones we’d recognize, such as spiders, harvestmen and scorpions — as well exotic animals that now occur in warmer regions like whip spiders and whip scorpions.
But there were also quite bizarre arachnids in these habitats belonging to now extinct groups. Even among these stranger species now lost to time, one might have stood out for its up-armored legs.
The ancient critter recently was described in a new paper published in the Journal of Paleontology, co-written by Paul Selden from the University of Kansas and the Natural History Museum of London and Jason Dunlop from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.
“Douglassarachne acanthopoda comes from the famous Mazon Creek locality in Illinois and is about 308 million years old,” said lead author Selden. “This compact arachnid had a body length of about 1.5 centimeters and is characterized by its remarkably robust and spiny legs — such that it is quite unlike any other arachnid known, living or extinct.”
The KU researcher said Carboniferous Coal Measures are an important source of information for fossil arachnids, representing the first time in Earth’s history when most living groups of arachnids occurred together. Yet, the fauna was still quite different to today.
“Spiders were a rather rare group, only known at that time from primitive lineages, and they shared these ecosystems with various arachnids which have long since died out,” said co-author Dunlop. “Douglassarachne acanthopoda is a particularly impressive example of one of these extinct forms. The fossil’s very spiny legs are reminiscent of some modern harvestmen, but its body plan is quite different from a harvestman or any other known arachnid group.”
This led the two scientists to conclude it doesn’t belong in any of the known arachnid orders.
“Unfortunately, details such as the mouth parts cannot be seen, which makes it difficult to say exactly which group of arachnids are its closest relatives, Selden said. “It could belong to a wider group, which includes spiders, whip spiders and whip scorpions. Whatever its evolutionary affinities, these spiny arachnids appear to come from a time when arachnids were experimenting with a range of different body plans. Some of these later became extinct, perhaps during the so-called ‘Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse,’ a time shortly after the age of Mazon Creek when the coal forests began to fragment and die off. Or perhaps these strange arachnids clung on until the end Permian mass extinction?”
According to the team, Mazon Creek fossil locality is one of the most important windows into life in the late Carboniferous, producing a wide range of fascinating plants and animals. The present fossil was discovered in a clay-ironstone concretion in the 1980s by Bob Masek and later acquired by the David and Sandra Douglass Collection and displayed in their Prehistoric Life Museum.
“The genus name Douglassarachne acknowledges the Douglass family, who kindly donated the specimen to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for scientific study once it became apparent that it represented an undescribed species,” Dunlop said. “Then, acanthopoda refers to the unique and characteristic spiny legs of the animal.”
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