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Profile - Jack Tseng
Jack Tseng
Contact Information
E-mail: jacktsen@usc.edu
Mail Code: 0371
Started at USC: Fall 2005
Education:
2005 – present
Ph.D. Candidate, Integrative & Evolutionary Biology
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
2004
B.A., Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley
Faculty Advisor(s):
Dr. Xiaoming Wang, Natural History Museum
Collaboration(s):
Dr. Reyes Enciso, USC School of Dentistry
Drs. Henryk Flashner and Faizal Kamaruddin, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Jill McNitt-Gray, Kinesiology and Biomedical Engineering
Research Topics: evolutionary ecology, morphology and biomechanics of carnivoran skulls
Research Description:
My dissertation research combines traditional and novel techniques to reveal biomechanical and morphological adaptations of large bone-cracking carnivorous mammals of the past. I use four main techniques (1. Finite element modeling, 2. Geometric morphometrics, 3. Enamel microstructural analysis, 4. Enamel microwear analysis) to study the skulls of extinct hyenas and hyena-like dogs from China and the United States, respectively. The diverse methodologies and geographical regions that I utilize necessitate a broad range of collaborations involving faculty members and students from various disciplines at USC and other institutions.
My research benefits from the expertise of USC professors and students in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Department of Earth Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, Department of Kinesiology, and the School of Dentistry. My research is currently integrated with undergraduate student research in the USC Biomechanics Laboratory funded by a USC Zumberge Grant; we are training students in 3D reconstruction and model-building programs which are crucial in setting up biomechanical models and their analyses. Outside USC, I have worked with researchers and faculty members from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the University of California, Los Angeles. A large portion of my study material comes from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Paleozoology Museum of Hezheng County in Gansu Province, China.
Recent Publications:
Tseng ZJ and Binder WJ. accepted. Mandibular biomechanics of Crocuta crocuta, Canis lupus, and the late Miocene Dinocrocuta gigantea (Carnivora, Mammalia). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
Tseng ZJ, Wang X., and Stewart, JD. in press. A new immigrant mustelid (Carnivora, Mammalia) from the middle Miocene Temblor Formation of central California. PaleoBios
Tseng ZJ. 2009. Cranial function in a late Miocene Dinocrocuta gigantea (Mammalia: Carnivora) revealed by comparative finite element analysis. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 96:51-67. [PDF]
Tseng ZJ, Jin C-Z, Liu J-Y, Zheng L-T, and Sun C-K. 2008. Fossil Hyaenidae (Mammalia: Carnivora) from Huainan, Anhui Province, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 46(2):133-146. [PDF]
CV: Click to view