Paleoart | Kate LoMedico Marriott

About kate

Kate LoMedico Marriott is a researcher and adjunct at Brooklyn College, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and teaching resident at the American Museum of Natural History. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in visual arts with a minor in geology from SUNY New Paltz, a Master of Science in Earth and Environmental Sciences (focusing in ammonoid paleobiology) from Brooklyn College, and is completing her Master of Arts in Teaching Earth Science from the American Museum of Natural History. Her specialization as a teacher and professor is working with early-college high schoolers in free public programs in New York City, helping them access early scientific research opportunities and preparing them mentally, emotionally, and academically for college.

She has mentored high school and undergraduate students in ammonoid paleobiology research, collaborating with students as co-authors on peer-reviewed papers on developmental, evolutionary, and ecological factors impacting ammonoid hard tissues and leading the Paleo\climate Research Group (known colloquially as the “ammonoid group”) at Brooklyn College. In 2021, she published the LLS Method for measuring the fractal dimensions of partially preserved ammonite sutures with her first master’s advisor. This method increases accessibility to paleontological research projects for students and otherwise underfunded scientists, makes it easier to increase sample size in poorly preserved populations, and has created a pathway to non-invasive quantitative studies of septal ontogeny. The LLS Method is used and taught at universities across North America. Her commitment to access is what drove her to create the ammonoid morphological database Ammodata.

Kate’s own path into science was somewhat unconventional, and this lack of a typical orientation in the sciences has driven her to improve accessibility wherever she goes. An established paleoartist, Kate was a special-mention finalist in the International Award on Science Illustration in 2018. In 2023, she published Evolution of the Ammonoids with two of her mentors; the book features about 200 of her original illustrations. Her paleoart has been published in numerous books, most recently The Story of Earth's Climate in 25 Discoveries by Donald Ross Prothero (Columbia University Press, 2023) and exhibited at the Spanish National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid; Astro Gallery of Gems, Fifth Avenue, NYC; LaGuardia Community College, Queens; SUNY New Paltz, NY; Warren Wilson Gallery, North Carolina; UC Davis, and has been used in online and print materials by several national parks.

EXHIBITS

CURRENT

Cave House Museum of Mining and Geology

Howe Caverns, NY | October 2016-

Permanent Exhibit, Didymoceras stevensoni

PAST

Illustraciencia Inaugural Conference Exhibitions

Malaga | Jan-Mar, 2020

Heteromorphic Ammonoids of the Matanuska Formation, Turonian, Alaska

LaGuardia Community College

NYC | Feb-Apr, 2019

Ammonoidea Illuminated: Originals