Meyrick Tablizo of the Nannoworks Laboratory undertook a research trip to the United States from October 28 to November 11, 2024, supported by funding from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Development (Research Dissemination Grant), the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (Faculty Development Fund), and the American Museum of Natural History (Collections Study Grant).
During the 84th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he presented his study “Mandibular Allometry in Asian Stegodon”, co-authored with Dr. Gerrit van den Bergh and Dr. Allan Gil Fernando. The research examined growth and scaling patterns in the mandibles of several Stegodon species from across Asia, aiming to identify evolutionary trends associated with insular dwarfism and lineage-specific adaptations. It investigated how mandibular parameters change through ontogeny, searched for morphological signals of dwarfing, and assessed the relationship between jaw structure and the evolution of hypsodont dentition. While at the meeting, he met with renowned paleontologists and authors of foundational reference works in Earth history and paleontology, including Dr. Donald Prothero (The Evolution of the Earth; Bringing Fossils to Life) and Dr. Mike Benton (Vertebrate Paleontology).
After the conference, Meyrick continued his paleontological research at the collections of the Department of Paleontology of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, USA. There, he examined craniodental specimens of Stegodon and reviewed specimens of several cervids, bovids, and suids in the museum’s collection.