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Dana Ehret '01

Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology

 

Dr. Dana Ehret graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology in 2001.  

Through the encouragement of his preceptor, Dr. Roger Wood, Professor Emeritus, Biology, Ehret pursued his passion for vertebrate paleontology. During his junior and senior years, Ehret held internship positions at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor working with Dr. Roger Wood, Professor Emeritus, Biology, Dr. Ralph Werner, Professor Emeritus, Biology, and Dr. Richard Hager, Professor Emeritus, Marine Science. Dr. Werner and fellow intern L.M. Jensen, conducted research on the health assessment of captive raised and wild diamondback terrapins. Their research was published in the Transactions of New Jersey Academy of Sciences in 2003.  The following summer, he studied a collection of fossil turtles in the Academy of Natural Sciences collections. His research was presented at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Meeting in Bozeman, Montana. 

As a student at Stockton, Ehret served as the President of the Biology club and worked along side John Rokita, Principal Lab Technician, in the animal lab.

After graduation, Ehret attended the University of Florida and received a Master of Science in Geological Sciences, minoring in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. During his studies, Ehret conducted research on aging and growth in fossil and modern gopher tortoises in the Nebraska badlands and in Florida.

Ehret remained at the University of Florida to pursue a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Ecology. His dissertation was entitled, "Macroevolution of Body Size in Lamniform Sharks." 

While studying for his doctoral degree, Ehret published multiple papers on a new fossil white shark, Carcharodon hubbelli and a fossil map turtle, Graptemys kerneri.

After completing his Ph.D., Ehret served as an instructor of Biology at Monmouth University for a year and a half before he assumed the position of Curator of Paleontology at the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama (UA). During his five-year tenure at UAB, Ehret taught paleontology and cryptozoology and developed the paleontology collections at the university.

In January of 2018, Ehret returned to New Jersey and currently holds the role of Assistant Curator of Natural History at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.