Benjamin Burger
Stratigraphy and Paleontology | Uintah Basin—Vernal Campus
Associate Professor
Contact Information
Office Location: BEERC 211F 320 North Aggie Blvd. (Vernal)Phone: 435.722.1778
Email: benjamin.burger@usu.edu
Additional Information:
Biography
Benjamin John Burger is an Associate Professor of Geology at Utah State University, with an interest in paleontology. He received his PhD (2009) and BA (1997) from the University of Colorado in Geology, and MS (1999) from Stony Brook University in Anatomical Sciences. He previously worked at the American Museum of Natural History (1999-2004), and enjoys researching the extensive history of life on Earth through his extensive study of fossils in the American West. He is well-experienced in conducting fieldwork in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and has published research on all three eras of the Phanerozoic. He is also heavily involved in science outreach, with numerous educational videos about paleontology and geology available on YouTube.
His recent research falls under four major fields of inquiry:
1) Early Cenozoic Fossil Mammals of North America
2) The Permian-Triassic Boundary Mass Extinction
3) Miscellaneous Mesozoic Research
4) Science Education and Communication
Research Interests
Mammalian paleontology; Climate change; Sedimentary Geology; Stratigraphy; Biostratigraphy; Chronostratigraphy; Dinosaurs; Paleobotany
Highlighted Research Publications
Burger, B.J. 2023. Mystery in Middle Park: Relocating the site of Colorado’s first dinosaur discovery. Earth Sciences History. 42 (1): 102–122.
https://doi.org/10.17704/1944-6187-42.1.102
Burger, B.J. and Jolley, L. 2020. A new large body Helohyid (Artiodactyla) from the Bridgerian Middle Eocene Washakie Formation of Southern Wyoming. Paludicola 12(4):175-184.
Burger, B.J. 2020. The Essential Guide to Planet Earth. WikiBooks, p. 400 https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Planet_Earth
Burger, B.J. Margarita Vargas Estrada, and Mae Sexauer Gustin. 2019. What caused Earth's largest mass extinction event? New evidence from the Permian-Triassic boundary in northeastern Utah. Global and Planetary Change. 177:81-100 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2019.03.013
Burger, B.J. 2017. Apathy and Concern Over the Future Habitability of Earth: An Introductory College Assignment of Forecasting CO2 in the Earth’s Atmosphere. Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence. 1: 2, Article 7.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/jete/vol1/iss2/7/
A full list of publications and links articles is available on his website
at http://www.benjamin-burger.org
as well as on Digital Commons at https://works.bepress.com/benjamin_burger/