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Baculites

On Wednesday, June 14th, at 7PM Central time, we will meet again in the Boonesville Auditorium (Room 125) of the Ellison Miles Building (Bldg H) at Brookhaven Campus of Dallas College, 3939 Valley View Lane, in Farmers Branch.  Dr. Joshua Slattery will speak on “Baculites of the Western Interior Seaway”.

The Western Interior Seaway connected the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean during the Cretaceous.  It separated North America into two parts:  the ancestral Rocky Mountains, actively rising on the west, from broad coastal plains and lowlands on the east.  With mountains rising to the west, the west side of the seaway received huge amounts of sediment eroded off the mountains, forming deltas of sandstone and coarser sediment.  Because the ancestral Rocky Mountains weighed down the crust, those sediments were trapped in the rapidly-subsiding western side of the seaway.  That allowed only mud, chalk, and limestone to be deposited in the center and east side of the seaway.  The abundance of limestone in the Cretaceous of North Texas indicate that the shoreline was far away to the west, and the similar fauna indicates that our sea sometimes connected to the Western Interior Seaway.   The straight-shelled ammonite commonly found in the Ozan Marl of the North Sulphur River is part of that similar fauna.

Joshua Slattery earned his BS in Geology from the U of Wyoming in 2007, and then a MS in 2011 from the U of South Florida in Tampa on the ammonites and other fossils from the Red Bird section of the Pierre Shale in eastern Wyoming.  He continued there to earn a PhD in Geology in 2019 with a dissertation “Documenting Evolution: Comparing and contrasting Late Mesozoic and Late Cenozoic Molluscan Patterns”.  Dr. Slattery is currently visiting faculty at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and continuing his research on the Campanian cephalopod fauna of North America.  He has spoken before to the DPS, in September of 2021, on the ecology of ammonites.

Several things will make this meeting special:

1). We just tested a new setup of web camera and microphone at Brookhaven and we have solved the delayed echo audio problem.  We will be using the shared-screen feature of Zoom so you will have higher-resolution video of the presentation.

2). Joshua will receive a grant from the DPS for research on the Campanian-age Ozan Marl of the North Sulphur River and study of the ammonites, inoceramids, and microfossils (with an extended team of micro-paleontologists).  There will be opportunities for DPS members to contribute to this study, both by showing your specimens and by trenching and bulk sampling this summer.

3). Several years ago, DPS received a large number of papers in vertebrate paleontology from our advisor Dr. Art Busbey when he retired from TCU.  We will be giving those away, so come get something to read.  There are many papers on crocodiles, the Permian of Texas and Oklahoma, and the Cenozoic of Nebraska, plus many other topics in vertebrate paleontology, and even a few on invertebrates.  First come, first served.

DPS meetings are always free and open to the public.  Members often bring food or snacks to share, and DPS will provide water and sodas.  Everyone is invited to bring fossils.  We like to see your recent finds, as well as your favorite old ones and collections.  We will even try to identify mystery specimens.  Remote attendees can join our Zoom meeting at: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88375673507

Meeting ID: 883 7567 3507
Passcode: 227202
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Meeting ID: 883 7567 3507
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Our ZOOM information was incorrect in the June issue of the Fossil Record.  The above information is the correct access code for joining online for the June Meeting.