Inside this issue: Club Corner: WIPS Featured Fossil Amateur Spotlight National Fossil Day FOSSIL Project Updates Featured Paleontologist: Bonnie Jacobs Connect with FOSSIL! By Shari Ellis Bonnie Jacobs is a renowned paleobotanist in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University. She studies fossil plants—from microscopic cells to macroscopic leaves, fruits, seeds and wood. The Fossil Project Bonnie has conducted field work in Texas and New Mexico as well as Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Bonnie is perhaps best known for her work with leaf fossils to interpret past climate change. The size and shape of leaves along with information @projectFOSSIL about the environment where modern relatives of the plant live are used to estimate average annual rainfall and temperature. When plants are very well preserved, even the leaf surface can provide clues to the past. A type of leaf structure that is especially informative is the stoma (plural: stomata), an opening in the leaf surface through which carbon dioxide goes in and oxygen and water www.myFOSSIL.org vapor go out. Scientists have found a relationship between carbon dioxide concentration in an environment and the relative frequency of stomata for some species of plants. As Bonnie explains, “If you look at dried pressed plants—say a red oak—from 1910, 1920, 1930, and on Subscribe to our listserv to 2010, you will see that the frequency of stomata on the leaf surface decreases as carbon dioxide in the environment increases. So, if you have a fossil red oak leaf, you can plot the www.myfossil.org/ relationship and estimate the paleo carbon dioxide concentration.” In that way, fossil plants subscribe/listserv/ help us understand past climate, which is essential for testing the accuracy of computer models of the potential impact of present-day climate change on the Earth’s ecosystems. Subscribe to newsletter www.myfossil.org/ subscribe/newsletter/ Kassie Hendy FOSSIL Project Coordinator [email protected] (352) 273-4355 The Fossil Project is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-1322725. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed Miocene fossil (laurel family) being studied Microscopy showing leaf stomata in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the by Dr. Jacobs and her student Tekie National Science Foundation. Tesfamichael 1 Featured Paleontologist: Bonnie Jacobs Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2014 Continued from page 1 Bonnie’s path to the world of macrofossils seems to combine a little bit of inevitability with luck or happenstance. As a child growing up in New York City, she loved ancient things. “I loved the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I would breeze through the art and head straight to the mummies and Egyptian artifacts.” At Upcoming SUNY Buffalo she continued to nurture her broad interests in nature and ancient cultures, creating her own degree in geology and anthropology with an emphasis on archaeology. Events: Bonnie’s pursuit of interdisciplinary research led her to the University of Arizona for graduate school. She initially planned to do geological work in relation to an archaeological South Florida Museum context, but took a course in palynology—the study of pollen—and grew interested in National Fossil Day older and older time periods. And frequent field work opportunities in Mexico offered by Celebration the University of Arizona sparked an interest in the Neotropics. FLMNH Megalodon opening Bonnie collected 42,000-year-old fossil pollen from the southwestern U.S. for her dissertation; however, much of the analysis actually took place in Kenya because her Calvert County Marine husband, Louis Jacobs, had taken a job at the National Museum of Kenya. Today, Bonnie Museum Patuxent River acknowledges she was very worried about her move to Africa. “While I had my samples, I Appreciation Days had no idea whether there would be any microscopes. Also, I had no colleagues or friends to talk about my work, no library and, of course, no internet. I was very worried. The Cincinnati Museum Fossil museum was very poorly equipped, but I was able to use amazing lab facilities run by a Festival retired Harvard professor that was funded by the World Bank and used primarily by foreign FossilMania XXXII researchers studying animal diseases.” Megalodon celebration Upon completing her degree, Bonnie was awarded funds to study African macrofossils. She observes, “Kenya offered tremendous potential for studying human evolution and View our full events environments, but there was not much work documenting the environment of human evolution in relation to plants. The pre-Pleistocene record was completely blank so the opportunity just presented itself!” Until recently the only American to study African macrofossils, Bonnie’s excitement is still palpable: “The time period during the transition from Oligocene to Miocene is very exciting. Talk about real ecosystem change! 