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Geology Department N e w s l e t t e r Group photo taken at the Fall 2015 Geology Bonding Night held at Pizza Hut. Hello Alumni! On behalf of the Geology Department, I hope 2016 is starting out well for you. There have been a lot of changes during the past twelve months, as you’ll see by reading the remainder of this newsletter. Most of the changes are driven by the ongoing budget crisis in the state of Illinois so it is completely out of our hands. We expect even more changes in the coming year, but rest assured that we will be here in some form for the foreseeable future and our commitment to our students is as strong as ever. Despite these lean budgetary times we continue to bring students on field trips, involve them in undergraduate research, and bring them to research conferences to present their results. We are able to continue these activities because you, our alumni, generously contribute to our Geology Foundation account. We can’t thank you enough for your past and your continuing monetary support of the Geology Department. I hope you enjoy reading this year’s edition of the Geology Alumni Newsletter. Steve Bennett Alumni Newsletter Editor Artwork on the 2016 WIU Geology t-shirt features Bob Johnson’s vision of a wrestling match between Lincoln and an oversized Tully Monster. Finished Diprotodon skull. This was in the process of printing last year at this time. Bob assembled, painted, and made a stand for the skull. Dr. Hegna has it on display in the Geol 112 - History of the Earth lab room. Geology Department Newsletter P a g e 2 Leslie Melim I spent most of Spring 2015 Semester on sabbatical in Albuquerque, NM working on the scanning electron microscope at the University of New Mexico. Much as I love teaching, it was a nice change to just work on research for awhile. I missed Macomb and my friends here, but really enjoyed spending time with my friends there. I had planned on spending two months, but stayed an extra month after a riding accident left me with a broken ankle (it’s fine now) and unable to drive my manual-transmission Subaru. The extra time was very productive, as I collected hundreds of additional images and completed most of a detailed survey of recrystallization fabrics in cave pearls from the Huber Limestone Mine in Quincy, IL and from Carlsbad Cavern, NM. In addition, I worked some more on the living pool fingers from the Herbstlabyrinth/Adventhöhle Cave System, Germany, which produced a quick paper and a talk. Summer was fairly quiet with no field camp. I did get to Denver, Colorado for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Meeting as part of editor duties for Journal of Sedimentary Research. I also managed a nice visit with my sister in the Seattle area: July has much nicer weather than my usual December visit. In between trips, I found time for lots of horseback riding and woodworking. In August, I got back into teaching with the largest Geol 340 Strat. Sed. class ever: 22 students! It made for a very busy semester, particularly when grading the WID papers came around. As usual, I went back to UNM over Thanksgiving Break, taking two geology majors, Nick Liming and Justin Christensen, to finish up the cave pearl recrystallization study. Coming home, there was a huge ice storm over the Texas Panhandle that closed the interstate. To go around, we drove up through Colorado but it still got us. We encountered freezing drizzle on I-70 and so had to slow down. Unfortunately, the idiot behind us left her cruise control on (in ice?!) and rear ended my car. No one was hurt, but we ended up staying an extra two days in Colorado before I could get a rental car from her insurance company. Nick and Justin were great company in the little tiny town of Limon in eastern Colorado. I ended up taking the little Ford rent- al on a long odyssey over winter break from Illinois to Seattle to Albuquerque and finally back to Colorado to pick up my car in January. I’d much rather have done it with my all-wheel drive Subaru! Presentations: Melim, L.A., Spilde, M.N., Northup, D.E., 2015, Geomicrobiology of cave pearls: New evidence from Carlsbad Cavern. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 47, No. 7, p. 57, Presented November 1, 2015. Melim, L.A. Northup, D.E., Hughes, K.J., Spilde, M.N., and Boston, P.J., 2015, An SEM and molecular study of the living pool fingers in the Herbstlabyrinth/Adventhöhle Cave System, Hess, Germany. 2015 NSS Convention, Waynesville, MO, July 13-17, 2015. Presented July 15, 2015. Publications: Meyer, S., Melim, L., and Scholz, D., 2015, Morphologie der Pool-Fingers in der Riesenberghöhle (Süntel, Niedersachsen), Die Höhle, v. 66, p. 80-95 (in German, English abstract). Melim, L.A., Northup, D.E., Spilde, M.N., and Boston, P.J., 2015, Update: Living reticulated filaments from Herbstlabyrinth-Adventhöhle Cave System, Germany, Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, v. 77, p. 87-90. Preston, L.J., Melim, L.A., Polyak, V.J., Asmerom, Y., Southam, G., 2014, Infrared spectroscopic biosignatures from Hidden Cave, New Mexico: Possible applications for remote life detection, Geomicrobiology Journal, v. 31, p. 929-941. Geology Department Newsletter P a g e 3 Peter Calengas Greetings to all of the friends of the Department! The past year has been a very eventful one for everyone. Although our overall enrollments are similar to recent years, we currently have a large group of students taking our upper division courses (Geologic Field Methods, Stratigraphy and Sedimentology, Structural Geology) producing the largest enrollments we have had in these courses in 30 years. That is the good news. The bad news is that we once again have a “bare-bones” budget, and next year does not look any better! Fortunately, your generous financial support has made a difference. We will be offering Geology Field Camp this summer and have been able to continue to support our in-class field trips, trips for field work, and travel to present research at conferences. Without your generous donations to our foundation this would not be possible. In fact, half of our expenses during the last fiscal year were paid using our Geology Foundation account. Your continued support helps defray the cost for these important activities and allows us to continue to offer a high-quality Geology program for our majors. With Dr. Mayborn serving as an Interim Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, we were allowed to hire a visiting lecturer, Dr. Petr Yakovlev, for the Spring 2016 semester to teach Structural Geology. Although the geomorphology faculty position remains unfilled, we have asked Dr. Yakovlev to teach Geomorphology this spring to give our students an additional upper-division course option. I continue to teach my online Environmental Geology class and to serve as a consultant to a variety of Industrial Mineral enterprises. Keep in touch. It’s always great to hear from you. Diane Edwards Hi Everyone, As always, it’s a pleasure to submit a “blurb” for the annual Geology newsletter. That means I’m still vertical and working with some of the best folks on campus. There is a lot of uncertainty here at WIU and throughout the state of Illinois. Nonetheless we keep moving forward and coming to work each day to do the best we can for our students. Our major count is holding steady, which is great news! We have a large group of students signed up for Geology Summer Field Camp 2016. Right now the count is 23 which matches the count from 1984’s field camp. We’re very humbled by the Paul Wagner Memorial contributions received this past year. These funds went to the Geology Foundation and have been earmarked for field camp. We’ve had really great turnouts the past few years for Bonding Night, the annual Geology Club Holiday Party, and the spring picnic. It’s very heart-warming to see our students interested in these Geology-related social events. On a personal note, my entire family met for a week of fun in the sun and on the water at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. We had beautiful weather, amazing accommodations and a ton of fun. I feel truly blessed! The photo was taken at “Wobbly Boots” Restaurant, Osage Beach. Those of you that have visited this area are probably familiar with it. Please keep in touch & wishing you all a healthy, happy year! Geology Department Newsletter P a g e 4 To m H e g n a 2015 proved to be a busy year in the “Hegna Lab”. In the spring, I had the privilege of taking the Paleontology class on a trip to Iowa City to see the paleontology collections at the University of Iowa (my alma mater), the MAPS fossil show, and the Devonian fossil gorge. I helped out with the Structural Geology field trip to Wisconsin—seeing some sights that I had not seen since I was an undergraduate and did a similar trip, as well as some that I had never seen before. I was even able to convince Dr. Mayborn to make a brief stop at a spectacular Ordovician-age outcrop in southern Wisconsin to see some fossils. At the end of the spring semester, I took several stu- dents to the North Central Geological Society of America Meeting, where several presented their research.
Recommended publications
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  • (Drumian, Miaolingian) Marjum Formation of Western Utah, USA

