I am passionate about natural history and collections-based research. My work frequently combines systematics with the assessment of various broader evolutionary questions related to animal origins, detailed below. These topics have captured the imaginations of both the scientific community and the general public. I have published papers in influential journals including Nature, Current Biology, and Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Body Plan Origins
Cambrian fossils record the divergence and acquisition of all major animal body plans. I am especially interested in how these radical evolutionary transformations occurred and what sorts of ecological and developmental drivers were responsible. My approach combines insights from new fossils, innovative morphometric, phylogenetic, and comparative methods, and functional and developmental data from living relatives. I particularly focus on some of the earliest-diverging relatives of arthropods, an ideal study group given their complex morphologies and excellent fossil record chronicling their divergence from a worm-like ancestor.
Representative Publications:
Moysiuk, J., & Caron, J. B. (2023). A quantitative assessment of ontogeny and molting in a Cambrian radiodont and the evolution of arthropod development. Paleobiology, 50(1), 54-69. Link
Moon, J., Caron, J.-B., & Moysiuk, J. (2023) A macroscopic free-swimming medusa from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Proceeding of the Royal Society B, 290(2004), 20222490. Link
Moysiuk, J., & Caron, J.-B. (2022). A three-eyed radiodont with fossilized neuroanatomy informs the origin of the arthropod head and segmentation. Current Biology, 32(15), 3302-3316. Link
Caron, J.-B., Moysiuk, J. (2021). A giant nektobenthic radiodont from the Burgess Shale and the significance of hurdiid carapace diversity. Royal Society Open Science, 8(9), 210664. Link
Moysiuk, J., & Caron, J.-B. (2021). Exceptional multifunctionality in the feeding apparatus of a mid-Cambrian radiodont. Paleobiology, 47(4), 704-724. Link
Moysiuk, J., & Caron, J.-B. (2019). A new hurdiid radiodont from the Burgess Shale evinces the exploitation of Cambrian infaunal food sources. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286(1908), 20191079. Link
Resolving Problematica
The fossil record is rife with examples of fossil groups that have defied classification, due to their “bizarre” morphologies and incomplete record - so called problematica. Through new fossil discoveries and the application of a range of visualization techniques and phylogenetic analyses, I have resolved longstanding debates over the evolutionary relationships of diverse groups of problematic fossils. In their evolutionary context, these fossils also provide insights into the morphological transformations that gave rise to new body plans (see above).
Representative Publications:
Moysiuk, J., Caron, J.-B. (2019). Burgess Shale fossils shed light on the agnostid problem. Proceeding of the Royal Society B. 286(1894), 20182314. Link
Moysiuk, J., Smith, M. R., Caron, J.-B. (2017). Hyoliths are Palaeozoic lophophorates. Nature, 541(7637), 394-397. Link
Exceptional fossil preservation
I have extensively researched and traveled to important Palaeozoic fossil sites in Ontario, Manitoba, and New York. I am especially interested in sites with exceptional preservation, Konservat Lagerstätten, and have led the description of new occurrences of rare soft tissue preservation. This work involved collaboration with the avocational paleontological community, with whom I've enjoyed constructive relationships.
Representative Publications:
Rochin-Banaga, H., Davis, D. W., Moysiuk, J. (2023) U-Pb dating of belemnites and rugose corals: the potential for absolute dating of calcitic invertebrate fossils. Chemical Geology, 121862. Link
Moysiuk, J., Izquierdo-López, A., Kampouris, G. E., Caron, J.-B. (2022). A new marrellomorph arthropod from southern Ontario: A rare case of soft tissue preservation on a late Ordovician open marine shelf. Journal of Paleontology,96(4) 859-874. Link