Dr. Jeffrey W. Martz
Biography
Jeffrey W. Martz was born in Denver, Colorado, and grew up primarily in the Denver and Salida regions of Colorado. Dr. Martz began his studies in paleontology as an intern at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science while still attending high school, and worked at Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska in 1994 before attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Dr. Martz obtained his bachelor of science degree in zoology at CSU, where he also studied geology, and went on to get his Master's degree and Ph.D. at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. At TTU, Dr. Martz became a specialist on Upper Triassic stratigraphy and vertebrate fossils, and subsequently spent three years as a park geologist at Petrified Forest National Park in northern Arizona, where he produced a geologic map of the park and extensively revised the stratigraphy of the Chinle Formation. He recent years, he produced several unpublished reports on Chinle Formation in southern Utah for the National Park Service, and also spent a year as a K-6 paraeducator working with special needs children in the Utah public education system. Dr. Martz has also worked as a scientific illustrator, producing both black and white and color figures for scientific and popular publications.
Degrees Earned
Bachelor of Science, Zoology, Colorado State University
Master of Science, Geosciences, Texas Tech University
Doctor of Philosophy, Geosciences, Texas Tech University
Courses Taught
Historical Geology Lecture (GEOL 1306)
Historical Geology Lab (GEOL 1106)
Paleontology (GEOL 3411)
Sedimentology and Stratigraphy Lecture (GEOL 3302)
Sedimentology and Stratigraphy Lab (GEOL 3102)
Experience Qualifications
Dr. Martz's first university teaching experience was instructing Physical Geology lab while still an undergraduate at Colorado State University. While a graduate student at Texas Tech University, he instructed both labs and lectures for Historical Geology and History of Life. Dr. Martz has also taught an online education course on Dinosaurs for Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari New Mexico, and recorded "Unearthing the Past: Paleontology and the History of Life" for the Modern Scholar recorded book series. He has taught Historical Geology, Paleontology, and Sedimentology and Stratigraphy at the University of Houston-Downtown since 2015.
More Information
Academic Interest
Jeffrey W. Martz studies the Upper Triassic stratigraphy and vertebrate paleontology of the western United States. Dr. Martz is interested in understanding the environmental and evolutionary changes that allowed dinosaurs to become the dominant land animals early in the Mesozoic Era over 200 million years ago. In addition to studying the systematics of early dinosauromorphs and pseudosuchian archosaurs, he is currently developing detailed lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic models for the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation in western North America that will be used to track the relationship between paleoenvironmental (especially paleoclimatic) change and paleoecology. Much of his work has focused on increasing the methodological rigor of Late Triassic paleontological and stratigraphic research.
Publications:
J.W. Martz, Kirkland, J.I., DeBlieux, D.D., Suarez, C.A., and Santucci, V.L. 2015. Stratigraphy of the Chinle Formation (Upper Triassic) and Moenave Formation (Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic) in the southwestern part of Zion National Park, Washington County, Utah. Utah Geological Survey unpublished report.
J.W. Martz, R.B. Irmis, and A.R.C. Milner. 2014. Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Chinle Formation (Upper Triassic) in Lisbon Valley, southeastern Utah. In MacLean, J.S., Biek, R.F. and Huntoon, J.E. (eds.) Geology of Utah's Far South, UGA publication no. 43, p. 307-448.
J.W. Martz, B. Mueller, S.J. Nesbitt, M.R. Stocker, W.G. Parker, M. Atanassov, N. Fraser, J. Weinbaum, and J. Lehane. 2013. A taxonomic and biostratigraphic re-evaluation of the Post Quarry vertebrate assemblage from the Cooper Canyon Formation (Dockum Group, Upper Triassic) of southern Garza County, western Texas. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh vol. 103, no. 3-4, pp. 339-364.
J.W. Martz, W.G. Parker, L. Skinner, J.J. Raucci. 2012. Geologic map of Petrified Forest National Park. Arizona Geological Society, 1 sheet, scale 1:50,000. http://repository.azgs.az.gov/uri_gin/azgs/dlio/1487
J.W. Martz, and W.G. Parker. 2010. Revised lithostratigraphy of the Sonsela Member (Chinle Formation, Upper Triassic) in the southern part of Petrified Forest National Park, northeastern Arizona. PLoS ONE 5(2): e9329. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009329
Award:
2011 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology John J. Lazendorf Prize for Scientific Illustration