Mike is a molecular biologist working for a medical device company who has bachelor and masters degrees in biology from Georgia State University.  Like many who were bitten by the fossil bug early, his obsession with dinosaurs led to an interest later in life in fossil communities through time.  A stint at the University of West Florida and the U.S. EPA environmental research lab in Gulf Breeze, FL exposed him to not only the rich Paleogene deposits of Alabama but also the equally spectacular Chipola Formation further east.  Although hard rock fossicking in the Ordovician and Devonian was in his future during the pursuit of his career in Ohio and Pennsylvania, he still retained his interest in Cenozoic deposits collecting extensively in the Maryland Miocene and Pliocene Yorktown Formation in Virginia.  Now firmly ensconced in the Atlanta area, in his spare time he concentrates on the Cretaceous and Cenozoic fossil communities of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains specializing in molluscan systematics and writing an online blog of his fossil collecting endeavors.