Dena Smith and Sofía Nufio
CU Museum of Natural History and Department of Geological Sciences
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309
U.S.A.

Dena Smith is currently the Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology at the University of Colorado Natural History Museum and is an Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her research is broadly focused on the evolution of insects.  She conducts both in depth field-based research at targeted localities and large-scale literature based research across multiple geologic time intervals. She also works in modern ecosystems and in the lab in order to learn more about the specifics of plant-insect interactions and processes of fossilization. She has served as a member of the advisory board of the Paleobiology Database since 2004, co-edited a GSA book on the paleontology of the Florissant Formation, and serves as a councilor for the Paleontological Society.

Sofía Nufio is 3½ years old and loves nature. In addition to kitties, she loves fossils. Her favorites are dinosaurs, trilobites and crinoids. She has a little collection of marine invertebrate fossils that she enjoys organizing and discussing. She also is very interested in insects and has a mini-insect net of her own. She owns pet beetles (a small colony of mealworms through adults) which she occasionally takes for walks in her mini play stroller. She loves being outdoors and using her imagination.