Peg Yacobucci
Peg Yacobucci
Peg Yacobucci
Paleobiologist
Margaret (“Peg”) Yacobucci is a paleobiologist. She studies ammonoid cephalopods, extinct relatives of modern nautilus and squid, to understand why they evolved so quickly and died out just as fast when ancient environments changed.
Peg grew up in and around Buffalo, New York. She has been hooked on paleontology ever since she read a book about dinosaurs in kindergarten. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago, she completed her Ph.D. in Earth & Planetary Sciences under the supervision of Stephen J. Gould at Harvard University. Peg is currently a Professor of Geology in the School of Earth, Environment & Society at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in northwest Ohio.
Peg is passionate about three things: paleontology, innovative science education, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in the sciences. Her paleontological work focuses on ammonoid evolution and paleobiology, most recently documenting how ammonoids responded to episodes of global warming in the Late Cretaceous period (about 100.5 to 66 million years ago). By better understanding extinction patterns during these ancient warming events, she hopes to offer insight into how modern marine animals will cope with the anthropogenic (human-caused) warming our planet is now experiencing.
Peg teaches paleontology courses and serves as Faculty Mentor for the Paleobiology specialization within BGSU’s Geology program. She has advised over 60 undergraduate and 20 master’s student research projects. She has also engaged in a variety of outreach and educational research activities to support innovations in geoscience teaching and learning. She has led JEDI efforts on campus and contributed nationally to shaping inclusive environments for women and other marginalized scientists. She was elected a Fellow of the Paleontological Society in 2020.
Daring to Dig Interview
In this video, Peg discusses how she began working on ammonoids of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (a sea that covered the middle of the North American continent in the Late Cretaceous), her research on the diversity of ammonoid morphology (form), the bias against women scientists she experienced as a student, and how she sees the representation, perception, and inclusion of women in science today. This interview was recorded in 2016, when Peg was serving as Secretary of the Paleontological Society in addition to serving in her regular faculty position at BGSU.
Selected technical paleontological works by Peg Yacobucci
Yacobucci, M.M. 2012. Meta-analysis of character utility and phylogenetic information content in cladistic studies of ammonoids. Geobios 45: 139–143. Link
Yacobucci, M.M. 2016. Towards a model for speciation in ammonoids. Pp. 238–277 in W.D. Allmon and M.M. Yacobucci (eds.). Species and speciation in the fossil record. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Yacobucci, M.M. 2017. Marine life in a greenhouse world: Cephalopod biodiversity and biogeography during the early Late Cretaceous. Paleobiology 43: 587–619. Link
Yacobucci, M.M. 2018. Confronting prior conceptions in paleontology courses. Elements of Paleontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Link
Yacobucci, M.M. 2018. Postmortem transport in fossil and modern shelled cephalopods. PeerJ 6: e5909. Link
Selected works on pedagogy & JEDI by Peg Yacobucci
Hanasono, L.K., E.M. Broido, M.M. Yacobucci, K.V. Root, S. Peña, and D.A. O’Neil. 2018. Secret service: Revealing gender biases in the visibility and value of faculty service. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Link
Hanasono, L.K., J.M. Matuga, and M.M. Yacobucci. 2019. Breaking the bamboo and glass ceilings: Challenges and opportunities for Asian and Asian American women faculty leaders. 19 pgs. in C.-C. Chao and L. and Ha (eds.), Asian women leadership: A cross-national and cross-sector comparison. Routledge. Link to book
Yacobucci, M.M. 2013. Integrating critical thinking about values into an introductory geology course. Journal of Geoscience Education 61: 351–363. Link
Yacobucci, M.M. 2018. Confronting prior conceptions in paleontology courses. Elements of Paleontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Link
Further reading
Bowling Green State University. 2021. Fossils may hold clues to climate change, says BGSU paleobiologist. Newswise, 24 February 2021. Link
Editor-in-Chief. 2014. Female faculty experience discrimination; statistics show no significant salary difference. BG Falcon, 5 May 2014. Link
Leygraaf, A. 2018. Undergraduate student government discusses inclusion, campus safety. BG Falcon, 26 November 2018. Link
Video & audio content
Imagination Station Toledo: Dr. Peg Yacobucci, Paleontologist, BGSU. Video, 25 March 2021, via YouTube. Link
WBGU-PBS: Kids Tech-”What can fossils tell us about our planet’s past, present, and future?” Video, 29 April 2012, via YouTube. Link