Stephen Schellenberg
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Stephen Schellenberg was born and raised in the topographically challenged state of Florida. His life direction was rather nebulous until a freshman-year Earth History course with Warren Allmon at the University of South Florida, which inspired a general life-focus for him and initiated continuing bafflement on the part of his family. After earning his B.A. and M.S. at USF, Stephen headed westward to join David Bottjer’s Ph.D. program at the University of Southern California. He (eventually) focused his Ph.D. research upon Paleogene deep-ocean ostracodes and their history across the Paleocene-Eocene and Eocene-Oligocene transitions. This interest led back east to residence at the Smithsonian Institution to work with Richard Benson, the doyen of the deep-ocean ostracodes.

Stephen recently moved back to the west coast, defended his Ph.D., sailed the southern seas on Ocean Drilling Program Leg 189, and relocated to the paradise of University of Californa, Santa Cruz. He is currently an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow working on various aspects of Paleogene paleobiology, paleoecology, and paleoceanography with Jim Zachos and Peggy Delaney. Stephen is shown here in a dramatic reconstruction of proto-proboscidean response to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, which will no doubt find some niche on his C.V. With respect to this book review, he credits Warren Allmon for the "X from the Yity of Zeeland" quote and Ernest Hemingway for the section titles.