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  • The Weeks Formation Konservat-Lagerstätte and the Evolutionary Transition of Cambrian Marine Life

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  • Exceptional Fossil Preservation During CO2 Greenhouse Crises? Gregory J

    Exceptional Fossil Preservation During CO2 Greenhouse Crises? Gregory J

    Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 307 (2011) 59–74 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo Exceptional fossil preservation during CO2 greenhouse crises? Gregory J. Retallack Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA article info abstract Article history: Exceptional fossil preservation may require not only exceptional places, but exceptional times, as demonstrated Received 27 October 2010 here by two distinct types of analysis. First, irregular stratigraphic spacing of horizons yielding articulated Triassic Received in revised form 19 April 2011 fishes and Cambrian trilobites is highly correlated in sequences in different parts of the world, as if there were Accepted 21 April 2011 short temporal intervals of exceptional preservation globally. Second, compilations of ages of well-dated fossil Available online 30 April 2011 localities show spikes of abundance which coincide with stage boundaries, mass extinctions, oceanic anoxic events, carbon isotope anomalies, spikes of high atmospheric carbon dioxide, and transient warm-wet Keywords: Lagerstatten paleoclimates. Exceptional fossil preservation may have been promoted during unusual times, comparable with fi Fossil preservation the present: CO2 greenhouse crises of expanding marine dead zones, oceanic acidi cation, coral bleaching, Trilobite wetland eutrophication, sea level rise, ice-cap melting, and biotic invasions. Fish © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Carbon dioxide Greenhouse 1. Introduction Zeigler, 1992), sperm (Nishida et al., 2003), nuclei (Gould, 1971)and starch granules (Baxter, 1964). Taphonomic studies of such fossils have Commercial fossil collectors continue to produce beautifully pre- emphasized special places where fossils are exceptionally preserved pared, fully articulated, complex fossils of scientific(Simmons et al., (Martin, 1999; Bottjer et al., 2002).
  • Th TRILO the Back to the Past Museum Guide to TRILO BITES

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  • First Occurrence of the Problematic Vetulicolian Skeemella Clavula in the Cambrian Marjum Formation of Utah, USA

