Rudolph Hummel is an early-career vertebrate paleontologist. His primary research interest is habitat turnover and its relationship with floral and faunal communities in the past. He also has experience in fossil resource management and collections management on public lands. At DMNS, Rudolph assists curatorial staff with research projects and works closely with collections management staff on the Madagascar Project.
Rudolph has been volunteering and working at zoos and museums since high school. He earned his bachelor’s degree in earth science with a focus in paleontology at Montana State University, where he also earned a minor in museum studies and volunteered at the Museum of the Rockies. During his master’s degree at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, he used adaptations of ungulates (hoofed mammals) to study the turnover of forests to grasslands in North America during the Miocene. Rudolph interned at one state park, three national monuments, and the Arizona Museum of Natural History before being hired at DMNS.