My postdoctoral experience was at the Field Museum in Chicago where I held a Boyd Fellowship and worked with Jun Wen and Jenny McElwain on the disjunct family Altingiaceae. This work grew out of research on Miocene fossil fruits in collaboration with Kathleen Pigg at Arizona State University. We surveyed the anatomy, morphology and micromorphology of Liquidambar and Altingia, and demonstrated differences in rates of evolution and morphological convergence suggesting complex patterns of diversification at several different phylogenetic levels, and evidence for morphological stasis. Our results demonstrate biogeographic migrations of Altingiaceae across both the Bering and North Atlantic Land Bridges. I also completed a taxonomic synopsis including nine new combinations and their circumscription for Altingiaceae while at UAF in 2013.
Ickert-Bond, S.M., and J. Wen. 2013. A taxonomic synopsis of Altingiaceae with nine new combinations. PhytoKeys 31: 21–61. doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.31.6251 [Link]
Morris, A.B., S.M. Ickert-Bond, B.D. Brunson, D.E. Soltis, and P.S. Soltis. 2008. Phylogeographical structure and temporal complexity in American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua, Altingiaceae). Molecular Ecology 17: 3889–3900. [Link] [Link to Wiley]
Ickert-Bond, S.M., K. B. Pigg, and J. Wen. 2007. Comparative infructescence morphology in Altingia Noronha and discordance between morphological and molecular phylogenies. American Journal of Botany 94:1094-1115. [Link]
Ickert-Bond, S.M., and J. Wen. 2006. Phylogeny and biogeography of Altingiaceae: evidence from combined analysis of five non-coding chloroplast regions. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39: 512-528. [Link]
Ickert-Bond, S.M., K.B. Pigg, and J. Wen. 2005. Comparative infructescence morphology and anatomy in Liquidambar L. (Altingiaceae) and its evolutionary significance. American Journal of Botany 92 (8):1234-1255. [Link]
Pigg, K.B., S.M. Ickert-Bond, and J. Wen. 2004. Anatomically preserved Liquidambar (Altingiaceae) from the Middle Miocene of Yakima Canyon, Washington State, USA, and its biogeographic implications. American Journal of Botany 91 (3): 499-509. [Link]