Talbot recovered and named the only known fossils of the dinosaur Podokesaurus holyokensis, which were found near Mount Holyoke College in 1910, and published a scientific description of the specimen in 1911.

[2] During her thirty-one years at Mount Holyoke College, she amassed a large collection of invertebrate fossils and Triassic footprints and minerals.

[2] Talbot attended Ohio State University from 1888 to 1892, where she studied geology with Edward Orton and received her undergraduate degree.

As her research continued she subsequently identified the creature as theropod, in collaboration with Yale University professor Richard Swan Lull.

Even though her parents died within days of each other in 1899, by that time her family situation had allowed her to pursue a post-secondary education and further a career in academia.

She served as a high school teacher in Columbus, Ohio even while continuing graduate work at the State University and at the same time "keeping up a home for [her younger] brothers."