24 million years ago, Africa was connected to Eurasia and there was a big turnover in faunas. It was at the time that the classic Africa fauna was established. So the question is, how did grasslands We have launched our evolve?” new website. Visit us at www.myfossil.org and When asked about the role of amateurs in the field, check out our fossil Bonnie acknowledged they play many important roles. “Clubs are critical resources, including: “One of the roles that first comes to mind is the critical eyes on the ground. Another role is outreach. They reach for getting the Directory of fossil large numbers of people of all ages and turn people onto word out to folks clubs and societies science!” Bonnie stressed the role clubs play in educating throughout the U.S. the public, “Clubs are critical for getting the word out to about what science folks about what science is and why science is important! Fossil parks And not just about cool dinosaurs, but about is and why science Workshops paleoclimate and modern day climate and extinction, the is important!” processes of science and preponderance of evidence.” Field Opportunities You can read more about Bonnie’s research in Africa in her contributions to the New York Event listings Times “Scientist at Work” blog. Bonnie is part of the GroundWork Dallas project that includes scientific research and educational outreach. You can read one of Bonnie’s research papers on the evolution of the African grasslands here. 2 Club Corner: Western Interior Paleontological Society Volume 1, Issue 3, Sept. 2014 by Steve Miller & Susan Passmore The Western Interior Paleontological Society (WIPS) is a Colorado-based nonprofit organization that promotes scientific and educational activities related to paleontology. WIPS was formed in 1985 by a small group of paleontology enthusiasts who wanted to create a regional organization for anyone interested in fossils and the science of paleontology, as its name suggests. Today, WIPS has approximately 500 individual, family and institutional members—ranging from amateur/ avocational to professional and academic. Although not sponsored by a museum like some fossil clubs, WIPS holds its monthly meetings at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science from January through May and September through November. A number of the Society’s members are actively involved with the museum as volunteers and have earned museum certification in paleontology. Each year, WIPS develops and offers about a dozen field trips to different places across the Western Interior and sometimes beyond. Field trips provide activities that appeal to a wide variety of paleontological interests—from casual responsible collecting, to geological/paleontological surveys, to providing or supporting research opportunities. For example, some WIPS field trip leaders have established cooperative relationships with the BLM and the USDA Forest Service to obtain special use permits and establish formal repository arrangements for scientifically important specimens. Collecting in the Pennsylvanian at McCoy, Colorado WIPS takes the same thoughtful approach for its field trips on private land. WIPS members have visited an area northeast of Pueblo, Colorado, for over 20 years to collect Cretaceous-age marine fossils, and have made some significant discoveries there regarding the lives of mosasaurs and the identification of a new crustacean. Field trips to McCoy, Colorado, resulted in the discovery and description of a new species of Pennsylvanian crinoid, Sciadiocrinus wipsorum, which was named after WIPS. Sciadiocrinus wipsorum bottom view, from Webster and Houck, 1998 This crinoid, a relative of modern sea urchins, lived 300 million years ago. It was discovered by a WIPS member and named after the Society. Education and outreach are a growing part of WIPS’ activities. These efforts include working with schools to donate fossils for scientific instruction and participating in public events like Discovery Days at Dinosaur Ridge west of Denver. As one of the local earth science organizations that sponsor the annual Denver Gem & Mineral Show, WIPS always has a table at the Show, complete with activities for kids, (and information for adults) promoting paleontology. To celebrate the National Park Service’s National Fossil Day in 2013, WIPS presented a display and hands-on activities, and talked fossils with visitors, at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. On the professional side of outreach, WIPS is an Associated Society of the Geological Society of America, and participated in GSA’s 125th Annual Meeting in Denver in 2013. In addition to having an exhibit at the meeting, WIPS led a field trip to southeastern Colorado for GSA attendees. WIPS members at the 2013 Denver Gem & Mineral Show 3 Club Corner: WIPS Volume 1, Issue 3, Sept. 2014 Continued from page 3 Every other year, WIPS organizes and presents the Founders Symposium, created in 1999 to honor the individuals who formed the Society. This two-day event is a celebration of paleontology that features the work of professional scientists, avocational paleontologists, natural science artists and others through talks, posters and displays as well as workshops and occasional field trips.