Tristan Reinecke, Evolutionary Biology PhD, was nominated for the Best Dissertation Award in the Biological Sciences Division for his dissertation, Morphological Diversity and Biomechanical Determinants of Trabecular Bone in Amniotes. Working under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Angielczyk, Tristan explored the structural and functional diversity of trabecular bone across a broad range of amniote species, shedding light on how bone architecture reflects biomechanical demands and evolutionary history.
His primary research interests center on the evolutionary history of pre-mammalian synapsids, with a particular focus on limb morphology and biomechanics. By integrating comparative anatomy with quantitative methods, Tristan’s work offers new insights into how early terrestrial vertebrates moved and adapted to their environments, bridging paleontology, functional morphology, and evolutionary biology.
Tristan graduated with his PhD in 2025 and continues to investigate the evolutionary patterns that shaped the skeletal diversity of extinct and extant vertebrates.