    First Occurrence of the Problematic Vetulicolian Skeemella Clavula in the Cambrian Marjum Formation of Utah, USA

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  • The Stratigraphic Section in the Vicinity of Eureka, Nevada

    The Stratigraphic Section in the Vicinity of Eureka, Nevada

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  • Retallack 2011 Lagerstatten

    Retallack 2011 Lagerstatten

    This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues. Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier’s archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: http://www.elsevier.com/copyright Author's personal copy Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 307 (2011) 59–74 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo Exceptional fossil preservation during CO2 greenhouse crises? Gregory J. Retallack Department of Geological Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA article info abstract Article history: Exceptional fossil preservation may require not only exceptional places, but exceptional times, as demonstrated Received 27 October 2010 here by two distinct types of analysis. First, irregular stratigraphic spacing of horizons yielding articulated Triassic Received in revised form 19 April 2011 fishes and Cambrian trilobites is highly correlated in sequences in different parts of the world, as if there were Accepted 21 April 2011 short temporal intervals of exceptional preservation globally. Second, compilations of ages of well-dated fossil Available online 30 April 2011 localities show spikes of abundance which coincide with stage boundaries, mass extinctions, oceanic anoxic events, carbon isotope anomalies, spikes of high atmospheric carbon dioxide, and transient warm-wet Keywords: Lagerstatten paleoclimates.
  • Resolving Details of the Nonbiomineralized Anatomy of Trilobites Using Computed

    Resolving Details of the Nonbiomineralized Anatomy of Trilobites Using Computed

    Resolving Details of the Nonbiomineralized Anatomy of Trilobites Using Computed Tomographic Imaging Techniques Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Science in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jennifer Anita Peteya, B.S. Graduate Program in Earth Sciences The Ohio State University 2013 Thesis Committee: Loren E. Babcock, Advisor William I. Ausich Stig M. Bergström Copyright by Jennifer Anita Peteya 2013 Abstract Remains of two trilobite species, Elrathia kingii from the Wheeler Formation (Cambrian Series 3), Utah, and Cornuproetus cornutus from the Hamar Laghdad Formation (Middle Devonian), Alnif, Morocco, were studied using computed tomographic (CT) and microtomographic (micro-CT) imaging techniques for evidence of nonbiomineralized alimentary structures. Specimens of E. kingii showing simple digestive tracts are complete dorsal exoskeletons preserved with cone-in-cone concretions on the ventral side. Inferred stomach and intestinal structures are preserved in framboidal pyrite, likely resulting from replication by a microbial biofilm. C. cornutus is preserved in non- concretionary limestone with calcite spar lining the stomach ventral to the glabella. Neither species shows sediment or macerated sclerites of any kind in the gut, which tends to rule out the possibilities that they were sediment deposit-feeders or sclerite-ingesting durophagous carnivores. Instead, the presence of early diagenetic minerals in the guts of E. kingii and C. cornutus favors an interpretation of a carnivorous feeding strategy involving separation of skeletal parts of prey prior to ingestion. ii Dedication This manuscript is dedicated to my parents for encouraging me to go into the field of paleontology and to Lee Gray for inspiring me to continue.
  • Zootaxa, the Marjuman Trilobite Cedarina Lochman: Thoracic

    Zootaxa, the Marjuman Trilobite Cedarina Lochman: Thoracic

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  • 2 Paleontology and Taphonomy of the Upper Weeks Formation (Cambrian, Upper Marjuman, Cedaria Zone) of Western Utah

    2 Paleontology and Taphonomy of the Upper Weeks Formation (Cambrian, Upper Marjuman, Cedaria Zone) of Western Utah

    2 PALEONTOLOGY AND TAPHONOMY OF THE UPPER WEEKS FORMATION (CAMBRIAN, UPPER MARJUMAN, CEDARIA ZONE) OF WESTERN UTAH 2.1 Abstract Twelve species of trilobites belonging to as many genera, one lingulide brachiopod species, Lingulella sp., one aglaspid species, Beckwithia typa, and an undetermined lightly scleritized or soft-bodied arthropod-like animal were recovered in a quantitative collection from the upper Weeks Formation (Marjuman) in the House Range of western Utah. Previously described trilobite genera include, in order of abundance in the collection, Cedaria, Modocia, Menomonia, Genevievella, Ammagnostus, Dresbachia, Norwoodia, Tricrepicephalus, and Weeksina. Two new ptychopariid genera and species, Nephalicephalus beebei and Selenocoryphe platyura, were also recovered in the collection, as were two new ptychopariid species, Modocia weeksensis and Norwoodia bellaspina. Additionally the new ptychopariid genus and species Gerospina schachti is described from supplemental material. At least 12 other genera, mostly trilobites, are known to occur in the Weeks Formation but were not recovered in the quantitative sample. The Weeks Formation fauna is very well preserved. Fossil orientation data and overall taphonomic state indicate little out-of-habitat transport of skeletal elements; 79 percent of the specimens recovered in an in situ collection consisted of articulated molts and complete exoskeletons. Sedimentary structures in the sample interval suggest episodic siliciclastic deposition in a carbonate mud-dominated environment located