Melissa Connely  is a full time instructor in the Earth Science Dept. and the Klaenhammer Earth Science Chair at Casper College.   She was recently awarded the Rosenthal Outstanding Educator Award.  She has received her Master's Degree in Geology from Utah State University.  Her field of expertise is in stratigraphy and paleoecology.  She has over twelve years experience working with Jurassic fossils including many sauropods from the Morrison Formation.  Melissa carries a BLM survey and research permit for the State of Wyoming.  Recent research projects include the mapping and identification of pterosaur tracks in Central Wyoming and inchnological traces from the Mowry Shale.  She has worked with many entities and individuals from the Tate Geological Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Judith River Dinosaur Institute, University of New Orleans, Brigham Young University, Casper College, Jurassic Park Institute, and Bureau of Land Management.  Melissa is also a member of many scientific organizations including Wyoming Geological Association, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Geological Society of America, etc.

List of Publications:

Eagle, Robert A, Tuetken, Thomas, Martin, Taylor S., Tripati, Aradhna K., Fricke, Henry D., Connely, Melissa, Cifelli, Richard L., Eiler, John M., 2011, Dinosaur body temperatures determined from isotopic ((super13) C – (super 18) O) ordering in fossil biominerals; Science (0036-8075), v. 333, i. 6041, p. 443 – 445.

Connely, M., and Talbot, B., 2007, Investigations and documentation of rare and well preserved invertebrate fossils from the Sundance Formation of Central Wyoming; in WGA guidebook. 

Connely, M., 2006, Paleoecology of pterosaur tracks from the upper Sundance and lower Morrison formations in central Wyoming; in Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation.  Foster, J.R. and Lucas, S.G. eds., New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36. p. 199-202.

Tidwell, W. D., Connely, M., and Britt, B. B., 2006, A Flora from the Base of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation near Como Bluff, Wyoming, USA; in Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation.  Foster, J.R. and Lucas, S.G. eds., New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36. p. 171-182. .

Connely, M., 2005, Trace fossils in marine sediments of the Mowry Shale (Early Cretaceous) of Wyoming are possibly vertebrate in origin, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 24, suppl. n. 3, p. 47a.

Connely, M., 2005, Paleoecology of Pterosaurs from the lower Morrison Formation in Central Wyoming, Geological Society of America, Rocky Mountain Section, 57^th Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programs, v. 37, i. 6 p. 13.

Connely, M.V., 2004, Alcova’s Pteraichnus Lagerstätten, Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, p. 66.

Connely, M., 2002, Stratigraphy and paleoecology of the Morrison Formation, Como Bluff, WY, Master’s Thesis, Utah State University, 118p.

Connely, M., 1998, A proposed reconstruction of the jaw musculature and other soft cranial tissues of Apatosaurus, Journal of Paleontology, v. 18, i. 3, suppl., p. 35.

Connely, M., 1997, Analysis of head-neck functions and feeding ecology of common Jurassic sauropod dinosaurs based on a new find from Como Bluff, WY, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 17, i. 3, suppl., p. 39-40.

Connely, M., 1996, Stratigraphic studies of the relationship between ichthyosaur and plesiosaur species and the paleoenvironmental found in the Upper Jurassic Sundance Formation of central and south central Wyoming, Special Publication – The Paleontological Society, v., 8, p. 79.

Southwell, B., Lockley, M., Bakker, R., Connely, M. and Redman, P., 1996, The first Report of a Dinosaur Tracksite From the Morrison Formation at Como Bluff; in, The Continental Jurassic, Morales, M., ed., Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 60, p. 133-136.

Drake, M. and Wahl Jr., W., 1994, A description of two marine reptiles from the upper Sundance Formation, WY, Wyoming Geological Association Guidebook, Forty-Fourth Annual Field Conference, p. 179-187.