Rate My Professor Richard Lupia

Lupia's research centers on paleobotany, palynology, and paleoecology, exploring vegetation changes during critical intervals such as the Late Paleozoic Ice Age in Oklahoma and Kansas through palynology of core and outcrop samples, documenting shifts from humid- to arid-adapted floras approximately 310–275 million years ago. He investigates the diversification of heterosporous ferns concurrent with Cretaceous angiosperm expansion using scanning electron microscopy and database analyses from Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain sites. Other projects encompass taxonomy and anatomy of petrified wood floras from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation in Oklahoma, Utah, and Montana to reconstruct paleoecology and climate, as well as mesofossil floras revealing insect-plant interactions. Key publications include Lupia (2015), 'Mid-Cretaceous megaspore floras from Maryland, USA' in Journal of Paleontology; Lupia and Armitage (2013), 'Late Pennsylvanian–Early Permian vegetational transition in Oklahoma: Palynological record' in International Journal of Coal Geology; Lupia (2011), 'Late Santonian megaspore floras from the Gulf Coastal Plain (Georgia, USA)' in Journal of Paleontology; and Lupia et al. (1999), 'Discordant morphological disparity and taxonomic diversity during the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation: North American pollen record' in Paleobiology. With over 2,200 citations, his contributions have significantly influenced understandings of plant evolution and terrestrial ecosystem dynamics.