Professor Dr. Jessica Maisano

Biography

Jessica Maisano is an Associate Research Scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, where she has been since January 2000. She completed her Ph.D. in vertebrate paleontology at Yale University. Currently, she oversees the High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility (UTCT) and has been a key figure in the implementation of Digital Morphology, contributing to the NSF Digital Library, which features a resource of high-resolution CT-based imagery of a broad variety of fossil organisms. The ongoing project, DigiMorph.org, currently showcases around 700 specimens. In 2004, she collaborated on the Deep Scaly project, which focuses on the higher-level systematics of squamates, including lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians, as part of the NSF's Assembling the Tree of Life initiative. Her research interests encompass vertebrate paleontology, herpetology, morphology, and developmental biology, with particular emphasis on high-resolution x-ray computed tomography and digital morphology.

Research Interests